In 1991, theologian Carl F. H. Henry wrote an essay asking the question, “After all is said and done, is it fair?”1 When all the biblical evidence is taken into account, is it really fair “that the unreached heathen should perish?”2 Henry’s provocative answer is that there really is no such thing as the unreached heathen, according to Scripture. Since everyone is made in the image of God, everyone has enough “light” to be held accountable.

Of course, this may not answer the question to the satisfaction of all. Pressing into that issue, Henry concludes by reminding readers that God “is the standard of truth and justice and love . . . God’s fairness is demonstrated because he condemns sinners not in the absence of light but because of their rebellious response.”3 But under what light does the sinner—who has never heard the gospel—stand condemned? Henry argues that God has “endued all humankind with some inescapable knowledge of divinity” and their own sinfulness.4

In assessing those who have never heard Christ’s name, evangelical orthodoxy challenges a common misunderstanding, namely, that those who have never heard of Christ are divinely condemned for rejecting him. People who have never heard the gospel will not be condemned for rejecting Christ. Evangelical theologians concede—even insist—that it would be unjust to condemn those who have never heard for their lack of response to an unknown offer of grace. To say that those who have never heard are condemned for rejecting Christ overstates and needlessly confuses the issue. Only those who know the good news and reject it are guilty of spurning the divine offer of grace.

Yet those who have never heard the gospel are not spiritually guiltless. Human beings are judged in God’s sight for the response they make to whatever light they have—and no human being is without light. The human species is made in the imago Dei. God has endowed all humans with categories of morality and reason and, moreover, has ensconced humans as responsible caretakers of the cosmos. He has endued all humankind with some inescapable knowledge of divinity. Judgment day will not overtake any man or woman as a total surprise. . . .

The one thing that humans cannot do is to extinguish the light that shines in their moral darkness and relentlessly exposes their rebellious condition. Those who have heard the gospel certainly have had more light than those who have never heard, but all are judged for light obscured and deflected. . . .

Much as fallen humanity seeks to stifle and nullify the all-powerful Creator’s revelation, that revelation cannot be wholly obliterated despite humanity’s distortion of it and its active contrary will. The human race’s rebellion against inextinguishable divine light establishes human culpability and invites judgment.5

Footnotes:
1
Carl F. H. Henry, “Is It Fair?” in Through No Fault of Their Own? The Fate of Those Who Have Never Heard, eds. William V. Crockett and James G. Sigountos (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1991), 245.

2
Ibid.

3
Ibid., 255.

4
Ibid., 247-248.

5
Ibid., 247-249.
article adapted from Kairos Journal

First Baptist Church is located in Perryville, MD