Bible Question:
Hello Sons and daughters of Christ, Question: What do you believe happenes to people who were never told of the Life, death and resurrection of Jesus? Do people who were never witnessed to (by humans) end up spending eternity in Hell? (I am a CHristian and I know the word very well and I have spent countless hours researching this very question. Please repond with thought out answers ONLY.) Grace to you! |
Bible Answer: Bob, My answer to your question is drawn from the parable of The Good Samaritan. Main characters: · A Levite and a Priest – both high ranking representatives of Judaism · Samaritan – from a community, which was considered, at the time, to be the equivalent of satanic religion (John 8:48). Basic Theme of the Parable The one closest to what God desires from man, the one who most exemplified Gods desire for mercy and compassion, was the person who was perceived as being the most distanced from God. This is the person who had no introduction to Scripture (Gospel). Summary 1. God is good 2. All that God creates is good, including man. 3. God did not create man with the intent of inflicting evil upon him. 4. God offers salvation to all men, none are excluded. 5. With God being good and all-knowing, God would not create a single man with the full knowledge that salvation for that man was never possible. That would be an act of evil. 6. God created man knowing that some men will not be exposed to the Gospel. Being a God of good, God must have a plan of salvation for those souls. 7. God has not revealed to man, His plan of salvation for the man who has not heard the Gospel. 8. The man who hears and rejects, the Gospel of Christ: through his own free will, is rejecting God and salvation. This lose of salvation is an act of man, not of God. 9. It is our sincere actions (as opposed to ‘good works’), which pleases and honors God, more than our knowledge of Gods Law 10. Rom 9:15 For He says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." 11. The truth of Romans 9:15, being from the Old Testament, was not changed in the New Testament. Conclusion: By the actions of the Samaritan, and Jesus’ subsequent approval of the Samaritan, we can conclude that even the Samaritan, can also be pleasing to God. Those who, through no fault of their own, have not been exposed to the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience - those too may achieve eternal salvation Brian |