People In Countries Who Don’t Know Jesus?

Q. The Bible teaches that you have to believe in Jesus Christ to go to Heaven, but what about people in third world countries? What happens to them?

The premise of “The bible teaches that you have to believe in Jesus to go to heaven” is completely accurate.

Acts 4:12 states: “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men which we must be saved” That’s very clear.  The context for “in any other” includes Verse 10 which references “Jesus of Nazareth”.  Verse 11 references Psalms 118:22 which scholarship views as a prophecy about Messiah.  So the verse and context are clear.  Deliverance spiritually comes through “Jesus of Nazareth”.  The “no other” part is ‘oute’ in the Greek, which means neither, not.

Romans 10:4 states: “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes”.  The search for personal qualification, righteousness, and acceptance by God is through Messiah.  Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ (Romans 1:1-6). So the message is clear, John 14:6:  “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me“.

“But what about the people in third world countries? What happens to them?”

We Must Understand Our History

To understand mankind’s condition spiritually,  we must understand our history.  We generally view mankind in the past as basically primitive, and that they are ascending in spiritual awareness.  But that is not what God’s message to us teaches.

“For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are with out excuse, because although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.  Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man–and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.  Therefore God also gave them up…”  Romans 1:20-24

So we can see, that mankind had a great start, a sufficient awareness of who God is.  According to scripture there is no excuse to not understand that God exists. Mankind is not primitive in this respect, but degenerative.  Mankind in general has lost the spiritual understanding and awareness that was once possessed.

Why Christians Are On Mission

But not everyone has heard the name of Jesus, and that is why the church has been given the mandate of the ‘Great Commission” (Acts 1:8).  We have been given the responsibility to retrieve global humanity, and bring them back into an accurate awareness of the true God and His design of salvation which is through “repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ” Acts 20:21.

Verse 20 communicates that if we are willing to do this, we will be able to say as the Apostle Paul did, “how I kept back nothing that was helpful”.  Nothing that is helpful in assisting people to connect with God!

This entry was posted on February 19, 2010 at February 19, 2010 and is filed under Jesus, The Church. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.