Now, I am a Christian, and I put my faith in God 100% but we were having a discussion in school yesterday and this thought came up and I thought it was interesting....

Christians generally believe that anyone who dosn't follow the word of God is sent to hell, which I personaly don't believe, but a lot of Christians do...

But if this is true, then what about the people who have never had the chance to hear the gospel? Surely God cannot punish them who havn't had the chance to hear his word? Also, if Jesus came to save the whole world, Why did he manifest himself only to the region around present day Israel? I expect there were people in the world who the word of God never reached.....

And what about people in third world countries now, in countries were a religon other then Christianty is followed, and they never get the chance to hear about Christ...Does God punish them to?

I am a Christian and always will be, but I still find it difficult to believe the bible 100% and this is one of the things I'm not sure about.....

That's a great question Fleur. The Bible seems to be completely silent on this topic, so this is my opinion based on what I do know about God.

At the end of Matthew, in Chapter 28, we see Jesus telling His followers (and by proxy all of us who are His followers today) "All authority on Heaven and Earth has been given to me, therefore, go and make disciples..."

In Ephesians 2:8-10, we see that we are saved through faith by grace, not by anything we do, so that none of us can think we're better than anyone else. We also see that God has actually prepared specific work for each us to do.

So, the work He gave us was at least in part to share His love (make disciples) with anyone and everyone. But that doesn't mean that we are the only thing God is counting on to get His message of love and redemption out.

We also know God is a loving God who does not want any of us to be lost (Matt 18:14). This to me argues that we really are not the only way He gets His message out.

How He does get His message to all the people who have never and will never hear the message of Jesus from another human, I don't know, but I firmly believe that He does.

Every last one of us are brought here under the same conditions-- on the same planet, to breath the same air, to be concieved in same manner, given birth too the same, to live our lives as unique as we are in ourselves, and to die just as unique. We have our stories to tell & our special experiences that we are to learn from.
We have a LIGHT that shines within us-- this light shines in each and every human being regardless of their religion- their practices- their bible scriptures memorized- member of religious groups- amount of money put into the pot- race- ethnic group- lifestyle-economic level etc.,. . We are all special, UNIQUE, and we are an example of our creator's divine being in the human (physical) form. There is NO right religion, no true practice inside of religion. All will fall short, anything brought about by mankind will fall short with our God, this includes all religions * it's so- called true practices-or, TRUTHS. This has been proven thru our history. We make mistakes. We can be some corrupt religious self rightous creatures..

The light that shines is a powerful light & it exist in You whether or not you are fully aware of Jesus and whether you have ever heard of Him. It is there in everyone and given to us by God, a small part of God that shines in us. Jesus did NOT teach religion. What Jesus was teaching was a spiritual awareness that exist in each of us that are born into this world. We would have to walk in this light to understand it's blessings ( as Jesus did for example). The foundation to this awareness can be easily felt and carried by ANY ONE who learns/chooses to see others in this light. The foundation, for example, that Jesus taught is Love, compassion, and forgiveness. This was/is spiritual ..To be willing to do this is truly to lose the sense of your humanNESS, but gain awareness on another level of being.

<Sorry so long, anyway I felt like typing>

Its a great deal!

Don't hear the "word" and go on about your lives.

OR

Get the gospels, and now YOU are responsible for believing or not. But, if you don't believe, you're in for it.


No wonder these folk want to spread the word..........

I've asked that very same question, lots of times throughout this board, what about those in third world countries?? And i got the same answer - they have heard of Jesus, bound to have, the bible is taught all over..............so then I add - But the only thing they worry about, is if they are going to get clean water and food, not if they need to repent!!!

I think it's the case that if they've heard of him they'd jolly well better make time to worry about repenting.

I'm not Christian, but I'll add my two cents if that's alright.

I feel that God created each of us to be different for a purpose. Why would He create a soul to be born into a faith other than Christianity? Does He send them that don't follow Christian dogma to Hell? What would be the purpose of creating something just to condemn it? Christianity is not the only path to God. We're not judged according to our beliefs, but rather by our actions and intent. It's what's in our hearts that matters, not what we read or speak. Just my opinion.

Well said

Bravo Devol, well said chum

If you have never heard the gospel before just come onto unexplained mysteries. You'll drown in the endless boring Christian threads it has to offer.

Just wake up and stop being a bible zombie.

Hah, no thank you, I'm very happy with my beliefs. Maybe you should stop being so narrow-minded.

Thank you, thank you!

BNW, you're horrible! Funny...but horrible none the less! I love it!

