Why do all unbelievers go to hell?

Praise God. Glad to hear it my friend.

 

xdisciplex -

Some of your questions are very thought provoking. I have seen some of the same kinds of questions on Atheist websites. (That is why I made the rude remark toward you earlier). None of these questions shake my faith, but some of them do bother me a bit. I don't think it is always wise to push these questions out of your mind. It is important to search for the answers. So don't let people make you feel bad. Keep asking. It looks like you get some pretty solid answers. :type:

 

Paul spoke of a boldness in Christ. We certainly all need to learn from this. How many times have we shrunk from sharing a scripture verse with someone for fear of offending them?

Praise the Lord for those who do name the name of Christ!

 

It is very important to understand that scripture does not address every question that we can come up with. Jesus was asked when his return would be and Jesus answered " It is not for you to know the day or the hour". These questions you ask are reasonable so long as you are willing to accept that it may not be possible to get the answer we are looking for.

Scripture does not answer the question about who does and does not get a chance to hear the Gospel. And where scripture is silent, so should we be. Our satisfaction on this matter should come from the knowledge of Gods' power to carry the Gospel to all of his creation, and his providence to work through language, and cultural barriers. He is able even if we do not understand how and when.

Earlier you expressed your feelings of uneasiness at the thought of one sin condemning us to hell. Our standard for what is right and for what is wrong is based on a skued perception because of our sinful nature. Do not rely on what you think about it or how you feel about it. But rely on the word of God. Trust in God even during moments that may not make sense. Have faith in him even when you do not understand.

Sin may seem less of an offence to us, but to a Holy and Righteous God it is so grievious that he cannot stand to be in its presence. What is small to us is very serious to God. Do not rely on your perception of sin. But have faith in Gods' righteous judgement.

 

Sorry everyone turns to questioning whether you are a question.

Much of the Church historically has not been kind to questioning, and they just think a questioner is a mocker or something (Luther told one who asked what God was doing before time "Preparing Hell for such a presumptioous soul as you" or something like that).
People assume everyone shoudl just "read the Bible and know what it says" or "just ask God" (as you addressed on that other thread), but that ends up being a cop-out, because all these people telling you that claim to have done it, and have widely differing doctrines. So I can well understand your questioning. I was there myself; when I came to Christ was faced with a plethora of groups including sabbathkeepers (both SDA and Armstrong), Church of Christ, fundamentalists, and politically active evangelicals. I got the same advice about "just read the Bible and pray"; the people assuming it would lead to their view, and I did, but instead came to some of my own conclusions, (and if it doesn't agree with the popular view; well, it was y'all who told me not to ask so much and just read for myself). I still search and question, with doctrines that seem to explain certain difficult texts such as preterism or Jump's "spirit/soul salvation".

Parts of the Bible are very hard to understand, because we are so far removed from its setting (middle East, 2000 years ago), and we are separated by all thopse centuies of the Church frowing, and then becoming big, corrupt, and political, and then just a cultural entity, and then Reformation, further splintering into denominations, sects, cults, etc, hostile world-hating separatism, and nominal modernism, and then much of the world turning away from the Church in revolt of all of those centuries of darkness, oppression, corruption, abuse, heavy-handedness, and the biggest thing of all, squelching questions! They too enter the confusion, by trying to highlight all these supposed "contradictions" in the bible, and then the whole evolution/creation debate, and we often do resort to bad tactics including bending facts or scriptures to match proof-texts just to win a debate and prove the other side is some attack against us and "the truth". So many have their minds made up as to what they believe the Bible says, and they can be totally unreasoanle about it, yet too much questioning makes them feel uneasy. I've been feeling a bit burned out arguing with some people here lately. It seems we all think we know everything, but don't.

Of course, the Catholics have been jumping on this lately, and they add their own scheme into the mix, that if we would have just remained in the mother Church and its tradition (regardless of what we think the Bible says) then we would not have this problem. But it is that body that started this ball rolling. It's amazing how everyone confronts xdisciple while Stan the Man posts volume after volume of Catholic propaganda on the board (which I thought was against the rules). He is definitely not an "honest questioner". He is not even discussing it with anyone, just dumping, leaving, and then returning to unload some more.

