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“How can God condemn people if they’ve never heard the gospel?” That is the question Steve Lange addressed in this month’s “Please explain.” As Lange pointed out, the question is one that God does not answer directly in the Bible, which can leave questioners intellectually unsatisfied.
Sometimes, when people ask a question like that, they blame God for doing something with which they do not agree. In that case, they blame God for being God. That is regrettable. If blame is part of the conversation with this question, what about putting the blame where it belongs—on people?
What do I mean by that? Well, there would be no reason to ask that question if everyone in the world did have an opportunity to come into contact with the gospel.

Actually, there were two such times in the history of the world. When Adam and Eve stood in the Garden of Eden and listened to God’s gracious promise of a Savior who would crush the devil (Genesis 3:15), every person on earth heard the gospel. Years later, eight people huddled together in an ark for over a year, and when the floodwaters receded and Noah and his family set foot on dry ground, one hundred percent of the world’s population knew the gospel.
Where did it break down? Who dropped the ball in passing along the gospel message? We don’t have to turn too many pages after the account of the flood to read about people worshiping false gods.
It has been said that we are always one generation away from losing the gospel message entirely, but we are not talking about that here. The issue at hand is a partial—not complete—breakdown in communicating the gospel to others.
So, how is that communication going today? How many people do not have access to the gospel message? Estimates vary. We do know this much. There are 7,396 known languages in the world. The Bible is available—in parts or its entirety—in 3,756 of those languages. That translates, no pun intended, into 98 percent of the world’s population having access to the Bible in their language. That means about 175 million people worldwide do not have the Bible in their native language.¹
The solution to that situation is obvious: getting God’s Word into the hands of more people in their own language.
That is something our church body is trying to do. Multi-Language Productions, a division of WELS World Missions, has produced Bible-based materials in 56 different languages. To me, that is pretty impressive, and we can give thanks and praise to the Lord for these efforts.
But can we do more? Can the rest of the Christian world do more? Can you and I do more? Yes. And it may be easier than we realize.
You and I do not have to travel to distant lands to try to reach people with the good news of salvation through faith in Jesus. Depending on where you live, people from faraway lands may be moving into your community and neighborhood; the world is coming to us. That means we and our local congregations are well situated to try to reach those people with the gospel.
Yes, people may not always be satisfied with how the Bible does or does not answer their questions, but the Bible does answer this question: “Does God love me?” The answer is yes, and the answer is Jesus. That is very satisfying.
¹Statistics from Wycliffe Global Alliance

James Pope | FIC Editor
Author: James Pope
Volume 112, Number 02
Issue: February 2025