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Oh my gosh, too funny. My husband would become an uncomfortably close friend if he heard you say those things. (I call him Nerd Squared because he plays Lord of the Rings WHILE watching Lord of the Rings. It's sad, really.)
And you know, come to think of it, if you've ever read the Silmarillion...or however that's spelled...very "Biblical." And just as unrealistic. (Sorry, I had to say it...)
Oh my gosh, too funny. My husband would become an uncomfortably close friend if he heard you say those things. (I call him Nerd Squared because he plays Lord of the Rings WHILE watching Lord of the Rings. It's sad, really.)
And you know, come to think of it, if you've ever read the Silmarillion...or however that's spelled...very "Biblical." And just as unrealistic. (Sorry, I had to say it...)
JerZ, you've inspired a thought. I'm gunna start a new thread right now. Thanks for the idea!
Please stick to the context of the discussion. I was talking about whether God has some method of saving people beyond our sphere of contact, like American Indians prior to 1492. Your library card does not provide an answer to that question and neither does scripture because we don't need to know.
Not really. The majority of people in the world aren't Christians, even all these centuries later. And they are still, by and large, geographically restricted in bulk.
Scripture tells us that the majority will not become Christian. Christianity is expected to be a minority. I suspect there are more Christians in China than in the US.
Is that what scripture teaches though? That lying is not a sin, sometimes? When is it not? I don't recall the 10 commandments coming with exceptions...
Rahab was an exception. The Hebrew midwives who lied to the Pharaoh were exceptions. It was an exception when God instructed Moses to lie to that same Pharaoh. It was an exception when Jesus traveled to Jerusalem in disguise.
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It is painfully evident that the Bible is an ineffective means of communicating what God wants, if it is "inspired". Thousands of denominations that cannot agree what it means, no one able to provide a definitive answer, and that is not even counting the other religions that use parts or all of it like Judaism, Islam, the Sabeans, the Bahai, the Rastafarians, and so on...
Wait, how do you know precisely what God wants? You can't even say what sales goals Kia has for the Soul and whether they've reached them...how do you know what God's goals are?
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It isn't that I claim to know more than God ( I do but that is because I don't think fiction is capable of cognition...), but based on the claims of Christians about how loving and benevolent God is, but then seeing that those who do not follow him correctly will burn in hell, you would think he could have been a bit more clear... Making your eternity depend on sorting out a puzzle that has no clear answer correctly seems a bit sadistic...
-NoCapo
People fight over non-essential issues, like method of baptism. Things like that are trifles that don't actually matter. It doesn't depend on sorting out a puzzle. It's actually pretty simple. Not easy, but not complicated.
Please stick to the context of the discussion. I was talking about whether God has some method of saving people beyond our sphere of contact, like American Indians prior to 1492. Your library card does not provide an answer to that question and neither does scripture because we don't need to know.
Sure it does: …13for it is not the hearers of the Law who are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified. 14For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, 15in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them,…Romans 2
Sure it does: …13for it is not the hearers of the Law who are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified. 14For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, 15in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them,…Romans 2
Back in post 20 I said:
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So we can't speak definitively whether those we haven't spoken to can be saved or not. There is tantalizing scriptural evidence that God does not destroy the ignorant, and that even those we have not spoken to have sufficient information about God to seek Him and perhaps find Him.
And I'd add the fact that God is biased toward salvation:
The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. -- 2 Peter
Given His bias, it seems unlikely that He'd allow any to be lost just because Christians fumbled the ball. I fail my task so someone else goes to hell? I doubt it--that would make me sovereign over someone else's salvation.
Though, come to think of it, there is a certain segment of the population living their lives with their brains switched off. When I'm at the library I reach around them with a polite, "Excuse me" and get the big, thick book (unabridged version) called, "1,000 Things You Need To Know If You're Not Living In A Cave".
Last edited by DewDropInn; 04-11-2014 at 08:51 PM..
All you're basically saying is that if you were God you'd have done things differently.
I think anyone would.
And your business might be working fine as far as it goes, but like I said, I doubt your business is global. God wanted everyone everywhere to worship him - and sending a few guys into the hinterlands with camels and a bag of Bibles (or whatever they had) was about as efficient as a Rube-Goldberg machine.
Even today with all of the communication abilities at our fingertips, only 1/3rd of the world is Christian, so it seems like God really missed the boat on this one. Now perhaps if there had been a Jesus-figure in each of the great civilizations or even one per continent, things might have worked out differently.
Oh yeah, and cursing everyone to speak a different language due to the Tower of Babel incident wasn't exactly top-notch thinking by an infinitely wise being. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot.
Oh yeah, and cursing everyone to speak a different language due to the Tower of Babel incident wasn't exactly top-notch thinking by an infinitely wise being. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot.
True.
He should have bounced the idea off Jesus and the Holy Spirit first. They might have voted it down.
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(Sorry, I had to say it...)
