What Happens to People who Never Hear the Gospel?

The Bible (God's Word) teaches that all people that die without responding in faith to the gospel Jesus Christ will spend eternity in hell. But what happens to those people that die without ever hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ? Is it like God to send such a person to hell--someone that didn't have an opportunity to respond in faith?

I have hears some Christians argue, "Yes, because ignorance is no excuse." They say that is why the preaching of the gospel is so vital. However, I am not so quick to jump to that conclusion. Indeed we are all sinners from birth (Rom. 3:10-12, 23; 5:12-14), but God did have grace on the soul of King David's newborn son in 2 Samuel 12:13. However, that certainly does not undermine the Church's calling to preach the gospel (Matt. 28:19; Mark 16:15).

To keep things in perspective, Romans 1:28-20 explains,

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse (NIV emphasis added).

Basically, creation testifies that there is a Creator. I have never heard of a unevangelized culture that was atheistic. Virtually all the people worship some sort of god or another (sometimes carved out of trees or painted on rocks).

If anybody in such a culture will realize that those man-made gods did not create this beautiful world, then will turn his attention toward an invisible Creator, God will make His move to reach out to that person with the preaching of the gospel, however He decides to perform it. Jesus plainly stated, "For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened" (Matt. 7:8). Throughout the early Church, God sent apostles to preach the gospel to specific people who were searching for the Truth: Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:26-40); Peter and Cornelius (Ch. 10); Paul and Lydia (16:11-15).

My conclusion: people do not go to hell merely for never hearing the gospel. If such a person does go to hell, it is because he was not open to the gospel. The late Dr. Walter Martin put it this way; "If they go [to hell], it is because they turned away from the 'lesser light' that would have led them to the Greater Light." I believe that on those grounds alone will they stand condemned. Otherwise, God is able, willing, and ready to reach anyone who is truly searching for the Truth.