 

Good points.

 

Being asked if your a Christian is not an indictment against you and it is not shameful to do. No one was being unkind nor is it evident that anyone had those intentions. If we are asked it should be a joy to respond. Only pride would interfere with that.

Difficulties in understanding scripture does not come from being removed from the writers time and culture. We have way more information readily available to compensate for that. But difficulties do arise in understanding scripture because of who we are. The whole point in studying scripture is to get to know just who God is. And what is his mind on matters. The sinful creation working to understand who the Holy creator is.

I think we work to hard to get to know God. And some put no effort in it at all. But the key to seeking God is not work but waiting.

Scripture, prayer, fasting, and waiting on his response is the only way to get real answers. Today in our microwave culture we want it our way and we want it when we want it. The thing I believe we are worst at is waiting.

We cannot work our way into knowing God, he has to reveal it to us. This is not a suggestion to do nothing. For we must read his word, pray, fast, and then we must do the thing we hate most. Wait! The Holy Ghost is our teacher, comforter, and guide. We cannot understand scripture without him.

Scripture, Prayer, Fasting, and Waiting.:thumbs:

 

You might want to look at this

 

Yeah, but we are not routinely asking each other if we are Christians. The context under which it was done was almost interrogatory at times. Like "what's wrong with you having all these questions?", mixed with some genuine concern. I can understand him being reluctant to answer, because I was that way as well. Coming from unbelief, the word "christian" had some bad connotations. I don;t know if that is xdisciple's background. On top of that; I noticed the word is only used in the Bible 3 times, two of them as what other people called the followers of Jesus, in slight derision. (and even the third use may be such, in its context). Plus, with so many doubts and questions, it was kind of uneasy saying "I am a Christian" with conviction (especially with people saying that people ready to condemn any doubts or questions!)

Yeah, we have many more interpretations, to make it all confusing. Like in the debates with the Catholists (both RCC and EOC), and the issue is who knows what the purest form of NT Christianity is, Catholic tradition handed down or "our 16th century views". We insist the tradition had gotten corrupted along the way, and they appeal to the ECF's. And it just goes around in circles. And then the debates as to why the NT promised some "coming" of Christ in their lifetimes, yet this got extended up to the present and still counting. And the CoCer's points of why baptism was so connected with salvation on the NT. We have our answers, but at some points some of them do seem to be weak. and then the passages that appear to support losing salvation. We are evenly divided on that.
Made me wish we could bring back someone from the first century, or go back in a time machine ourselves.

True, but that makes people all the more confused.

So what does that mean? If you just read, pray, fast and wait long enough, then eventually it will all just come to you? Even though I can testify of that for myself; still, if that were absolutely true, we would have a lot less doctrinal confusion. then it gets down to "others are reading their biases into it; I have just taken it for what it says".
OR, "we all agree on the essentials". Even that, as nice of a goal/principle as it is, is a bit of an exaggeration in practice. The debates between Calvinist and Arminians, Lawkeepers and "faith only/OSAS" do cross over into essential realm. (Gee; I sound just like aspiring EOC catechumen Doubting Thomas now. But his concern is right, and it is highly unfortunate, though some magisterium that is just as much apart of the confusion, and in fact helped start it is not the answer). We often use strong denunciations of "other gospels" or something to that effect towards each other, but then waive that with "I still accept you as saved anyway".
Still, even if you "just ignore all of that and focus on knowing God only" (something else I used to get often); the fact that all these questions stem from Bible passages; you would have to skip or gloss over large chunks of the Bible to ignore all those issues. You would end up reading only little snippets here and there, and that is the type of thing that has led to a lot of error and confusion in the first place.

So we talk about "patience" here; I think we should be more patient with questioners like this. All of this stuff can be very difficult.