Of course the usual assumption behind these questions is that God would never condemn someone who has not been told about the free gift of salvation through faith in Christ. So let's run with that idea for a minute. Let's say, hypothetically, that all those folks are not lost. Instead, let's pretend for the sake of argument that people who have never heard about Jesus are already on the road to heaven simply by virtue of having never heard the Gospel message.
Right away, we see how this theory comes crumbling down. Why? Because if those folks who have never heard the good news are already on the path to paradise, Jesus would have been risking their eternal life in heaven by commanding His disciples to go out and preach the Gospel to them. That zealous approach to proselytizing would place potential converts in a situation where they might reject Christ and His Gospel, and as a result suffer the eternal consequences of saying "no" to Jesus and His love.
If those adults who have never heard the Gospel are already safe in the arms of Jesus forever, then the greatest evangelistic strategy would have been for our Lord to tell His disciples something like this: "Go into all the world and be kind to people, but under no circumstances should you ever tell someone that he or she must repent and believe in me in order to be forgiven of their sins and go to heaven. If you do that, you are placing their eternal safety in jeopardy by leading them into a discussion where they might decide to reject the Gospel message."
Obviously, that is not what the Lord told them. Jesus lived and died as though men are lost without His forgiveness. And He sent out His disciples as though people who have never heard the message are lost until they hear and believe the good news. Read more
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