We lost my father-in-law nearly 2 years ago to cancer. He did not believe. He heard the gospel, but chose to reject it. As far as human standards go, he was a "good" man. He was a truck driver most of his life. He helped hundreds and hundreds of stranded motorists (especially in the days before cell phones), paid for meals for the hungry and cold, would literally give a stranger the shirt off his back to keep them a little bit warmer, etc. You could call him in the middle of the night because you needed to talk. He NEVER complained about working, helping, or anything. I am SO blessed to have known him. However, he made his choice concerning his eternity. About an hour before he passed away, my husband "preached the gospel" to him one last time (the first time he had done that as he was a new believer himself). He was pretty incoherent and nodded that he understood and nodded that he wanted to believe Jesus died for our sins (it's not too late until you've taken your last breath from what I understand). We are not sure if he was coherent enough to "get it" or not. At that point, he was nodding at everything we said. Right now, I take comfort he was. We won't know until we get to Heaven. Salvation comes from believing Jesus died for our sins, not our works. However, that doesn't give us a free ride. We still need to do good works.