I am a Christian and I am stuck

[qbit]

Mk 16:15-16: "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned."

A Christian should love his neighbour as himself; the ultimate example is Christ who laid down his life for us. It's my Christian Duty to spread this Good News to all the world.

God is very fair, initially a person from a Hindu country must have the same chance of going to heaven as a person from a Christian country. But once he hears and understands the message of Christ's gift he has to make a critical decision; reject it or accept it.

The probability that a person over a certain age accepts a new faith is very low. So in many cases we should not pass the Christian message on because the message could force a friend to make a critical decision that is likely to send him to Hell. His chances for Heaven are better if he does not know.

I love my neighbour, I want to save as many people as possible so I will not spread the Good News to the world. I would rather go to Hell myself then risk damning a friend by passing on information that is statistically likely to lead him to make a decision that will send him to Hell.

I should provide people with information, but the information is likely to hurt them and I don't want that because I love them!

If a person could have been saved by not hearing, such as a Hindu and hearing forces people to make a choice that is more likely to be the wrong choice, then hearing is bad for him.

I can stop people from hearing and it may help them. So I will sacrifice my own salvation because I love them!

Why did God give us a mind to think it limits my faith?

My problem is that there may be no truly self-sacrificing Christians in Heaven?

Is this true, I am stuck?

 

[thereselittleflower]

Ah

But there is something I think you are not realzing. It is not merely a response to the good news of the Gospel that is important. Even if you do not spread the good news, the person, once they attain the age of reason, is going to be judged based on the truth they know. Paul says all are without excuse. One cannot say at judgement that God cannot judge them because they never heard the Gospel. God is going to judge them anyway based on how true they wre to the truth they did know, and knowledge of God and His ways are revealed in creation itself.

So, if you withhold the good news from people who have never heard it, you are not going to prevent them from beign judged. In fact, you will probably make it more likely that they will be judged, for if they had heard the good news, they would have converted and understood.

You cannot play God, and to withhold the Good News from someone in an attempt to save them makes you do just that . . you are then the judge and jury of what they need to save their souls. Only God is.

And if you share the Good News with someone, and they reject it, you have either just planted a seed or watered one that was planted by someone else, and your failure to share the Good News may result in their judgement, because an opportunity to receive what they needed to make a decision for Chirst was denied them.

Only God knows all ends. We are mere mortals with no ability to see the end from the beginning.


We are called to be obedient to a loving God. Do you really think our loving God would have commanded us to do something that would result in peoples damnation if not doing it would have resulted in their salvation?


Be wary of the deceptions of the enemy. This is the kind of logic he likes to throw at us to mix us up.


The logic you are following would ultimately lead to infanticide, for if all people were killed while babies, then all would go to heaven . . Of course, this is wrong thinking . .


Peace in Him!

 

[ps139]

God is more merciful than we can imagine. We must trust in that. I believe everyone has an equal chance, as "God is no respecter of persons."

 

[Spotty]

qbit,

I fully understand your current situation as I was there not a long while back. When becoming Catholic I actually had a bit of a discussion with my former pastor about this - that is, the nature of the more open-ended notion of salvation which the Catholic Church has over my former evangelical denomination: Do we witness and bring the possibility of Hell, or do we abstain from witnessing and let fate carry out its own ends? At first, I thought this was the end all of the question, but rather found that the barriers I thought were there were actually not as solidified as previously thought.

Yes, what Theresa and ps139 say is right on! But let me add my 2 cents...

I, while not ever believeing (even in my evangelical days) that God would punish those who are ignorant of the Faith, nevertheless wrestled with the concept of ignorance and what it would mean if I witnessed to that person. "Therefore they now know the truth!" I thought, and now that the Truth has been exposed to them they cannot reject it and still achieve salvation. Why? Because, I believed, that "Jesus is the way and the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father expect through Him."

This is still true - He is the way the truth and the life. I used to interpret this very simply - we have to accept Christ as He is the way. However, I was mistaken: This does not mean that those who have not fully understood must "accept and follow" Jesus Christ, rather, this means that Jesus Christ is the only One who stands at the entrance to God's Kingdom and passes judgement which allows entry into the Father's presence. "No one comes to the Father save through Jesus," that is what that verse means. Christ alone passes judgement.

Spread the Gospel as best you can, but realize that most people don't fully understand the Gospel - even Christians! What if we spread Arianism, Monophystisim, or Gnosticism while attempting to spread the Faith? What constitutes as "witnessing" if witnessing can be imperfect? But don't let that trouble you - God will judge all men regardless of thier perfect or imperfect understanding.

God will judge, and that will be that. He is not concerned with the understanding of our intellect, only the desire to follow Truth and the willful fullfilment of those desires as we try to follow. This "Truth" is the Christian message, and if some remain ignornat of the specifics, God nonetheless gave the people of the world a conscience to understand Truth in their heart.

I don't think anyone has all of the answers, but rest assured that God will not d.amn someone simply because they reject a version of the Gospel. (Can you imagine a Nazi, who called themselves Christian, witnessing to a Jew - how would that Jew understand the Gospel?)

Witness, qbit, and witness with the full understanding that God is in control and He sent his apostles out into the world to spread the final revelation of Truth for the purpose of restoring the relationships which were present in Eden.

God Bless!

-Spotty

 

[qbit]

God will not force a person to go to Heaven if he chooses not to for some reason. Therefore our choice effects weather we go to heaven or not because we can choose not to. Is this not the same for every one? There choice effects weather they go to heaven because they can choose not to? God will not force us agaist our will. We choose by using our minds our minds analyse how we feel and the information we have. I feel responsible for how I influence others I would not leave a gun around if I think a person may use it.

Based on my influence they could find out about christ and then once they have found out they may choose to reject christ? Before they discover christ they didn't even know about Christ so they could not reject him which is better then rejecting him.

Not knowing about Christ is better for them then if they rejecting him!

1. Why did God give us free Choice

2. Why did God give us a Brain

 

[ps139]

1. Why did God give us free Choice

To answer this question, I like the saying "If you love something, let it go, if it comes back to you its yours."

2. Why did God give us a Brain

To be able to make that choice.

Love would not be true if we were not given the option to not love.

You should also remember that to reject Christ, on must truly know Him. During colonial days when missionaries were coming over on the same boats as soldiers, I do not think that the natives, for obvious reasons, got the real impression of Christ. Rejecting a false impression of Christ is not bad at all.

This is a tough question but I truly believe that God knows the inner workings of each man's mind, and will be completely merciful in judgement. There will be total charity and total justice.

 

[Ann M]

qbit,

Don't forget that it is not only through words that we witness but through our thoughts and our actions.

You used the Hindus in your opening text, and my best memory from when I studied India in high school was that of the caste system. Imagine growing up and knowing your are the worst of the worst and that you must be treated as less than the dirt on your masters shoes. You can never advance yourself in your life or associate outside of you caste.

Yet our religion teaches that the least that we do to our brother, we do to Him. So by treating everyone equally and loving all we show in greater than words, we show in actions that we love and respect everyone and believe that they are more than they could ever dream of being.

I cannot be converted to Islam through fear and terrorism but I can be loved into Christianity.