If God is just, how can he damn those who never hear his son's gospel?

Sumeria, Ancient Greece, Ancient India...the tribal people of Africa, and North and South America. Pretty much the majority of the ancient world are damned because God didn't incarnate until 0 AD?

And all those tribal people who never hear the gospel today?

How is that fair or just at all?

 

i don't think that people who have never heard the gospel will go to hell.

also for the people born before 0 AD i think it says the gospel would be preached to everyone in their graves.

john 5: 25

(john 5: 28-29 also)

 

If that's true, then shouldn't we forget about the gospel entirely and save everyone?

 

It's a good point that's being made. If Christ is the savior of all mankind, then why wasn't he the first man to exist, so that everyone in history would have some chance of salvation? A God that allows entire civilizations to come and pass, with none of the numbers of people living in those civilizations having even a slight chance of salvation, what kind of God is that?

Is everyone in Atlantis (assuming it existed) in hell? Are all neanderthals in hell?

 

god hates everyone, only jesus loves you

 

Sorry, but your suppositions re outcome are as silly as the question. God knows the ignorant, the wise, the wicked etc. All have a chance at salvation. The only people who are wiped out are those who choose it. Doesn't that make more sense, otherwise......it's rediculous! (You can ask more questions in the sanctuary. Christians get abused sooner or later in the public arena....Tis my experience)

 

How is this question silly? Most Christians believe all pagans are in hell, even those pagans born before Christ was. This seems unjust to me, and I am asking for a justification.

 

A serious question is rarely silly. But no, those peeps that are unaware of any choice do not burn because of it.

 

If you're speeding and the police stops you will you not get a ticket because you didn't know what the speed limit was?

Who said it had to be just and fair? Did anyone ask you before signing you up for this game?

 

Biblical God is indeed not always fair, and neither is the world. Although in this case the comparison is flawed. You get that ticket because your fellow men has made a rule, not God. And if they catch you speeding you are indeed guilty as charged

 

I think it's flawless. Your fellow men set up the speed limit. Your fellow men wrote the bible.

 

I agree 'hell' resonates human invention in every way but let's view it from the (most common) christian perspectives. Otherwise there seems no point in answering. We all know if you do not believe in Jesus and hell this will be a nonargument right

 

I'm still not sure if there is a god or not .... I guess I'll find out one day.

But religion .... that's a whole different ballgame. It's politics to me, pure and simple.

Maybe its a non-argument .... but that is my argument.

 

In my opinion you are making it more simple than it is. Yes, organized religion is a human invention as well. Which almost naturally gives it the potential to make it more complicated than any original message But even if 99% of religion would be abused in the sense you're referring to then still religion is not all politics. Seems plain and simple to me

 

Only those that deny the word of God are sent to hell. Those who have not heard Jesus's teachings haven't had a chance to deny it so they do not lose the love of Christ.

I'm not sure where this is discussed in the bible but it was a question I asked in bible study as a youth.

 

Uuhhmmm .... not sure I get what you're saying. Let me try and answer:

Maybe I'm oversimplifying this but that's for the sake of the argument. And I didn't want to write a book.

Maybe religion is not all politics. Those old texts are clearly open to interpretation so you can pretty much make your own garden variety. But it can (and it has been) potentially be wielded as a powerful weapon to control people.

 

It is and has been abused indeed but that does not make the religion itself invalid or wrong or immoral. It has been corrupted. That was indeed what I was saying: even if 99% of all organized religion is used to control people this does not take away from the original messages, purposes etc. it contains.

 

The Abrahamic god is anything but just.

 

did you not see my post about john 5? there was a time when all the dead in their graves heard the voice of Jesus.

and yea just because the most common forms of christianity say something that does not mean they are right. the bible shouldn't be thrown out because a bunch of men are corrupt. i don't agree with the most common forms of christianity, and i'd stand up on a pulpit infront of thousands of people and speak out against it any day of the week.

christianity is riddled with deception, prisons, double-prisons, and triple-prisons.

 

The problem is where do you make the cut between the original message and the interpretation. Stories that are being passed on orally and eventually put in writing have a huge potential of distortion.

If you wanted to reduce christian religion to the bare minimum you could probably say that what you need to do is be a good guy, not lie, steal, cheat and so on. All the rest is decoration.

And you don't need a thousand pages to explain that.