will one find non-believers who never had even one chance to hear The Gospel? This is a serious question.
depends on how you define "hear." i think there are people in the church who would call themselves believers who still haven't actually "heard" the gospel. short story...a friend is a pastor. he was hosting an art show at his church. his church is in the midtown/montrose area, so their events are very eclectic, and they reach out big time to the community. a lesbian woman approached him..thanked him for hosting the event...and was giving him a hard time about being a pastor. just kidding around with him. she said something about Jesus and it wasn't correct..so he started telling her the story....he talked about how Christ treated people here...the suffering he went through...who he believed Christ to be..and the resurrection...and when he got to the end the lady was crying and going "fu$% yes!!! fu#$ yes!!!" she's kept coming to his church. because she'd never really heard the gospel before...she only had ideas about what churches do and what Christians believe based on stereotypes and people who tried to shove her sin in her face her whole life. when she really heard it...it was a very different story than the one she thought she had heard...the one she thought she knew.
Based on my understanding of fundamentalist Christianity; burning in the firey pits of Hades, cause if you ain't accepted Jebus as your savior "you ain't g'wine up to heb'n." Or purgatory...
I would imagine there are many remote places in Africa and elsewhere that have not heard of the Gospel. Ninja edit: Woops, misread the question ^^;;
This is the sore point that makes me raise the question. I have great trouble with the faith for this kind of inconsistency in the message. Dooming someone to an eternal hell because they literally never heard The Gospel is beyond awful! I'm grateful and comfortable as a cultural Christian but I can't take the extremes of any religious views too seriously because of inherent flaws. Excuse me while I go prepare my Sunday School lesson...
but this is just wrong, though. Paul says that God speaks to all of us through nature and other forces...that He communicates love to everyone. but nowhere does it say that if you haven't heard the Gospel you're doomed to hell.
I think (Catholic's perspective here) that Thomas Aquinas would say that there is an imprint of the gospel in the hearts of all men; in our desire for truth, love, and happiness.
To take your question another step, what about those that were only exposed to the Gospel in a hostile or negative way?
By "hear the gospel" do you mean that thing I'm supposed to be doing while I'm holding my hands over my ears and saying "I can't hear you I can't hear you I can't hear you I can't hear you I can't hear you I can't hear you I can't hear.....are you done yet? No? I can't hear you I can't hear you I can't hear you I can't hear you....." I took my stance on listening to preachers from the neo-con stance on listening to common sense.
I'm thinking, for example, of people maybe in the parts of the world hostile to Christianity that grow up learning that Christianity is evil and wrong and all that type of thing. They might get to read the Bible or learn about it, but with a distinctly negative bias either from themselves or from those teaching it.
in the words of george carlin, "i believe religion can be a lift in your shoe. that doesn't mean it's ok to go and nail lifts on all the natives' feet..." or words to that effect.