For starters I do not believe that God is into punishing people for not hearing the gospel. Hell is simply the "grave" and has been one of the chief "blackeyes" that western christendom has given itself for building a doctrine out of ignorance of the greek language. The lake of fire talked about is reserved for the devil and his angels after the judgements. The other problem is that people equate that Jesus' is just a fire escape from this place called hell. Not true! Salvation means "wholeness" biblically. Jesus Came to reconcile people unto God to regain all Adam lost originally. It is the restoration of the sons of God that salvation is all about, not making heaven. Those who believe on Christ do have a unique place in God's plan that will unfold in the future. God is just and those who are "good" but for whatever reason do not believe on Christ or have not heard enough to believe. God will look on their heart at the ressurection of the just. They will have a future in the eternities to come, but will not be of the body of Christ. Nor will they be burning in some place called "hell". The world will indeed be ruled by the Messiah for 1000 years, so it is during this time that the entire world still has free will to follow Christ. Interstingly enough even after that 1000 year reign many will reject him to even attempt to do battle with him. The earth has always been Mankind's abode and will remain as such even into the future administartion that will unfold. This is the concept of why there will be a bodily ressurection of all those who have died. Heaven is the realm of the spirit. The earth is the future for Mankind, but it will go through some interesting changes. The "church" will only be in "heaven" for seven years prior to retuning to the earth. The sons and daughters of God have the unique priviledge of ruling and reigning with Christ here on earth. That is the biblical future, not the heaven or hell trip that is erroneously taught today in the guise of christianity.

Lets see the Gospels have been around about 1700 years and the Torah about 4000 years that is really a short span time. Homo sapiens have been around 300,000 years. Which means all that time no one had heard of the Gospels. There has been religions of some sort during all that time I would suppose they went to where ever their beliefs said they would go. I am a neo-Celtic Druid I will go to the realm of my ancestors to await my next life when I am done with this one. I don't believe in the Abrahamic religions and I don't believe in hell.

I don't believe in hell either... or the Abrahamic god. I also don't believe that our progression into the next life is affected by what we believe now.

"I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, whose purposes are modelled after our own - a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human frailty." Albert Einstein

edited: for spelling

"Lets see the Gospels have been around about 1700 years and the Torah about 4000 years that is really a short span time. Homo sapiens have been around 300,000 years. Which means all that time no one had heard of the Gospels. There has been religions of some sort during all that time I would suppose they went to where ever their beliefs said they would go"

But the word of God was around years before the Bible etc.

Oh would that be the word of Baal, Danu, Ares, Bast and all the rest of the Gods of the ancient world or would that be only the God of Abraham?

Gods of the ancient world link

I'm not arguing against the fact that there were Gods far more ancient then the one I worship. I think all the ancient Gods are the same we worship today, but the way we view them has changed...

In my history class when we studied the ancient religions and how the ancients viewed the Gods I found my point of view was closer to the ancients than the modern view of the Abrahamic God. I am a polytheist through and through. The Gods of the ancients had more human traits than the Abrahamic God.
My Gods are not the same as the God of the Christians, they are very different.

*boldened relevant section*

What if God, choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, made objects for the purposes of destruction, for the benefit of those who were prepared for glory?

This above sentence is a paraphrased version of Romans 9:22-24. It provides a reason why God might have chosen to create a being just to condemn it. Though this passage, as far as I am aware, does not deal with those people who ahve never heard the gospel. Unfortunately for the topic starter, I don't think there is a biblical answer to this. The Bible is silent on the matter. A convincing argument can be made from both sides of the fence. The Bible speaks of only two types of people - those who have heard and accepted, and those who have heard and rejected. It makes no reference to those who have not heard at all.

As interesting as it is to discuss this, the fact is that using the Bible alone, no one can give a definitive answer on this.

Regards, PA

Maybe thats how you view it, but not me. When you look at all different Gods and religons, you always notice similarties - I belive this is because we are worshipping the same God, but the way we see him is different. Thats why I don't think all people who arn't Christians are going to Hell. I believe there are religons that worship an entirely different God and our against the Lod, but not all of them are.

Thats just something I believe.

Verses 22-24 of the 9^th chapter of Romans refer to those worthy of forgiveness. Those who continually reject God's grace are unworthy of redemption, while believers are all set. However, if God created all mankind, why would he let some of us be born into houses and relgions that don't follow the Bible, unless He has another way of judging a soul besides adherence to the Bible? Using Christian logic, Wiccans are going to Hell, yet Wicca teaches tolerance and nonviolence. "An it harm none do what ye will" How, then, are these people, and others who believe similarly, condemned by God when they live by "His" rules? Many Wiccans even accept Josh as a god among their pantheons. So, again, how are they condemned?

It is hard to believe that a loving, forgiving God would punish those that live up to His standards simply because they don't believe in Him. If I'm wrong, then I'll burn, and I'll accept it...but if I'm right, then God's probably pissed at all those people who have shown intolerance to His plan, and thus Him.

I do appreciate you taking the time to try and explain this. Take care, PA!