If you'd never in your life heard of God would you still go to hell?

Question

If not then arnt you potentially damning people by spreading the word?

ME: That's my point exactly. If everyone just shut up we'd all be saved.

i.need.a.life: I dont believe in God at all anymore so the question really doesnt apply to me. Save for the fact that it's the kind of frustrating quandary that made me start doubting Christianity in the first place.

oneicychick: I'm a total sucker for John Lennon lyrics. You could also apply "All I want is the truth"

Answer 1

No. We are judged by how much we have information around us.

I am afraid that is not how God wants to do His business. Whey would you want to miss out on a personal realtionship with your Creator? I do not love Him only because He will save me. Life with God can start here and it is great.

Answer 2

If you'd never heard of Him, I find it hard to believe that He'd send you to hell to be separated from Him forever. Why create you in the first place, then, just to be separated from Him?

This is the God who sent His own Son as a sacrifice for people who didn't know Him or love Him because He loved them too much to damn them to separation from Himself. How could this same God annihilate people just because the right evangelist didn't make it to them? I can't see it. I don't know how it will come about but I imagine there is some decision point where you do have a real choice to make (by 'real choice' I mean an informed one).

Hell is separation from God. Not a punishment for not believing. I heard a saying "Sin doesn't make you bad, it makes you dead". You go to heaven NOT because you've been good enough and earned enough brownie points, but because you believe in God and you love Him. Period. You can't save yourself.

Answer 3

No, I don't believe that you would go to Hell because whenever Jesus is teaching he says "He who has ears, let him hear what the Son of God says." If you have not heard, then you are not held responsible for not knowing.
Your second question is a very good one, one that I have often thought about myself. We spread the word because the Word of God commands that we do, and because it says that Jesus will nto return until the gospel has been spread to the four corners of the earth (literally the entire earth).

Answer 4

Your 2 questions prompted a lot of reading for me, so I'll try to condense this.

a.People will be judged on what they know.

There is a great article here:
http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=00BbcI
Basically, we are judged by what we know. Those who do not hear the message will be given another oportunity to accept the gospel of Jesus Christ.

"He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples with equity. (Ps 98.9)"

b.If you profess belief in Christ, then it is your duty to spread the gospel of Christ and the love of Christ to all people. The people that do not hear the word will exercise the same choices in the afterlife that they would've in this life, so your intervention doesn't damn anyone. Their decisions and lifestyles after hearing of the covenants we live under are what define them as children of God and followers of Christ.

Answer 5

Jesus says they are a law unto themselves and they would have God's laws written on their hearts and they would be judged accordingly. So he judges them individually and doesn't go by the rules with them. He is a just God.

There is a thing called culpable ignorance though and that is where someone has the chance to learn about Jesus and refuses to learn---then their ignorance is to their shame because they have rejected the knowledge of eternal life

Answer 6

That's why you can go to Hell if you haven't heard of God. But, one doesn't go to Hell because one didn't believe in God. One goes to Hell because they've sinned. That's why they need to hear about God, why we shouldn't be quiet and why we should spread the word. Those who truly seek will find God. If one truly seeks God, God will continually reveal Himself to them. There's talk about people who have never heard of Jesus; God comes to them in dreams and they are saved. Some people sought God all their life and when a missionary talks about Jesus, they realize that He's the one they've been looking for all their life. God works in many ways to save people. But, they will go to Hell if they haven't repented of their sins and put their faith in Jesus.

What kind of logic would God have by saving people through them not hearing about Jesus? It makes no sense.

Answer 7

The Catholic Church teaches a concept known as "baptism of desire" -- it basically means that people who have never had an opportunity to hear of Christ may still possibly make it to Heaven, provided that they've made a sincere effort to find God and live a reasonably Christ-like life.

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Answer 8

Excellent question. I think you're right. A truly compassionate God wouldn't hold responsible those who never heard of Christianity.

As to your second point, I think you're onto something. Many Christians seem almost giddy with excitement as they threaten the non-believers with eternal damnation.

Answer 9

Catholics believe that once you hear about Jesus and know what he's all about you are bound to believe. If you believe, you go to heaven.

If you've never heard about him, and if you live a life of love like Jesus did, you will be dealt with by a merciful God. In the end it's all about LOVE.

Answer 10

I believe God has the final say-so on where a person spends eternity. He gives us a choice - believe in His Son Jesus Christ and His atonement made for our sins, or reject it. God is fair, He doesn't force anyone to believe or reject the truth.