Why now??!!

[xr022kbKr02h]

Earth has been created by God for a very long long time...a few millions of years. Yet, why do God only send Jesus to spread christianlity only 2000 years ago (i dun know the exact, but i think should be arond 2000 years ago...), why not earlier?
And, why in some parts of the world, there is totally no messager from God? (like China, India...)

And, is one day on Earth equal to one day in Heaven???

 

[Rafael]

Look at how the earth has been populated and how many years man has been on earth. The continent of North America was sparsley populated just 200 years ago, yet man persists in telling us how apes are men, etc. and that the race of man is millions of years old. Not so, but more like the 5 to 6 thousand years depicted in the Bible.

The message has gotten to you to consider, and the idea of God is not foreign, as all men know that God exists in their conscience. God chose one way and one people to reveal Himself to man, and to study their history is to know the nature of sinful man. The Bible is not just a good book of fables and axioms, but a book full of blood from beginning to end wtih no hiding of mans mistakes, (sin) and the price required to be rescued from the curse of death. For those that have not heard, perhaps God has His own means of reaching those passed on because of His power over life, time, and eternity. Either way He is just, Holy, and love by nature to those that love Him.

In heaven, there is no time. Eternity is now, no future and no past. It may have as part of its properties the speed of light or thought. God sees the beginning to end at the same moment we experience because He stands outside of its dimension and rules over it.

 

[BarbB]

And, why in some parts of the world, there is totally no messager from God? (like China, India...)

Good questions!

There are literally hundreds of missionaries in both China and India. Christianity is legally and physically persecuted in both countries. And yet, it is estimated that approximately 10% of China's population is legally or secretly Christian. I have never heard the numbers about India, but since the church is more and more persecuted there I have to assume that there has been some success. I know that many of the Indian people who come to the USA for work have converted to Christianity!

Also, with access to the internet today, not many people have not ever heard about Jesus and God! I know that various Bible societies are attempting to translate at least the Gospel of John into every language on earth, even those without any alphabet!

 

[Serapha]

Earth has been created by God for a very long long time...a few millions of years. Yet, why do God only send Jesus to spread christianlity only 2000 years ago (i dun know the exact, but i think should be arond 2000 years ago...), why not earlier?
And, why in some parts of the world, there is totally no messager from God? (like China, India...)

And, is one day on Earth equal to one day in Heaven???

Hi there!



Every person who has ever lived has met God in their human walk in some form. For some, it has been through the presentation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, for others, it has been by knowing the One, True God of the Jewish nation. For those who either have not seen God through Christianity or through Judaism, they have seen God through His invisible qualities.



"And, is one day on Earth equal to one day in Heaven???"

Sometimes, but not always. Our references in communications with God give a context of how the text would be interpreted. There are times when a day with God equals a thousand years, and other times, the day is literal.


With God, all time is present. He see the past right now, the present right now, and the future right now. "Time" was instituted with the creation of earth by the use of the sun, moon, and stars, and the rotation of the planet. This world, and time, was created for man's way of living, not God's way.

For God's way is eternal, day without end.


~serapha~

 

[Svt4Him]

Earth has been created by God for a very long long time...a few millions of years. Yet, why do God only send Jesus to spread christianlity only 2000 years ago (i dun know the exact, but i think should be arond 2000 years ago...), why not earlier?
And, why in some parts of the world, there is totally no messager from God? (like China, India...)

And, is one day on Earth equal to one day in Heaven???

Noone in China, India...? Are you sure, as some of my friends are there now, so they'd be surprised to hear they are not.

And why did God choose to come 2000 years ago? I have no idea. It was His plan, it was His timing.

 

[Dagna]

I have the same questions as the OP. I mean, the Native Americans never heard of this one true God until Christians came over. And the Celts, they had their multiple gods, why didn't god go to them and show them that they were wrong and there was only one God and he was it. Reading the Bible, it only shows that God spoke with people in the middle east area...it doesn't say anything about the other cultures in existence. Did God just figure that someone would tell them eventually? Or did he just not care enough to tell them himself?

 

[BarbB]

I have the same questions as the OP. I mean, the Native Americans never heard of this one true God until Christians came over. And the Celts, they had their multiple gods, why didn't god go to them and show them that they were wrong and there was only one God and he was it. Reading the Bible, it only shows that God spoke with people in the middle east area...it doesn't say anything about the other cultures in existence. Did God just figure that someone would tell them eventually? Or did he just not care enough to tell them himself?

Basically because God chose to make himself known through his chosen people, the Jews! God's timetable will probably allow all people to have heard about him and Jesus before the end!

 

[Dagna]

Oh...k. So what happened to all the pagan, idolatrous, polytheistic worshippers when they died? Did they still go to heaven? I would imagine so seeing as how it wasn't exactly their fault that they hadn't heard about God yet, but I'm just curious.

