What about the Amazonians?

At my church we have a slot during the service called: Lets get thinking, where we address current issues or theological questions…stuff like that…I had the dubious honour this last week of answering the question: What about the people who have never heard about Jesus? So people that live in utterly remote places, babies that die, people born with no cognition of the world around them…

My knee jerk reaction was: I don’t actually know!? So I did some biblical research, listened to John Chapman on this issue and read a little of what JI Packer had to say…this is what i came up with:

Judgment is on the basis of how much information God has shown you about himself:

In the gospel of Matthew we read about Jesus’ comments on three cities where he did lots of miracles.

Matt 11:20-24: “…Jesus began to denounce the cities in which most of his miracles had been performed, because they did not repent. “Woe to you, Korazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sack cloth and ashes. But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the Day of Judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted up to the skies? No, you will go down to the depths. If the miracles that were performed in you were performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day. But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the Day of Judgment than for you!”

Although he proved who he was…they didn’t repent. He concludes by saying that on Judgment Day it will be better to be Sodom (the most sinful city ever recorded) than to know who Jesus is and not repent… If Sodom had seen what these people had seen then it would have repented!

The basis of judgment is on what you know. To say it another way: you cannot be blamed for something that you could not have ever known!
In that case we then to take a quick look at ways that God reveals himself…

There are only two ways:

Specific Revelation-through the bible…which obviously excludes our subject,

and General Revelation: through the creation that surrounds us.

In Romans Paul tells us that “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.” -

So, one method that God reveals himself is through all the things he made. Everyone receives this revelation of God, just by virtue of living in God’s world! This means that no-one can deny knowing something about God…

Everyone knows something about God:

Even if someone has never heard of Jesus, they still know something of God…we have seen his goodness through all he has made, but we do not respond to him in righteousness…rather we reject him by living our own way: and Paul tells us that that rejection of the revelation of God through creation makes us guilty.

So, then, if everyone knows God is there by virtue of what he has made, then it all depends on what we do with this knowledge. Paul says that we “suppress the truth” and “exchange the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and reptiles”. People have the propensity to smother, deny and quench the awareness that general revelation gives them about God.

So then, it is not how much you know…but what you do with what you know: it is only God that knows at the end of the day, how much someone in Guatemala or Alaska knows. Only God knows. And only God knows what they have done with that general revelation…which leads us to our third point:

God is completely righteous.

While the guilt that exists in us all can only be cured by Christ on the cross…God is completely righteous. This means that he will deal with people that have never heard the gospel in a manner that is right. I do not know how exactly he will do it…but on that day no-one will be able to turn around to God and say: “you really stuffed this up God! You didn’t do the right thing” No…everyone will say: “that is right…you could not have been fair, and done it another way…”

In closing though…while those people exist and it is our calling as Christians to go to the ends of the earth…it is also a good time to consider our own standing with God-if you have been in this church for any amount of time, then you will know that God is good, that he sent his son to deal with our sin problem, and that it is our response to that message that determines our standing on Judgment Day…we rely on what Jesus has already done for us….not on anything else! Let me turn the question onto us…since we have the special revelation contained in the bible…

How much do we know?! What is our response to the righteous creator of the universe?