10. Question: What happens to people who never got the chance to hear the gospel?

Answer: Infants, young children who die, persons with mental handicap: Jesus said that the little children will go to heaven (Matthew 19:14).

Baptists believe that children are safe and go to heaven until they reach "the age of accountability." At "the age of accountability" each child has the choice to seek God and His truths of God, receive Christ or reject Christ and the child is accountable to God for their choice. The age of accountability is the time when the child becomes old enough and mentally mature enough to understand the gospel and sense that God is urging them to seek Him and His truths. The age of accountability is different for every person.

The great preacher Charles Spurgeon stated that he reached the age of accountability when he was three years old. Most children who hear the gospel every week at home and at church reach the age of accountability at about age four or five. Other children who do not hear the gospel from home are unable to understand until about age nine or even older. For some children, their age of accountability may be even later as a teen.

Our church recommends for parents to keep the gospel simple for children: Believe Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for all the bad things you've done, believe that He will forgive you forever, ask Jesus to be your boss and help you live for Him. A child must be able to understand they are forgiven only because of Jesus being punished for them on the cross and that we cannot go to heaven by being good (Ephesians 2:8-9). Children should be encouraged by parents to receive Christ as young as possible because parents cannot be completely certain when they reach their age of accountability.

Baptists believe that most persons with mental handicaps are safe and would go to heaven if they died like young children.

Adults who never hear the gospel: The Bible states that all persons have the chance to seek the truth and find the truth, therefore, man is without excuse. Every person has the Spirit of God calling them to seek Him and His truths but most persons choose not to obey the Spirit, refuse to seek the truth and reject God by rejecting Christ (Romans 1:18-21, Luke 10:16). Jesus said He is the only way to the Father and the only way to heaven (John 14:6).

All people on earth derived from Adam who believed the true faith, from Noah who had the true faith, but many people chose to reject the true faith, reject the true God, choose to believe their parents' false religion, or believe lies about God rather than seek the truth on their own. Even those in the darkest parts of Africa could seek the truth and find it if they chose to.

The answer is: persons who die without hearing the gospel have chosen to reject God forever because they chose not to obey the Spirit of God to seek the truth of the gospel.