Inclusivism – The unevangelized (those who do not hear the gospel) may be saved if they respond in faith to God based on the revelation they have. The idea here is that Christ’s sacrifice absorbs God’s retributive judgment and automatically gives everyone a standing of being accepted by God.
“God includes all in his grace and excludes in judgment only those who spurn that grace. God has already accepted all people priori to any response on our part, but not all are accepting his acceptance. The saved respond in faith to the manifold grace of God, while the damned reject them. Because of the work of Christ, God accepts all. Only those who decline to accept God’s grace are rejected.” (What about those who have never heard? Sanders, John pg. 33)
Inclusivism says that a person, who has never heard the gospel, can be saved if they respond in faith to the light that they are given. That “light” includes general revelation, conscience and culture. If a person responds in faith to God based on any light they are exposed to through these means, regardless of what they do not know about God, God will save them because they do not spurn or reject the light that was given.
The best example are the Old Testament saints. They never heard of Jesus, never saw Jesus and never heard of gospel in the way we do after Christ’s presence on earth. So there is no way they can “believe in Jesus”. Unless we do not believe they will be with God in eternity they are saved as we are.
However, the implication then of such a position is that while their ultimate and eternal salvation is grounded in Christ’s death and resurrection the unevangelized are saved apart from exercising faith in Christ for the forgiveness of sins.
Pastor Brad Little
(John Sanders, What about those who have never heard? Three Views on the destiny of the unevangelized; Intervarsity Press, 1995).
