Are people who have never heard of Jesus going to the lake of fire? What about small children? It doesn’t seem God would punish people who never knew to repent. Please help.

Concerning the name of Jesus Christ, the New Testament informs us that “there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Jesus says, “He who believes in Him [Christ] is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:18). Paul asks, “And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?” (Romans 10:14). This indicates that a person must first hear the gospel, the message of salvation through Jesus Christ, before he can be saved.

Yet, we are also told that God “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4), and that Jesus Christ “gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time” (verse 6). He is the “Savior of all men” (4:10), the “Savior of the world” (John 4:42). He was not sent “to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved” (3:17). God is “not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

If God desires that all be saved, but salvation is possible only through the name of Jesus Christ, doesn’t it make sense to conclude that God will, in His own time, see to it that all have an opportunity to hear the gospel, turn to Him in repentance, and accept Jesus Christ as Savior?

God’s Word reveals that many will receive salvation during the Millennium (Jeremiah 23:5–8; 31:31–34; 33:14–16; cf. Revelation 20:4–6; 5:9,10). First, the scattered peoples of Israel and Judah will be brought to their own land, where they will learn of Christ the King, and become a model nation for all the other nations of the world. From that beginning, the truth of God will go out into all the earth. The nations will seek to learn of Him, and inquire of His ways (Isaiah 2:2–4). The knowledge of God will fill the earth.

But what about those who lived and died but never had an opportunity for salvation? Listen to John’s description of the post-millennial resurrection, or Great White Throne Judgment:

“Then [after the Millennium] I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books” (Revelation 20:11,12).

Now, considering the scriptural teaching that God desires all to be saved, what will happen in this post-millennial judgment period if those who had never heard the name of Jesus Christ learn the truth regarding salvation? (Surely the process of judgment requires that those being judged hear and understand the truth.) A clue is provided in the text above. Read it again, and notice that the Book of Life is open during this period. Those who had not previously known the way of salvation—all who had never had a full opportunity to come to repentance and accept Jesus Christ as Savior—will have a chance to repent. And when they do repent, surely God will write their names in the Book of Life.

Scripture indicates that only the terribly wicked—those who willfully reject God’s offer of salvation—will be cast into the lake of fire.

At present, the dead are unconscious, completely oblivious to the passage of time. At the Second Coming, the dead in Christ will awaken to eternal life and rise to meet the returning Lord. After the Millennium, the rest of the dead will awaken to a mortal existence and be judged. But judgment is not synonymous with condemnation. Peter writes, “For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God” (1 Peter 4:17). This shows that the process of judgment can and does produce the positive results of repentance and conviction. There is no reason to think, then, that God will not give those who had never had a full opportunity for salvation a chance to receive it during the Great White Throne Judgment period.