This question is one of those that most believers like to stay as far away from as possible. It is a favorite of skeptics who like to think there is more than one way to God besides through Jesus Christ. Yet it was Jesus Himself who made the bold claim that,

I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
- John 14:6

The question is, if Christ is the only way to God, what happens to those who never heard about Him? Examples usually given for these people are:

• Those in remote areas (usually some lost jungle) that Christian missionaries have not yet reached.
• People who were living at the far corners of the earth during Christ's life who would obviously have died well before the Christian message could reach them.
• Anyone who died before Christ went to the cross.

Scriptural Boundaries

First, there is no simple "proof text" for this answer. We cannot simply turn in our Bible to such-and-such a verse and see where it reads, "Anyone who never hears the gospel goes to___________." Nice as this might be, it is simply not there. Our answer will have to be found by taking what we truths we do know for sure, and adding them all up. Second, we must not simply go off our "gut" instinct. I believe God's word is fairly clear on this subject, although it does take some digging and applied logic. Whatever our answer, it must fall within the boundaries set by Scripture and not our imagination.

Scriptural Absolutes

Rather than try to build a case for my answer from the foundation up, I would like to begin from the ending. Before discussing every possible scenario, let's look at the Bible's description of Heaven and who is there.

"After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language , standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb."
- Revelation 7:9

From this verse, it is clear that somehow people from every nation, (every) tribe, (every) people and (every) language are present in Heaven with God. And that there are many of them, so many that no one could count them! Now, there have been about 30 billion people alive throughout history. So even if only 10% of humanity were ever saved, we'd have over 3 billion people in heaven by now. Is that a lot? Couldn't someone count 3 billion people? Well, if you counted one person per second it would take you over 2,893 years to count them (assuming you counted 24 hours a day, did not stop take any breaks, and never once lost count). That's quite a census! Whatever the answer is to this question, it must account for this fact. And there are more:

"It is unthinkable that God would do wrong, that the Almighty would pervert justice."
- Job 34:12

"let them sing before the LORD, for he comes to judge the earth.
He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples with equity."
-Psalm 98:9

The second thing we must account for is this: God will judge all people fairly. So whatever answer we come up with it must include this fact as well. And it does not stop there:

"God 'will give to each person according to what he has done.'"
-Romans 2:6

"wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men’s hearts."
- 1 Corinthians 4:5

God will judge people's actions and motives, but there is one final fact to account for in our answer:

"My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me."
- 1 Corinthians 4:4

"I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes"
- Romans 1:16

"For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus"
- 2 Timothy 2:5

"It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth...
...Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”
- Acts 4:10,12

Summary of Evidence

From the preceding verses we see that God will judge all people fairly... that motives and actions will be taken into account but cannot save, and that (somehow) through this judgment - and based on His Son, Jesus Christ - a multitude from every people group on earth will be saved. How can this be?

Salvation Through Ignorance?

Many at this point are tempted to say that God will not judge someone who has never heard, that someone ignorant of the truth somehow gets a "free ride". The implications of this are easy to see... if ignorance of the Gospel was a sure ticket to God, the best thing the early Christians could have done was destroy all the writings of Scripture and never tell another living soul about Christ! Eventually, the message of the Gospel would have disappeared and every person after that would have been guaranteed everlasting life with God when they died. Clearly this is not the message of Scripture.

"Then Jesus came to them and said, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.'"
- Matthew 28:18-20

Why go to all the nations? Because all people are sinners, and in need of forgiveness.

"repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in His name to all nations"
- Luke 24:47

"And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books... If anyone’s name was not found written in the (Lamb's - Christ's)book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire."
- Revelation 20:12, 14

But how can a God of fairness condemn those who could not have possibly heard about the Gospel of Christ. The foundation laid, I will now turn to the answer.

General Revelation - Why All Are Without Excuse

In Paul's masterpiece, the book of Romans, he carefully points out that no one on earth is truly ignorant of God's existence. In chapter one, he shows that the creation itself bears testimony to the fact of God's existence:

"What may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—His eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse."
- Romans 1:19-20

This truth is also written in the Old Testament:

"The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge.
There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard."
- Psalm 19:1-3

So we see that no one will be excused for "not knowing", for all people are given evidence that God exists. Secondly, all people are made aware of their sin (falling short) before God:

"For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.) This will take place on the day when God will judge men’s secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares."
- Romans 2:13-16

All people are born with a conscience. We instinctively know right from wrong. Every major people group on earth have the same basic codes of conduct, at least for themselves. We know in our hearts what is "fair", and we know that we do not live up to our own standards. We all fall down occasionally. We have all given in to outside pressure and denied our own morality. Therefore, we all recognize the need for forgiveness. The problem comes when we ignore these things. Some ignore the testimony of the creation as to the existence of God and instead choose to worship it. Again, as Paul writes:

"Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles . . . They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen."
- Romans 1:22,23,25

Some ignore the testimony of their conscience, searing it with evil deeds until it can no longer even be heard:

"Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts...since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, He gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done."
- Romans 1:24,28

Some simply make it a judge of others rather than themselves:

"You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. So when you, a mere man, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance?"
Romans 2:1-4

So we see that God does, in fact, have every right to judge mankind for their actions and beliefs... for many never even respond to His general revelation in nature and soul. To those who would not respond even to the most basic truths of God, no more revelation would have done any good anyway.

