Many people are concerned that those who never hear the gospel cannot be saved. However, according to the Bible, God judges a person based on their faith in the limited revelation they were given about Him. Even if someone has never heard the gospel, they may still be judged based on their faith in God in other ways.
Romans 1:18-23 explains that people who have never heard the gospel are still without excuse before God because creation itself provides evidence for a powerful Creator. If someone has only this limited information about God but puts their faith in the Creator based on this evidence, they could still be justified.
Sometimes God gives further revelation of Himself through speaking to people in their minds or in dreams. Abraham, for example, believed in God before the gospel was preached because God spoke to him. It was not his perfect knowledge that saved him, but his faith in the limited information God gave him.
Romans 4:3 (WEB) For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”Genesis 15:6
God is fair and does not condemn us for rejecting someone’s opinion about Him that may or may not be true. Instead, we are only condemned when we reject good evidence without reason. The Pharisees were guilty of rejecting Christ not because he merely claimed to be the Messiah, but because Jesus had convincingly proven it through his miracles and they rejected him without good reason.
John 15:24 (WEB) If I hadn’t done among them the works which no one else did, they wouldn’t have had sin. But now they have seen and also hated both me and my Father.
At some level everyone has a choice to believe in God merely from the fact that creation itself points to the existance of a powerful Creator. Some are given additional revelation, perhaps from the voice of the Lord himself, and when they believe what God tells them, their faith is counted as righteousness even if they’ve never heard the gospel.
Knowing the gospel is the perfect expression of God’s love to us and not only strengthens our faith but also gives us gratitude. God wants us to know him, and he would prefer that everyone hears of his love for them, but God can still judge a person based on their faith in the well-evidenced information about God given to them.