Heaven and exclusivity?

Question

I get the whole "Accept Jesus as your savior, go to heaven thing." But what about people who don't have TIME to do that? LIke babies? They die at birth - they obviously have no idea who jesus is, so they go to hell? or what about people in like....some country that i've never heard of. They have no outside communication with the world. All the know is what they have. They may have never even heard to Jesus, or God. They may worship some animal or whatever. If they don't know about Jesus, how can they accept him? Is heaven really so exclusive? And why would something such as a religious belief (different from Christian) keep someone from going to heaven if they have lived thier life without sin?

Answer 1

Good people do not go to hell. Innocents, like unbaptized babies do not go to hell. God would not hold it against anyone for not accepting Jesus as their savior if they had never been exposed to his teachings and knew nothing about him. If you really think that God is that cruel and unjust, then why be Christian. I do not think that Jews go to hell, or Buddhists, or Muslims...just because they are not Christian. If they are good people and they don't do anything to hurt others they get to go to heaven.

I believe that there are many roads to God. It doesn't really matter which one you take...as long as you take one, and stick with it, you will eventually arrive at your destination.

Answer 2

We don't know what will happen to all the babies that die before they can accept Jesus, but I believe there will be babies in Heaven. The Bible talks about people "growing up" in Heaven (Malachi 4:2) Baptizing a baby doesn't do any good because the requirement is that you "believe" and be baptized (Mark 16:16). Can a baby believe in Jesus and give his heart? I don't think a newborn has that kind of mental capacity yet.

I believe that Jesus knows our hearts (He knows everything, right?). He knows the hearts of those who never get a chance to hear about Him and He knows what decision they would make if they did hear about Him.

The Bible teaches that everyone sins (Romans 3:23). The Christian's job is to spread the word about Jesus to everyone on the planet so that they can make and informed decision.

Jesus said that He is the only way to have eternal life (John 14:6; John 3:16; John 17:3). I can't call myself a Christian if I don't believe what He says.

Answer 3

Well, I'm not God, so I can't say for 100% sure, but I personally believe the following.
Babies do not go to hell. They are incapable of grasping the concepts necessary for accepting Jesus, they haven't yet reached the "age of accountability."
As for people who never had the opportunity to hear the Gospel, the Bible says that nature declares His glory. God has ingrained the truth on our hearts so one can be a Christian without ever hearing the name of Christ. It is admittedly harder, though. This is why missionaries are so important.
If someone had lived their life completely free of sin, they could go to Heaven, Christian or not. However, it is not possible to live a perfect life which is why we need Jesus in the first place. So yes, Heaven is really that exclusive.

I hope that helps.

Answer 4

THIS IS LONG BUT PLEASE READ You have to be careful to who you are listening too. An earlier entry quotes Jesus as saying "the only way is through me," while he did say this people take this completely out of context. If you really study the Bible you see a more prevalent theme. The Bible also says that it is God's will that no one perishes. People have a mistaken identity of God and they think he is a mean God just waiting to send people to hell. With just minor studying or even asking someone who has a personal relationship with God you see that God is not out to be mean he loves people and wants them to come to heaven. I believe that babies do go to heaven as they have not had adequate chance. The question of people in other countries goes into deeper theological issues that i can not answer but that any pastor would be happy to talk to you about. Bottom line is Jesus loves everyone and does not want anyone to perish. I know that for a fact.

Answer 5

I'm a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (aka "Mormon"). We teach that Heaven is somewhat exclusive- there are things we each have to do to enter, but God is eager to help us find the way. The New Testament says that there is only one (Strait is the gate and narrow is the way...). He'd love to have each and every one of us be there with him and Jesus.

We teach that those under the age of acountability, 8 yrs old (which includes babies) who die, are taken to heaven- they are innocent and without blemish in the sight of God. (In order to "sin", we must know the "law" and willingly act against it- little children typically don't know the law, or at least they don't understand).

As for those who have never heard of Jesus, or never had a chance to accept Him... We have over 100 temples all over the world where we can perform baptisms for the dead (not OF the dead). I can do my genealogy and find names of people who were never baptized and submit their names (there is a whole process here...). Once the names are OK'd, living people can be baptized "for and in behalf of" each of these names (people who are dead).

In case you're concerned, we also teach that this proxy baptism is merely an option for those who are dead- They aren't forced to accept it- it is simply made available to them.

This way, everyone has the opportunity to enter heaven (if that is their choice).

We teach that God is loving and merciful. He will judge each of us according to what we knew in this life. A pre-christianity Chinese will NOT be judged by Christian standards- he/she will be judged according to how well he/she lived by the religion and culture taught.

Answer 6

In my religion, we don't baptize babies. They haven't sinned and don't need the saving power of baptism. They go to heaven because they won't get a chance to accept Christ until the second coming. Other christian faiths believe that because of Adam's sin, that all of us are cursed before birth, we are sinners before we are even born. I don't believe that. There is nothing as innocent or spiritual as a little baby straight from our Father in Heaven. They have no sin, no ability to know sin. Sin is only sin when we know we have sinned. Adam was absolved of his transgression (note the difference in words I used- transgression rather then sin) when Christ went through the atonement, Crucifixion and Resurrection. Adam's sin is no more.

As far as people who don't have to opportunity to learn about Christ, they will go to heaven and have a chance to learn about Him and about God and accept this knowledge. I think that as long as you live your religion, no matter what your religion is, you will be in heaven. Just because you didn't get a chance in life to learn about Christ, doesn't mean you are automatically condemned to hell.

None of us are without sin, hence the atonement and Crucifixion was for us. Because of the Resurrection, all of us will live again, no matter what we did in this life. We will all be judged by the people that we are and the intent we had when we were alive.

I don't think that you can accept Christ right before you die and get into heaven, you have to work on it and live your religion to the best of your ability, after that, the atonement takes over.

Answer 7

Well you're only going from one religion's point of view. Most religions believe in an afterlife, a creator, and feeling love/brotherhood is important. Technically, going from my old catechism stuff, once babies are baptized, they are given a free ticket to heaven until the "age of reason," which is around 7 or so. After that, their place in the afterlife reflects the choices they made.

Speaking from a Buddhist point of view, it doesn't really matter what age you are when you die; you are still reborn.

From a Taoist point of view, you still return to the source (i.e. the Great Tao, or the overarching theme of nature) regardless of age.

So yeah, not everything should be seen through the view of only one religion.

Answer 8

No one goes to Hell unless they commit murder or deny God. Even babies that die at birth go to heaven, they didn't have a chance to learn of Jesus, God won't punish them for that. People from other countries will get their chance to learn of Jesus and God. And as long as they don't deny it or murder someone they'll be perfectly fine. Hope this helps.

Answer 9

i've asked that question a few times and the answer to it, is, babies don't get the chance, but those who aren't exposed to god are "excluded" dont' ask me why, i haven't a clue, but its for the fact or those who are exposed and those who can or may try to accept him will go to heaven, i'm just puttin in some knowledge that people have given me, i'm not so sure because no one has been to heaven and come back to tell us ya know.

Answer 10

I like your thinking.

My take is this. Heaven is for good people. Period.

I believe in God, and I don't believe that anyone has a monopoly on heaven.

Anyone saying otherwise is trying to bully you into doing something or is insecure.