Special Revelation

God has revealed Himself through the creation, through conscience, and also through His word. From the very beginning of time, God has revealed Himself through " our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways," ( Hebrews 1:1). There was never a time when the true God could not be found in His chosen people. There were also, apparently, some outside of God's people who knew of Him:

• Melchizedek - Genesis 14:17-20
• Balaam - Numbers 22
• the Magi - Matthew 2
• the Ninevites - Jonah 3

This brings up an interesting fact - people could be saved before Christ came to the earth, before anyone knew His "Name". The "heroes of the faith" listed in Hebrews chapter 11 clearly were not lost, although they had an imperfect concept of God's redeeming plan. How far will God allow this less-than-perfect knowledge to extend in the unreached areas of the world? Is it possible that the "ignorant heathen" who throws himself on the mercy of a God he cannot name will be led to the true God and saved (such as the argument of the "unknown god" that Paul referred to in Athens - Acts 17)? Can God reveal Himself to someone without a human emissary?

Providence

God has the power to reach anyone, anywhere, at anytime. He does not require mankind to do His work. There are times recorded in Scripture where God reveals Himself to someone in ways that no human possibly could. Consider the following:

• Acts 8:26-40 Philip is miraculously transported to a foreign land to preach to the Ethiopian eunuch.
• Daniel 2 & 4 Nebuchadnezzar is shown the true God through dreams.

Other examples could be cited, but the point is that God gets his message to whom he desires.

Responding to the Light

It has now been shown that all people are without excuse with regard to knowledge of God, that there was never a time when He was not known to His people and to many outside of His people, that He can and does reveal Himself to those who would have otherwise been unreachable by human means.

"Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from Him comes to Me"
- John 6:45

"But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked."
- Luke 12:48

"For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.”
- John 3:17-21

Those who respond positively to the light they are given, are given more (see the story of Cornelius in Acts 10). Those who do not, are left in darkness. I believe an appropriate analogy would be that of someone walking through a dark forest at night. If, in the light of the moon that person should discover a small match a choice would have to be made. They could continue on in darkness, or light the match. If they choose to light the match, they may discover a torch that could not have been seen without its light. Another choice is given, this time to light the torch or continue in relative darkness in the temporary light of the match. If the torch is lit, that person may find their way to civilization where darkness can be completely done away with. The moonlight (creation) is available to all. The match is discovered, but if they had not lit it (acknowledged the match as a further source of light and embraced it), it would have done no good. The same is true of the torch. At any point they could have abandoned their source of light, or simply ignored the better source. In life, all people have the knowledge they require to begin the journey to God. If they respond to each truth as they go along, they will be saved - one way or another. If, however, they abandon the light they are given, or refuse the light they are offered, their choice is made and God cannot be blamed for their ignorance.

Special Cases

There are other cases that I believe deserve some attention. These people also give us a clue as to why there are so many from so many places in Heaven.

• Children who die before a certain age (2 Timothy 3:15, Matthew 18:3) go to be with God (2 Samuel 12:22-23).
• Those who do not have the mental ability to understand the gospel would not be accountable to its teachings (James 4:17; 1 Corinthians 1:26-30, 3:18-20).
• The theoretical "person who would have turned to God, but dies before receiving the Gospel message"... God knows the end from the beginning, and knows how all people will choose (or would have chosen) before they are even born (Psalm 139; Matthew 11:21).

Conclusion

Finally, we need to realize that God cares MUCH MORE THAN WE DO about the lost! No unfair situation is going to be overlooked by God, no one in hell will be there because of an "oversight."

"Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign LORD. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live? For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent and live!"
- Ezekial 18:23, 32

"He is a rewarder of those who seek Him."
Hebrews 11:6

"and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out."
John 6:37

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have
eternal life."
- John 3:16

The all-knowing, all-powerful God of the universe knows more than us, loves more than us, cares more than us, and is infinitely more just than we can ever know this side of eternity. In heaven all our tears will be wiped away and there will be no more sadness... this will no doubt be in part because of our finally seeing "the big picture" of God's justice. All questions will be answered then, but until that time comes we can trust our perfect Judge to do what is right.