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What is the Destiny of the Unevangelised?

One of our readers has asked, "What is the eternal destiny of those who have never heard the Gospel and have not had the opportunity to repent, and likewise for the very young (and mentally retarded) who die without an understanding of the gospel?"

There are many who believe that all who die young, that is, before a certain "age of accountability," will be saved. It is also becoming quite popular to teach a kind of universalism which says that all the unevangelised will also be saved.

If I believed the former, I would in all seriousness earnestly pray God that my children might never grow up but that all of them might die in infancy. If I believed the latter, I would immediately cease preaching the gospel, for I would thereby be putting men and women and children in danger of eternal damnation who would otherwise be saved.

Apart from that, however, there are serious doctrinal errors involved in both beliefs. First, there is nothing in Scripture concerning an age of accountability, nor any suggestion that all children who die young will be saved. There is not even anything in Scripture to suggest that every child of believers who dies when very young will be saved.

We do not deny, of course, that children can be saved and that children of believers often are. Believing in sovereign grace we believe most firmly that God not only can save children but does promise to save the children of believers (Gen. 17:7; Acts 2:39; Eph. 6:1-3). We do not presume to think, though, that even those promises guarantee the salvation of every child of believers, even of every one who dies in infancy.

Indeed, we find it quite ironic, that many of those who teach the salvation of all infants who die young are often those who deny the validity of infant baptism. They do not find in the passages that speak of God's promise to save the children of believers sufficient hope for their salvation to allow them to receive the sign of that salvation in baptism.

The idea that all are saved who die before an age of accountability is really a denial of original sin, i.e., of the Biblical truth that our children are born and conceived in sin and are by nature children of wrath, even as others (Gen. 5:3; Job 14:4; Ps. 51:5; Rom. 5:12; Eph. 2:3). Indeed, that is a Romish notion to teach that infants have their original sin removed and have no actual sin until they are older.

That all infants who die young are elect of God and redeemed (as some claim) simply cannot be proved even in the case of believers. The one passage where David, a believer, seemingly speaks with some assurance of salvation of his dead infant son (II Sam. 12:23), cannot be taken as a rule, and most certainly not as a rule for all children, in light of such passages as Exodus 20:5, Deuteronomy 28:18, Psalm 137:9, and Hosea 4:6.

The doctrinal error that lies at the heart of the teaching that all the unevangelised are saved is the Romish and unbiblical doctrine of free will. This teaching says that unless everyone has a "chance" to decide their own destiny by freely choosing for or against Christ they cannot be condemned.

Along with that unbiblical teaching concerning free will goes a denial of God's sovereign will in predestination. If man's will determines whether or not he will be saved, then God's will does not determine his destiny and is not sovereign. If God's will is sovereign, also in determining who will be saved, then salvation cannot depend on man's free-will choice. Scripture teaches that God has chosen some and rejected others (Deut. 14:2; Is. 43:3, 4; Jn. 10:25-29; Rom. 9:10-13).

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Additional Info

  • Volume: 6
  • Issue: 10
Hanko, Ronald

Rev. Ronald Hanko (Wife: Nancy)

Ordained: November 1979

Pastorates: Wyckoff, NJ - 1979; Trinity, Houston, TX - 1986; Missionary to N.Ireland - 1993; Lynden, WA - 2002; Emeritus October 15, 2017

Website: www.lyndenprc.org/sermons/

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