In missions, the term “heathen” refers to “those who have never heard the good news that God offers sinful humanity divine forgiveness on the ground of the substitutionary death of Christ” (Henry, Through No Fault of Their Own, p. 246). The Scriptural development of the term “heathen” centers on the words “Gentiles,” “nations,” and “peoples.” The primary Hebrew words are goy, am, and leom. The primary Greek words are ethnos and laos.
The Scriptural emphasis behind the term “heathen” is rooted in the doctrine of the sinful state of the human race. Jesus taught that slavery to sin leads to self–centeredness (Matthew 5:47), indulgence in self-centered materialistic and temporal pursuits (Matthew 6:32), abuse of relational responsibilities (Matthew 20:25), and misunderstanding of true prayer (Matthew 6:7). The apostle Paul also affirmed this doctrine in a very systematic way (Romans 1:18-3:20).
God’s desire to reach all nations is clearly imbedded in His covenant with Abraham (Genesis 12:1-3). The chosen nation was to be God’s instrument to reach the heathen. While Israel was to be set apart from all nations (Leviticus 11:43-47), it was also to be a kingdom of priests to represent the true God to the nations (Exodus 19:6). Christ also reiterated God’s desire to reach the world when He gave His final commission to His disciples (Matthew 28:18-20).
Scripture presents Christ as the light of the world and its only hope (John 8:12). The book of Acts gives the historical outworking of God giving the Holy Spirit (Acts 10:48), His Word (Acts 11:1), repentance (Acts11:18), faith (Acts 14:27), and conversions (Acts 15:13) to the Gentiles. Today God is calling Gentiles or heathen (Romans 9:24), and taking from among them a people for His name (Acts 15:14). One day the fullness of the Gentile will be complete which speaks of the total number that God will save (Romans 11:25).
The Apostle Paul’s response to the heathen’s spiritual condition is reflected in his desire to preach the gospel where it had never been preached (Romans 15:20-21). While all Christians are not called to be pioneer missionaries, all are called to live distinct lives (Ephesians 4:17, 1 Thessalonians 4:5), and to obey Christ’s command to disciple the nations (Matthew 28:18-20).
The classical answer to the persistent question of the spiritual state of one who has never heard the gospel is found in the early chapters of Romans. The answer is that God has spoken to all men through creation (Romans 1:19-20; cf. Psalms 19:1-6). The revelation of God’s moral law is also written on every man’s conscience (Romans 2:14-15). Each person will be judged according to the light he has received (Romans 2:11-12). Such revelation is said to leave the heathen with no excuse (Romans 1:20). The pattern given in Romans is a pattern of rejecting to God’s revelation in creation and conscience.
A flurry of articles and books have been recently written that address the issue of the heathen. Some argue that since many evangelicals make room for the salvation of infants, is not theirs a case for salvation of heathen apart from explicit faith in Christ? Of course, it must be noted that the infant is not guilty of volitionally rejecting general revelation in the same way that the heathen is.
Some argue for some kind of universalism that states all will be saved. The supposed Scriptural basis is rooted in God’s universal desire (1 Timothy 2:4; 2 Peter 3:9), His universal provision (John 12:32), and the future universal acknowledgement of Christ (Philippians 2:9-11). The clear Biblical teaching on judgment, the necessity of personal faith in Christ, and the separation of the lost and the saved appear to clearly negate this teaching that has been espoused by such ancients as Origen who saw hell as remedial and the threat of an eternal hell as only hortatory. The related question of the nature and duration of divine punishment is outside the scope of this present article.
There are a number of theories that do not embrace universalism but do espouse a wider hope. They tend to give some hope to the heathen by giving various ways that one might be saved without explicit faith in Christ. Some theorize that God will expose everyone to the gospel after they die. There appears to be no clear evidence for this position. The “spirits in prison” in 1 Peter 3:18 is probably best taken as angelic beings and the “dead” in 1 Peter 4:6 probably refers to martyred Christians who heard the gospel while they were alive.
Another theory is that the sincere seeker can be saved even apart from faith in Christ. Is it true that “God cares about the direction of the heart and not the content of theology” (Pinnock, A Wideness in God’s Mercy, p. 158)? Even Roman Catholic Theology refers to those who are guiltlessly ignorant of Christ’s gospel and sincerely seek God as those who can achieve eternal salvation according to Vatican II. Cornelius is used as an illustration of this theory. Acts 10:35 does teach that Gentiles such as Cornelius are suitable candidates for salvation, but Acts 11:14 says he was not saved until after hearing the gospel.
The theory that God will save those who respond to general revelation of creation and conscience is set forth by Justin Martyr, Chrysostom, Zwingli, Wesley, Augustus Strong, and more recently by Clark Pinnock. In one of John Stott’s earlier writings he called the issue of those who have never heard a “perplexing problem.” He also encouraged the Christian not to “preoccupy oneself with such speculative questions” (Stott, Christian Counterculture, p. 196). Jesus encouraged one to focus not on speculation but on their responsibility (Luke 13:23-24).
The emphasis in Scripture is on the necessity of human agents to bring the gospel to a lost world (Romans 10:14-15). Scripture gives only one clear way to escape His judgment and that is through faith in Christ. The heathen are responsible to God based on general revelation. There is a provision for all men’s salvation in Christ. The church’s responsibility is to declare this message to all. The Christian is not to be an arrogant person but rather to honor all men (1 Peter 2:17). However, there is no greater honor one gives to one than humbly sharing Jesus who is the light and hope of the world.
McQuillkin considers any theory that gives any hope to the unevangelized as dangerous (McQuillkin, The Great Omission, p. 50). Nash states his similar concerns concerning any theory that espouses that the preaching of Christ is not necessary for salvation (Nash, Is Jesus the Only Saviour, p. 126). Kantzer is probably correct in stating that “God does not want us to spend enormous amounts of time investigating things which we can do absolutely nothing” (Kantzer, Through No Fault of Their Own, p. 14-15). We do know that God will enable and reward every effort to reach the heathen with the gospel. We also know that our just God can never do anything that is not perfectly righteous. It is probably better as Phillips says to err on the side of safety than gamble on speculative leniency (Phillips, “Evangelical Pluralism; A Singular Problem,” Bibliotheca Sacra 151:154).