The Bible says you have to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior to go to heaven. What happens to the people in the world who never get a chance to hear about Jesus?

Answer: There’s no question that the Bible teaches that Jesus is the only way to God. Jesus said so Himself (John 14:6), and Peter preached: “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

Jesus is the means by which God saves us, but does that mean we must know who Jesus is in order to be saved? Is that what Peter was saying? Notice he didn’t say, “For there is no other name under heaven that men must call upon in order to be saved.”

And then there’s the matter of how God is working in places where the name of Jesus isn’t known, but yet where there is an understanding of repentance and the need for a Savior. The classic book, “Peace Child” by Don Richardson talks about tribes of people like this. Would God reject the genuine “sinner’s prayer” offered by someone who didn’t invoke the name of Jesus?

We need to also remember that God in three Persons includes God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. God gave His only Son so that we might be saved, but it is still God who gives us the gift of salvation (Eph. 2:8).

Finally, we need to trust God for His fairness and justice. And we need to trust Him that He will lead to Christ those who don’t know His name. “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross” (Col. 1:19-20).

It’s a question like this that has motivated people through the centuries to take the Good News about Jesus to the remote corners of the world. Remember, we aren’t responsible to “save” people–that’s what God does. But we are responsible to “tell” people.