How Many People Will Be in Heaven?


When we get to heaven how many people will be there?  What percentage of earth’s population will be in heaven?  The answer is there will be more people—probably far more people—in heaven than in hell.  And one of the reasons is this that everyone in the history of the world who has died between the moment of conception and the age of accountability will be there.

John MacArthur said, “From the first days of history to the present, it is not at all an exaggeration to speculate that half of all persons ever conceived died prior to reaching maturity.”

Missiologist Don Richardson wrote of a group of scientists who issued a report saying that from the beginning of recorded history, some 66 percent of everyone conceived in the womb has not survived to see a fifth year of life.  In his book, Secrets of the Koran, Richardson wrote:

This means that two-thirds of mankind have died either in the womb through miscarriage, stillbirth, or abortion, or in childhood via disease, crime, war, accidents or natural disasters. Thus a large majority of all the people God has created in His likeness form the beginning of humankind are redeemed by this automatic childhood coverage aspect of redemption.

And then, Don Richardson went on to make this surprising statement: 

Take medical science’s 66 percent estimate on infant mortality through the ages as a mere base number.  Add hundreds of millions who, through the ages, lost their redemption by sinning as they came out of childhood but found it again by responding to the revelation from God.  Estimates of the combined total point to perhaps 77 percent of mankind redeemed.  God wins not only the moral victory but the quantitative one as well.

PS – This is from my sermon, “What Happens to Children Who Die?” To read the entire message, click here and go to te “Sermons” tab.