What Happens to a Person Who Dies in Unbelief?

Of course we know their fate. They went to hell.

That is the easy part. The hard part is Matthew 7:21-23 and similar scriptures like 2 Peter 1:3-11 that point out the habitually disobedient, who do not confirm their salvation with habitual obedience, likely end up there too. How many people do we know that may be caught up in this second, more fearful, dragnet?

 

I now get another question that could be asked:

If a person never hears the Gospel, what happens when they die?

My honest answer is I don't know.

 

Yes, if that faith was heartfelt and public (Romans 10:9). Those that fall away to pain or worldliness are not saved (Mark 4:3-9).

 

If a Muslim in the Islamic World becomes a Christian in their "heart" and goes to Mosque every Friday and does all the Muslim prayers and never tells anyone else they believe in Jesus, are they really saved? This happens quite a lot I hear, and is tragic beyond words (Luke 9:26).

Now, I don't know the hearts of others, so I cannot speak to who is ultimately in the safe or unsafe camp except by the bible's clear teachings on confirming our election. The habitual sinner who makes a practice of their craft is damned, but those who make a practice of righteousness and repent of their sins will inherit eternal life (1 John, really the whole thing).

 

Answer [KJB]:

John 3:18 KJB - He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

Luke 19:10 KJB - For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.​

In the sleep of death, they, the wicked, unrepentant, await to be called forth to the resurrection of damnation.

Job 3:17 KJB - There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest.

Job 3:18 KJB - There the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor.

Job 3:19 KJB - The small and great are there; and the servant is free from his master.

Job 40:12 KJB - Look on every one that is proud, and bring him low; and tread down the wicked in their place.

Job 40:13 KJB - Hide them in the dust together; and bind their faces in secret.

Acts 24:15 KJB - And have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust.

Revelation 20:5a - "But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. ..."

John 5:29 KJB - And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.​

 

Not "will be", but even is "already" [John 3:18 KJB]

 

Some people refer to that as the "saved experience" -- but I think it is the experience of being lost.


Romans 11
19 You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” 20 Quite right, they were broken off for their unbelief, but you stand by your faith. Do not be conceited, but fear; 21 for if God did not spare the natural branches, He will not spare you, either. 22 Behold then the kindness and severity of God; to those who fell, severity, but to you, God’s kindness, if you continue in His kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off. 23 And they also, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. 24 For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these who are the natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree?

John 1:11 "He came to His OWN and His OWN received Him not"

Mattnew 23
37 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. 38 Behold, your house is being left to you desolate! 39 For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’”

1 Thess 2
14 For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea, for you also endured the same sufferings at the hands of your own countrymen, even as they did from the Jews, 15 who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out. They are not pleasing to God, but hostile to all men, 16 hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved; with the result that they always fill up the measure of their sins. But wrath has come upon them to the utmost.