A questions for Christians or from a Christian POV, please?

Question

If a person has never been taught about Christ, do you think that he will be convicted on judgement day of not having a belief in Christ or do you think that he will be judged based on what knowledge was given to him and how he lived his life based on this knowledge?

If so, (or not so), can you give a verse/verse in the Bible to supports your belief?

Pastor Art,

I also base my belief regarding this issue on Romans 1 and also on Romans 3. I’m probably going to be teaching a Sunday School class on the book this Fall.

I understand Romans 1:19-21 to say that we will be judged on what we know. What has things have been made known to us (our inner self) through nature and I see Romans 3:14-16 as saying that those who do not know about God will also be judge by fulfilling the convictions they have bwo of their conscience.

Answer 1

Check out Romans 2. Especially verses 12-16. I think that will answer your question. I think (my opinion, I am not a Bible expert,) that you are right about being judged on what you know. But I also think that ignoring something doesn't make you innocent. When we have the truth, or access to it, we are responsible to find out all we can.

Answer 2

Creation itself is enough to justify God existence and thus man can be held accountable. Every man naturally knows right from wrong. We have a conscience. Conscience means with knowledge. It doesn't matter where we are on planet earth whether it's some big modern city or a small tribe of cannibals in Timbuktu who've never even seen a book much less a missionary. Creation is enough to justify God and damn unrepentant sinners to hell for eternity. Telling God I didn't know won't be an excuse.

We know it's wrong when we break the Ten Commandments. (Ex. 20) This applies to ALL HUMANITY!

Who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them. Rom. 2:15

For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. Rom. 1:20

Good luck with teaching sunday school! You'll be teaching kids God's word. That'll be awesome. (2 Tim. 3:16-17, Ex. 20, Ps. 19:7, Matt. 5:27-28, 1 John. 3:15, Heb. 9:27, acts 17:31, James 2:10, rev 21:8, mark 1:15, Luke 13:3, john 3:3, Psalm 51.

**atheists

I'm amazed. I know you'll acknowledge the Ten Commandments and admit to breaking them but yet you deny the Lawgiver! What hypocrisy! The Bible has a word for this. It's Fool!

The fool has said in his heart,
“There is no God.”
They are corrupt,
They have done abominable works,
There is none who does good. Psalm 14:1

Answer 3

Sandy:
I'll supply you with 3 answers:
1) The "Christian" Legalist: This person says, "You will have to be following a ritualistic set of "dos & don'ts" or you will be cast into hell and burn forever".
2) The Liberal Christian will say, "since you are saved by grace, you are not responsible to God for your actions and can do whatever, comes into your mind, as sin is o.k. " !
3) The real Christian will tell you, "You are in a spiritual relationship with God, the Father, and He loves you unconditionally (in spite of your sins) and you love God so much, that you WANT to make this world a better place to live in by loving God and loving neighbour. (No strings attached !) Therefore, to be a "Christian" means, that you can only have that relationship based in GRACE with God, the Father, made possible only when you come to Him through Jesus Christ, via the Holy Spirit ... see: John chapter 10, verse 9 . Hope this puts things into perspective for you - good luck !

Answer 4

The person will not be convicted for not believing in Jesus. He will also be convicted for lying, lust, stealing, idolarty, etc., etc., --each and every sin he committed.
Everyone is guilty of sin-- even the smallest of sin. Romans 3:20-- "There is none righteous, no, not one."
Also, Romans 1:18-32 details God's judgement on sin.
Romans 6:28 is a more condensed version: "The wages of sin is death."

From the Christian POV, accepting Jesus as your Savior and asking for forgiveness erases your sins off the record. Yes, you still sin, and on a human level, you aren't any different from anyone else. But in God's eyes, you have been forgiven and cleansed. None of us deserve this gift, but God gives it to anyone who is willing to take it.

Hope this helped. God bless! :-)

Answer 5

Not quite a christian idea, not the Jews has a concept of a "righteous gentile"... the same logic can be applied... and is in fact reinforced ... "when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves" - romans 2:14

Answer 6

Romans Chapters 1 and 2 deal with this question. Those who have been given the direct revelation of God, ie the law of moses or the gospel of Christ will be judged based on that. those who were not given the law have the law "written on thier hearts". they will be judged according to the basic knowledge of wrong and right that all humans have. We all sin, we fall short of God's law and we sin against our own inherant understanding of morality. Either way we are condemmed apart from Christ.

Answer 7

In the bible it talked about the gentile following their inner code of morality and they did the best they knew how. The Jews had all the laws and yet did the rituals for mans approval and their glorious position in public and not for God. The gentile pleased God more for they followed what they knew by what was written on their heart. They did things out of love for the lord their God.

It is what they know and where given. God strengthens whom He chooses and has mercy on whom He chooses. God knows the measure of all men and judges fairly to each individual.

All people will testify that their judgment was fair and just. No one will be able to say God was unjust or wrong. Man condemns himself by choices man makes to not follow God's ways.

Answer 8

If God has preserved his words in English (and he has), and it is commonly available where you live (if you're in America, it is), and you can read fourth grade English (evidently you can), then God reserves the right to hold you accountable to read his words.

Concerning those who have never heard, we have a problem. If we look at past judgments recorded in scripture, we can make these observations:

Anybody who was not on board the ark drowned in the flood, regardless of their knowledge.

The judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah was absolute. Only Lot and his two girls were spared, and then only because they ran for their lives and didn't look back.

When God's judgment was full against those who occupied the Promised Land his orders were to kill every man, woman, and child. In fact, they got in trouble when they didn't annihilate like they were told to.

Based on past experience, I think the answer to your question is, too bad, so sad. Blame the Christians who didn't do the very best they could to get you out of that burning house.

Answer 9

I mention some verses on the issue of awareness and accountability at http://www.bcbsr.com/topics/degrees.html

Answer 10

Read Romans chapter one, then get back to me and tell me what you think.

And yes you need to read the whole chapter. This is not an issue settled in a single verse.

Pastor Art