Every person – past, present and future – falls somewhere along this revelation continuum.
We all have access to God’s general revelations through nature and our God-consciousness. Many people have had primary or secondary knowledge of some or all of God’s specific revelations recorded in the Bible. Others, for reasons of time, geography or intellectual capacity, never hear about or comprehend his specific revelations.
Regardless of our individual circumstances the principle is the same – God will hold each person eternally accountable for their response to the divine revelations available to them while they were alive on earth. Nobody will be condemned for inadvertent ignorance of revelations they could never receive or comprehend.
Willful ignorance of the God’s revelation is another matter.
Those with unfettered access to God’s complete revelation will qualify for heaven if they make Jesus their personal Savior. Those without access to any of God’s specific revelations will qualify for heaven if they worship him in response to his general revelations and obey his moral laws as best they understand them though their conscience.
The eternal destiny of everyone else will be determined by their earthly response to what they knew or could readily know about God and his salvation plan as it had been revealed to date. Those who respond affirmatively and worship God will enjoy eternal bliss; those who respond indifferently or negatively and fail to pursue God will suffer eternally.
God is far more concerned about the fairness of salvation than we are because he wants as many people as possible to qualify for heaven. We can therefore trust his benevolence regarding everyone’s eternal destiny.
Nobody will end up in heaven or hell accidentally, inadvertently or unfairly, including ancient peoples and remote tribal members who never see a Bible or hear about Jesus, children who die young and those with limited mental comprehension.
Heaven will be filled with people from all walks of life, every geographic locality and every era of history. Its residents will enjoy eternal glory because they responded affirmatively to the divine revelations available to them on earth.
Hell will also be filled with people from all walks of life, every geographic locality and every era of history. They will be tormented forever because they consciously refused to seek and worship God in response to the same revelations.
