Those Who Have Never Heard, Part 2: Two Circumstances

Did you know that the total number of people on earth right now makes up about six percent of the total number of people ever born? Or how about this—the world’s population is today roughly four times as large as it was 100 years ago. Pretty crazy, right? The recent population boom significantly alters how we approach the question I introduced in the previous reflection—the question of “those who have never heard.” 

In part 1, I introduced our question and then set the stage for the discussion by looking at the three main ways people typically approach the question of who will and who will not be saved—exclusivism, inclusivism, anduniversalism. I settled on a modified form of exclusivism which holds that while most people become saved as a result of a Christian sharing the gospel of Christ with him or her, there may be select others who become saved as result of a dream or vision directly from Christ (or something along those lines).

My primary aim here is to make you aware of two often-overlooked demographic circumstances, and to address how those circumstances greatly reduce the need to worry about the question of “those who have never heard.” The first has to do with population growth. The second relates to infant and child mortality rates. Let’s take a look at population growth first. 

According to estimates I gathered from multiple resources (see below), the global population around the year 1 CE amounted to less than 300 million. By about 1800, the population passed one billion for the first time. By 2000, the population had passed six billion. People estimate that by 2050, the world’s population will amount to over nine billion. 

If you are visually oriented, take a look at this chart:

Here’s the main point I’m building up to: The modern Protestant missions movement began around the same time as this exponential boom. On top of that, consider the astronomical increase in human travel and communication capabilities that started around the time of the 18thcentury enlightenment, and has only been steadily increasing ever since. 

Just think about it: As the global population exploded, access to the gospel of Jesus Christ exploded along with it, so much so that we can even say that a sizable percentage of everyone ever born lived in an age of unprecedented gospel access. And this percentage will keep growing the longer the Lord tarries. When the current chapter of the human story comes to an end, it’s possible that the number of people who lived with some level of gospel access will outweigh—perhaps even vastly outweigh—the number of those who didn’t. In the words of a friend of mine, “It almost seems like God knew what He was doing.” 

A second circumstance I want to make you aware of relates to infant and child mortality rates. I read about this in Don Richardson’s book Heaven Wins: Heaven, Hell and the Hope of Every Person. Richardson estimates that, due to a combination of pre-birth, infant, and child death, roughly 70% of all human beings ever conceived never lived past age five. (After reviewing Richardson’s numbers, I put the number closer to 64%.) If we assume an age of moral accountability (and I think the Bible gives great reason to affirm this—see, for example, James 4:17), then every single one of these children went straight into the presence of Jesus. (See Robert Lightner, Safe in the Arms of Jesus: God’s Provision for the Death of Those Who Cannot Believe [Kregel Publications, 2000].)

Allow me to pause a moment to acknowledge the grim nature of this circumstance. No one can deny the profound tragedy of losing a child. It is one of the most terrible things a parent can endure in this broken world. I do not bring it up lightly. But I wanted to mention it because it bears on our question. After all, if Richardson’s estimates even remotely approximate the actual situation, we can affirm the salvation of a vast majority of all people ever conceived. We know from Scripture that God specializes in hijacking evil circumstances for good (Romans 8:28), sometimes even horrendously evil circumstances like the Cross. Perhaps this qualifies as one such circumstance.

In sum, these two circumstances make two things very likely. First, a much larger percentage of people than you might think will have had at least some chance to receive the gospel during earthly life. Second, a massive percentage of all people ever conceived automatically go to heaven. You can see why these circumstances make the question of “those who have never heard” much less potentially problematic. Before bringing this topic to a close, let’s look at it from one more angle. 

In the next reflection (part 3), I want to walk you through a way of looking at God’s foreknowledge that hopefully will help us deal with whatever problems remain.

Population resources:

http://www.ecology.com/population-estimates-year-2050/

https://ourworldindata.org/world-population-growth

http://worldpopulationhistory.org/map/1/mercator/1/0/25/

http://www.prb.org/Publications/Articles/2002/HowManyPeopleHaveEverLivedonEarth.aspx