 

[Rafael]

Oh...k. So what happened to all the pagan, idolatrous, polytheistic worshippers when they died? Did they still go to heaven? I would imagine so seeing as how it wasn't exactly their fault that they hadn't heard about God yet, but I'm just curious.

Don't imagine so. Let God handle the judgment and how to handle people from outside of our time. We think and live in a linear time stream, but God does not. The past and future are at His to command. He knows the hearts of His creation, and is well able to judge according to what has been given. Because we do not see as He does, it is best to trust His word about Himself on justice, mercy and love.

Luke 12:48 For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.

 

[xr022kbKr02h]

Basically because God chose to make himself known through his chosen people, the Jews! God's timetable will probably allow all people to have heard about him and Jesus before the end!

Does'nt that sound kind of bias? I mean...the people are 'choosen' because of the race the were born in!!!

 

[Svt4Him]

Those without the law are judged as not having the law.

 

[BarbB]

Does'nt that sound kind of bias? I mean...the people are 'choosen' because of the race the were born in!!!

Other way around - God chose Abraham and out of him, Isaac and Jacob made the chosen people!

 

[Rafael]

Does'nt that sound kind of bias? I mean...the people are 'choosen' because of the race the were born in!!!

Are you biased when you change your mind about something you have worked on and created for yourself. Biased against yourself? God created us knowing from beginning to end those who would serve Him before they were even born. Ruixiangz, it sounds to me that you have heard the call, and God knew before you were born and still in your mother's womb, that you would hear and be drawn to the truth. God cannot be unjust, and only becomes unjust in our imaginations that are limited to the perceptions of time and death. He can free us from these limited perceptions if we answer the call and start to believe on His Word by faith.

Psalms 22:10 I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou art my God from my mother’s belly.

Psalms 139:13 For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb.

Ecclesiastes 11:5 As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all.

Isaiah 44:24 Thus saith the LORD, thy redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb, I am the LORD that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself;

 

[SamIAm2]

When you asked if a day in heaven is like a day on earth, there's a verse somewhere in the bible, I don't remember exactly what reference, but it says something about a thousand days on earth being like a day in God's time.

 

[chilehed]

...why do God only send Jesus to spread christianlity only 2000 years ago....And, why in some parts of the world, there is totally no messager from God?...And, is one day on Earth equal to one day in Heaven???

As soon as Man first disobeyed God and fell out of the perfect relationship with him, God began to prepare a race of people (the Jews) through which He would redeem the world. At the proper time, He came in the person of Jesus.

Jesus established a Church, and gave it the assignment to go all over the world to spread the message. It took a while, but there are few places where someone from His Church has never been.

How time is experienced in heaven is unclear to me. It may be that when we go to heaven, we will experience time in the same way we do now, but make much better use of it (this is just my own thought, I don't know). But God's nature is that He does not experience time at all. For there to be "time", something must be changing (like the stars move, or I have a train of different thoughts). God does not change at all. He never grows, or learns anything: it is His nature to have all knowledge and all power and all existance and all action and all being. Indeed, He is Being itself. So to God one day, one thousand years, one microsecond, or a billion eons are all the same.

Oh...k. So what happened to all the pagan, idolatrous, polytheistic worshippers when they died? Did they still go to heaven? I would imagine so seeing as how it wasn't exactly their fault that they hadn't heard about God yet, but I'm just curious.

My understanding of this has changed since I became a Catholic. The Church affirms that we attain salvation only through Jesus. The Church also teaches that God, who wills that all will come to salvation, graces everyone at some point with an opportunity to either accept or reject Him. Here's a quote from the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

"Outside the Church there is no salvation"
846 How are we to understand this affirmation, often repeated by the Church Fathers?335 Re-formulated positively, it means that all salvation comes from Christ the Head through the Church which is his Body:

• Basing itself on Scripture and Tradition, the Council teaches that the Church, a pilgrim now on earth, is necessary for salvation: the one Christ is the mediator and the way of salvation; he is present to us in his body which is the Church. He himself explicitly asserted the necessity of faith and Baptism, and thereby affirmed at the same time the necessity of the Church which men enter through Baptism as through a door. Hence they could not be saved who, knowing that the Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God through Christ, would refuse either to enter it or to remain in it.336

847 This affirmation is not aimed at those who, through no fault of their own, do not know Christ and his Church:

• Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know 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.337

848 "Although in ways known to himself God can lead those who, through no fault of their own, are ignorant of the Gospel, to that faith without which it is impossible to please him, the Church still has the obligation and also the sacred right to evangelize all men."338

I take this to mean that if someone is totally unaware of the Gospel, or perhaps is invincibly ignorant of it (for no fault of his own), he may be saved(that's may be, not will be) if he dies in a state of grace. On the other hand, if someone has good reason to believe that Jesus is the Messiah or that the Catholic Church is His Church, and refuses to act in accordance with that, then that person is rejecting God.


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