- Dec 29, 2012
- 14,062
- 7,683
- Country
- United States
- Gender
- Male
- Faith
- Christian
- Marital Status
- Engaged
Once again here as an old member, not Catholic, but was at one time, choosing to speak with one of the only communities I care for on this forum anymore. Catholic thoughts are right with me 99.9% of the time, ignoring some Francis issues, Germany issues, and liberal politician issues of course.
So here I am, unable to sleep, and the thought crossed my mind: what about the people who came after Jesus died but who never heard of him? And I'm not talking about the few remote island and forest peoples left in this world who haven't heard of him. I'm talking about places like England before the Anglo-Saxons were Christians, when they still believed in the old gods. Jesus hadn't been long dead and risen. I'm thinking about the people who never heard of him during the very time in which the most traveling and preaching the Good News was done, very early on in this period of time. The common thought is that the people already dead got a chance to accept Jesus when he descended into hell for 3 days. What about the few hundred years after that in most places (and sometimes much, much more time)? No Jesus to meet them in hell to give them the Good News. We can say "only God knows" and "God will judge" and all the typical stuff, but I'm really curious if we have any true ideas beyond that. And then I got to thinking about the people who went on mission trips across vast lands and seas to preach on the early days when the old gods were worshipped. Most of those people rejected Jesus for a long time. So they heard of him, heard the Good News, and rejected him. Now they're doomed to hell for something so weird and new to their culture that they just threw these guys out? So it's almost like these missionaries doomed people to hell for even going to these places because we could circle back to them not knowing at all and the "God only knows, he will judge, he is merciful" regurgitated lines. Idk I'm just fascinated by these thoughts at this hour. Surely there has to be something more logical here.
So here I am, unable to sleep, and the thought crossed my mind: what about the people who came after Jesus died but who never heard of him? And I'm not talking about the few remote island and forest peoples left in this world who haven't heard of him. I'm talking about places like England before the Anglo-Saxons were Christians, when they still believed in the old gods. Jesus hadn't been long dead and risen. I'm thinking about the people who never heard of him during the very time in which the most traveling and preaching the Good News was done, very early on in this period of time. The common thought is that the people already dead got a chance to accept Jesus when he descended into hell for 3 days. What about the few hundred years after that in most places (and sometimes much, much more time)? No Jesus to meet them in hell to give them the Good News. We can say "only God knows" and "God will judge" and all the typical stuff, but I'm really curious if we have any true ideas beyond that. And then I got to thinking about the people who went on mission trips across vast lands and seas to preach on the early days when the old gods were worshipped. Most of those people rejected Jesus for a long time. So they heard of him, heard the Good News, and rejected him. Now they're doomed to hell for something so weird and new to their culture that they just threw these guys out? So it's almost like these missionaries doomed people to hell for even going to these places because we could circle back to them not knowing at all and the "God only knows, he will judge, he is merciful" regurgitated lines. Idk I'm just fascinated by these thoughts at this hour. Surely there has to be something more logical here.
