Another take on inclusivism is the belief that people who die without hearing the gospel will have the opportunity to hear it and believe after death. As Pinnock says, “Scripture does not require us to hold that the window of opportunity is slammed shut at death.”[i] The most common passage of Scripture used in favor of postmortem evangelism is 1 Peter 3:19-20:
“In which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water.”
Because Peter refers to Christ preaching or proclaiming to the spirits in prison, many argue that those in hell can still hear the gospel and be saved. Another closely related verse is 1 Peter 4:6: “For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does.”
While this is a challenging passage of Scripture, there are several reasons why it cannot be a proof text for postmortem evangelism. The spirits in prison, whether they are angels or humans, are those who disobeyed in Noah’s day. If they are fallen angels, then this cannot be describing postmortem evangelism because angels cannot be saved. But if these are those who were alive during Noah’s day, then they disobeyed in spite of the preaching of Noah who was “a herald of righteousness” (2 Pet 2:5). If they disobeyed the warnings of Noah, then they are not among the unevangelized since a message of judgment was preached to them while they were still alive. In that case, this text would not only teach the postmortem evangelism of the unevangelized, but the postmortem evangelism of those who already have heard the message of God.
Based on the parallels between 1 Peter 3:19 and 4:6, I would interpret this preaching to be that which took place while they were still alive. Those who are in prison in 3:19 are the unbelievers who lived during Noah’s day. Christ preached the gospel to them in his immortal state through Noah when the ark was being built. Now that they are dead, they exist as spirits in hell without physical bodies until the resurrection of the dead (John 5:28-29; 2 Pet 2:9).
But in the case of 4:6, these are those who are dead who responded positively to the preaching of the gospel while they were still alive. This is the same kind of preaching as described in 3:19. Now that they are dead, they “live in the spirit” which is living incorruptibly and immortally in God’s presence as Christ does (1 Pet 3:18). For Christ to be “made alive in the spirit” in 3:18 is for him to be raised incorruptibly, not non-physically.
In contrast to post-mortem evangelism, the Bible teaches that “it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment” (Heb 9:27). The door of opportunity was slammed shut at death for the rich man in Luke 16 who died and went to hell. Luke 16:26 teaches that no one can cross over from hell to heaven: “And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.” Postmortem evangelism also does not fit in with the many passages which teach that all unbelievers at the second coming of Christ will be damned rather than being given an opportunity to be saved (Luke 17:26-30). If they get no opportunity when Christ returns, why should those who die before then get one?
Another take on postmortem evangelism is what I would call “post-resurrection evangelism.” It teaches that when Christ returns at his second coming, the unevangelized will have an opportunity to hear the gospel and be saved after being raised from the dead.[ii] But the Bible teaches that there will be no more opportunity for salvation then. The paradigm Scripture uses to picture the second coming of Christ is Noah’s flood. Just as no one escaped when the flood came, no unbeliever will escape when Christ returns (Matt 24:38-39). When Christ comes, all sinners will be thrown into hell by the angels (Matt 13:41-42).
At the resurrection, some people will be raised to life and others to judgment (Dan 12:2; John 5:27-29). Jesus does not give us any third category of people who are raised to hear the gospel. Those who are unrighteous are kept under punishment until the day of judgment (2 Pet 2:9). And as we already saw in Luke 12:48, those who do not know their master’s will when Christ returns will be given a lesser punishment in hell rather than having an opportunity to repent. According to Paul, everyone who does not know God (pagans and the unevangelized) and those who do not obey the gospel (everyone who has rejected it) will be cast into hell at Christ’s coming:
“And to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might” (2 Thess 1:7-9).
Those who are ethnically Jewish will not get a second chance when Christ returns. Jesus said to the Jewish leaders, “I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins” (John 8:24). Jesus taught that whoever rejects him will be judged by his words on the day of judgment: “The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day” (John 12:48). Only those who abide in him will have no reason to shrink from him in shame at his coming (1 John 2:28). Those who do not obey the gospel in this life will not get any second chances when Christ returns (Matt 13:40-43; Luke 17:26-30; 1 Thess 5:1-5; 2 Thess 1:7-9; 2:11-12; Rev 3:9).
Revelation 5:9
Another argument for inclusivism is that since Revelation 5:9 says that members from “every tribe and language” will be among the redeemed, that means there must be a way for the unevangelized to be saved because some tribes and languages died out before missionaries arrived. But “every tribe” does not need to mean every possible classification of people throughout world history, only every ethnicity or people group in the world. And “every language” can refer to all the known languages of the world at the time John was writing. But even if the verse is referring to every possible classification of people and every possible language throughout world history, then this would be fulfilled through the salvation of dying infants.
[i]Pinnock, A Wideness in God’s Mercy, 171.
[ii]For one example of this, see the video “Ben Witherington: The Destiny of the Unevangelized” by the channel Seedbed on YouTube.
James Attebury 
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