All About GOD - Growing Relationships with Jesus and Others
What happens to good people around the world when they die, if they never heard about Jesus?
What and how will God judge those people who were not exposed to Christianity/Jesus, if Jesus is the only way to Salvation?
These questions are among the most common ones asked, so it is good that we have a biblical answer for them.
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Leonard T on
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People start with the wrong assumption. They assume man is "good" and that if they are good and never hear of Jesus that being sent to hell is unjust of God. Two problems with this view. 1) man is not God's judge in that we are in a position to determine what is fair and just in regards to God's actions. 2) Man is not "good" he is fallen and separated from Holy God deserving hell as wages for his (our) sin. All are lost and without hope if not but for Christ. Thus, those who never hear of Jesus remain in the condition unto which they were born ... LOST. We do not become lost ... we start lost. We become born again when the gospel message and the work of the Holy Spirit penetrate our heats and illuminate our minds so that we repent and receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior.
Thus, a very important doctrine is being washed away in many Christians circles today to the detriment of our mission on earth. That doctrine is "The Lostness of Man."
Lord Bless,
LT
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Permalink Reply by David Velasquez on
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Excellent my brother LT, but under what basis will they be judge? How can they be condemned for not hearing the gospel, when the gospel was not preached to them? These people have not heard a single word about Jesus.
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Humanity was rightly judged in the garden along with Adam and Eve, for we are born as seed of Adam in the flesh, born with a sinful fallen nature, and we each are guilty of falling short of the glory of God personally. The Bible tells us that none are righteous.
Jesus is not the cause of our being judged (ie before you hear of Him you are guiltless and after you hear of Him you are guilty unless you repent and receive Him). He is the remeedy for the judgment we find ourselves under as part of the fallen race from birth. That is why we use the term justification. That is a judicial word describing that the debt or guilt had been removed through the Lamb of God. MAnkind has been judged and the final sentence is yet to be proclaimed at the end of time. Even human courts do this ... found guilty and awaiting sentencing.
Again, we must start with man is guilty and lost and deserving eternal damnation because of his fallen nature and personl guilt as described in Scripture. I know this is SO UNPOPULAR, but true none-the-less.
I hope others will join in to this important subject that you have brought up.
Lord Bless,
LT
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Amen my brother.
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Char,
There remains thousands, if not millions of people here in the USA that no nothing of Christ other than what the pop culture feeds them. They know the Jesus of Marilyn Manson or some other Satanist group, but not our Jesus.
Amen Char we are without excuse for God has writen his laws in the heart of men.
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Char,
Women should not wear pants, that is correct. The fire and brimstone is good doctrine as well. hahaha Just kidding, thought I am a fire and brimstone preacher who tries to balance the message with God's love. :) Oh and no make up for you ladies as well haha J/k again.
You display a true conversion of the heart, a hunger for God, from God. Rita, Mary O and all of us here who are here discussing these issues have a changed heart that's hungry for God's truth and not the oky doke, that of course is no credit to ourselves, but is the gift of faith that God has blessed us with. The Spirit will guide us to all truth.
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Permalink Reply by Amanda on
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David,
First, there is none good, not one.
However, I believe before the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus, things were different. All people who were saved, were saved by grace through faith … but it was a bit different. IMOBefore Christ lived and died, the Gentiles had the revelation of nature and world and creation (Romans 1:18-32). The Jews had the revelation of God’s Word (Romans 2:1-8). But now the whole world has the revelation of Jesus Christ and the Gospel (Romans 3:21-26), and I think the ones now who are among the elect will receive this revelation of Jesus Christ, whether it will come to them in their heart (as it seems to have been the case for you) or through a dream or through a missionary or even an angel from heaven.
Under the Old Covenant, Jews had advantages over the Gentiles because they had been given much more revelation about God compared to the Gentiles who had no law. Yet, the Jews had been stumbling blocks to the Gentiles simply because of their own unfaithfulness to the law. Yet again, it almost seems like the Gentiles were actually in a better standing before God because the Gentiles had shown changes in their hearts and their behavior based on just what little bit of light that they had received from God -- namely Romans 2:15,They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them. I am of the opinion that it means those Gentiles who experienced these changes were saved. But that was under the OC. We are under the New Covenant now.
Righteousness Through Faith
Romans 3:
21 But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness is given through faith in[h] Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement,[i] through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— 26 he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
27 Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. Because of what law? The law that requires works? No, because of the law that requires faith. 28 For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. 29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, 30 since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. 31 Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law. (NIV)
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Amanda -
Amen sis. No one good, not ONE. Like LT mentioned the problem begins by starting with a wrong assumption, that in this fallen world there are innocent, good people.
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Permalink Reply by Mary O on
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Hi David, God bless!
I have the same hope in God that these men have, that he will raise both the righteous and the unrighteous. (Acts 24:15)
The King James calls it the just and the unjust and another version says the righteous and the wicked.
Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt. (Daniel 12:2)
Personal opinion, I think God will know who was exposed to Christianity and heard about Jesus and who did not. You can't reject something that you've never heard about.
But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? (Romans 10:14)
Love,
Mary
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Love back at you sis Mary. Thank you for sharing.
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I like these verses...
How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, "Your God reigns!" (Isaiah 52:7)
And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!" (Romans 10:15)
"Your God reigns!" I love that part.
Love,
Mary
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Permalink Reply by Colby on
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The Holy Scriptures assure us and I have no doubt that LORD our God is a perfectly just and righteous judge.
- For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. (Romans 1:19,20)
- For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time (1 Timothy 2:5,6).
- And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12).
- He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead (Acts 17:31).
- For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil (2 Corinthians 5:10).
- So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God (Romans 14:12).
- The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he (Deuteronomy 32:4).
- He will judge the world in righteousness; He will execute judgment for the peoples with equity (Psalm 9:8).
- For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. (Romans 1:19,20)
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