Whole Reason has a post on whether it is fair for some people to hear the gospel and not others. There is a common misunderstanding that the rejection of redemptive revelation is what sinners are responsible for. This is false. Christianity does not say that sinners are responsible for not knowing Jesus, but for violating morality in general.
I commented,
I think #4 actually comes closest to the right answer. “Those who do not receive mercy are not being unfairly treated, but justly so” is about right. I would only use the word “equal” rather than “fair”, just because fair has some connotations that imply justice.
Simply put, the sin we are responsible for is not the sin of denying, ignoring, or never hearing of the gospel. There is no reason why redemptive revelation would need to be general since those who have not received it end up with the just wages of sin.
I think that a Christian would run into problems if they see scripture either as the revelation of moral law, metaphysical justification, or the epistemological foundation. It leaves sinners with an excuse that they could not have known better. I think Romans 1:20 and 2:14 are claiming that these philosophical foundations are known through general revelation of what has been made.
I find it hard to square inter-generational guilt with Ezekiel 18:20
“The one who sins is the one who will die. The child will not share the guilt of the parent, nor will the parent share the guilt of the child. The righteousness of the righteous will be credited to them, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against them.”
Perhaps the children don’t inherit their father’s sin, but rather the continuation of their father’s sinful way of life. They inherit the tendency to choose sin because their parents have not taught them knowledge.
