You can often hear even quite conservative
Christians saying that they believe that only a minority of people will end up
in hell.
Many seem to assume that the great love of God
will find a way for most to gain eternal salvation. They think that the vast
majority of people who say they are Christians will be saved. And they think
too that large numbers who don’t even profess Christian faith will also finally
be saved.
A clarification
Before going any further, I need to make a point
of clarification.
In this article we will be considering what
proportion of morally accountable people will go to hell. We will not be
thinking about the eternal destiny of people, including the unborn, who have died
before they are old enough to be morally accountable. Nor will we be thinking about
people who are never able to be morally accountable because of severe mental
disability.
Personally, I
prefer the view that everyone who is never morally accountable will end up
saved.
I think Romans
5:13 supports this position. In this verse, in his discussion of sin, the
apostle Paul says:
“. . . but sin is not counted where there is no law.”
(Scripture
readings in this article are from the English Standard Version except where
otherwise stated.)
Paul is
explicit here that in the absence of law, sin is not counted.
It is true that
Paul’s focus in this verse is on some people who were morally accountable.
Nevertheless, it makes sense to think that those who are not morally
accountable are also not under any kind of law. And if this is right, any sins
they commit would not be counted. And so they would presumably not go to hell.
Anyway, the
eternal destiny of people who are never morally accountable will not be our
focus of interest in what follows. Instead, we will be thinking about people
who know right from wrong and are old enough to be held morally accountable.
And in what follows, when I refer to “people,” I will be thinking only of
morally accountable people.
A large majority
of people will go to hell
There are strong reasons for believing that a
large majority of people will go to hell.
The following are some key points.
Matthew
7
The
most important passage for our topic is Matt. 7:13-14, where Jesus states:
“13 Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”
The
“destruction” that Jesus refers to here is punishment after death, i.e., hell.
And
because “destruction” is contrasted with “life,” the life he is talking about
must be the eternal life involved in receiving final salvation.
So Jesus
is teaching that many are on the road to hell and few are on the road to final
salvation.
Although
Jesus uses present tense verbs here – “are many,” “are few” – it
would be a big mistake to limit what He says in this passage to the situation
in His own day. There is no reason whatsoever to think that a time would come
later on when there would be few on the road to destruction and many on the
road to life.
Therefore,
this passage strongly implies that most people will go to hell.
Another
important passage, also in this chapter, is Matt. 7:21-23, where Jesus says:
“21 Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’”
Here,
Jesus must be referring to people who claim to be Christians but are not really
saved.
And
note how he says in v. 22 that there are “many” of them. This passage counts
strongly against the idea that the vast majority of people who claim to be
Christians will receive final salvation. There are many false believers in the
world.
Those who have never heard the gospel
Next, we need to consider people who have never
heard the gospel of salvation in Christ.
There are many Christians today who claim that
large numbers of people who have never heard the gospel will nevertheless be
saved for eternity. They say that there are many who are sincerely seeking God
and who would believe the gospel if they just had an opportunity to hear it.
And they think that God will surely take account of that by granting them
eternal salvation.
In actual fact, the Bible strongly implies that
in all or at least almost all cases, anyone living in the Christian era who
does not have a specific faith in Christ will not be saved.
In Romans 10:13-15 Paul writes:
“13 For ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ 14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!’”
Paul’s
words in this passage strongly imply that we can typically expect people who
have not heard the gospel to remain unsaved. Other passages that point in the
same direction are Acts 10:1-11:18; Acts 4:12 and John 14:6.
For
a much fuller discussion of this issue, see my article: Can Anyone Who Has Not Heard the
Gospel Be Saved?
Hated
by everyone
In
Mark 13:13 and Luke 21:17 Jesus warns His followers:
“You will be hated by everyone because of My name.” (Holman Christian Standard Bible)
Although
what Jesus says in these verses was intended in the first place for Christians
living in the first century, there is no reason at all to think that things
should be any different for Christians of later centuries. These words imply
that Christians of every century will be hated by everyone because of Jesus’
name.
In
these verses, Jesus must be using hyperbole, i.e., deliberate exaggeration for
effect that involves no attempt to deceive. He is not suggesting that every single
non-Christian will hate Christians.
Nevertheless,
the fact that the word “everyone” is used to refer to those who are hostile to believers
quite strongly suggests that a high percentage of the world’s population will
be against us. And if they are against us, they are against God and surely on
track for hell.
Those
who live on the earth
In
the book of Revelation, there are several passages where people who are hostile
to God are described as “those who live on the earth.”
For
example, in Rev. 6:10 the martyrs cry out to God:
“Lord, the One who is holy and true, how long until You judge and avenge our blood from those who live on the earth?” (HCSB)
And
in Rev. 8:13 an eagle cries out:
“Woe! Woe! Woe to those who live on the earth . . .” (HCSB)
Those
who live on the earth in these, and other, verses are clearly people who are primed
for God’s judgment and on track for hell.
If
we didn’t know the context, we might at first sight think that the words “those
who live on the earth” were being used literally and that they refer to every single
human being who lives on earth.
Obviously,
however, the words shouldn’t be understood literally, since Christians
are not included in the group of people that is being referred to.
Nevertheless,
it makes sense to think that the meaning that the words are conveying is closer
to rather than further away from the literal sense.
To
put it another way, if “those who live on the earth” is
being used to refer to a large majority of people in the world, then the most
natural sense of these words is quite close to their actual meaning. But if
this clause is being used to refer only to a minority or even a smallish
majority of people in the world, the most natural sense of these words is a
long way from their actual meaning.
To
put it yet another way, if “those who live on the earth” does not refer to a
large majority of the world’s population, these words seem quite misleading.
But instead of thinking that they are misleading, it is much easier simply to
think that they do refer to a large majority of the world’s population.
It
makes sense to believe, then, that the clause “those who live on the earth” in
the book of Revelation refers to a large majority of people in the world. And,
as I have noted, these people are on track for hell.
Of
course, some of those in this category will turn to Christ and so come out of
the category. But nothing in Revelation leads us to believe that a high
percentage of people will do this. So the fact that this book uses this clause
to refer to non-believers helps to suggest that a large majority of people will
go to hell.
Summing
up
There
are a number of good reasons, then, for concluding that a large majority of the
world’s population will end up in hell.
Downplaying
God’s justness
I am
sure that one of the main reasons why so many Christians think that most people
will avoid hell is because they have a faulty understanding of God’s nature.
Biblical
revelation contains many tensions and paradoxes, and one of the greatest
tensions is between how God justly punishes people on the one hand, and how He
forgives people on the other. The Bible is full of examples of where God does
punish people for their sins, and also full of examples of where He doesn’t
punish people for their sins.
It
is essential that we don’t downplay either side of this tension. God is not
just a loving God of mercy, but also an angry God who justly punishes. His
mercy towards people will reach fullest expression when He admits those who are
saved to final salvation. And His punishing of people will reach fullest
expression when He sends those who are unsaved to hell.
Many
Christians in Western society today underemphasise God’s will to punish, and so
conclude that He wouldn’t send many people to hell. But this stems from a
skewed picture of who He really is.
How
to avoid hell
Although
a large majority of people will end up in hell, the way to avoid going there is
quite simple. We just need to accept by faith Jesus Christ and the salvation
that is in Him. When He died on the cross, He paid the price for our sins, and
we need to believe this and take hold of it for ourselves.
When
we turn to Christ, we will receive the Holy Spirit and our lives will change.
Then we will be ready to live out the rest of our time on earth for God.
See
also:
