What About Those Who Haven't Heard?
What About Those Who Haven't Heard?
Firstly, an important point is God is entirely just(2 Thessalonians 1:6, Acts 10:34, & Hebrews 6:10); this means, he will not force someone into Heaven(to be saved). Now, to how people answer this conundrum. I or any other person for that matter are not omniscient(all-knowing), so I can not say I have a perfect answer, but here are some views people have on this topic.
Accountability View:
Some also believe that if one has not heard, God would likely not be just to separate them from him eternally in Hell. Thus, they perhaps due go to Heaven, but this is heavily debated.
Calvinistic View:
This view deals with predestination, a belief that God chooses who is saved. If this is true, then the problem would be extremely easy to solve. Simply, God did not choose them to be saved.
Everyone Knows God View:
This is a fairly interesting one, the concept that everyone knows God exists, but simply suppresses the idea. Obviously, they may not know who God actually is, or even that there is only one, but this view states that all humans know he exists to some compacity. According to Ariela Keysar and Juhem Navarro-Rivera's study[1], there is only about 7% of the world who are Athiest, most of this percent being from China. A large percentage of this number are also younger people, less than 30 years old. It is possible these people simply suppress what they know is to be true, but this is simply a possibility.
Separatist View:
This view states that as God is omniscient(all-knowing), he placed some people off to the side as he knew they would not have accepted him anyways. Personally, I definitely disagree with this proposition, but I do understand the concept. As God cannot force people to love him, to follow him, I suppose he could do this. Yet, as mentioned prior, I can not say I'd entirely agree; if it was true, why wouldn't he put all people who reject him off to the side instead of just some? Like hardcore Atheists for example, who would never accept God.
Work Cited:
Keysar, Ariela; Navarro-Rivera, Juhem (2017). "36. A World of Atheism: Global Demographics". In Bullivant, Stephen; Ruse, Michael (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Atheism. Oxford University Press