Here’s a sort of general question, bouncing off the conversation I’m having with metmom:
Does anyone on this forum subscribe to the belief that “unevangelized adults go to hell when they die” (since they never accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior, etc.)?
I’m not talking about the stubborn modern who heard a credible presentation of the Gospel, and rejected it in favor of his current lifestyle (that’s a separate issue); I mean a hypothetical “true pagan” who’s never heard “word one” of the Gospel, due either to living in some aboriginal backwater or to living in a post-Christian country or area (I think of several places in Europe which would qualify). If such people die, would they be damned to hell for not being Christian, in your view?
They are not saved.
If you think they are why would you send in missionaries? If they are already saved but you send in missionaries and they don't think it's necessary you have just taken a saved person and made them unsaved. Is that why Christ said to go into all the world? What would have been the point?
People are not damned to hell for not being Christian.
People are already damned to hell and it's accepting Christ that saves them from going where they belong.
They already deserve hell.
Catholics seem to have this problem with understanding human nature and divine judgment.
We are not going to heaven until we somehow lose it. We are going to hell until we accept Christ and put our trust in Him to save us from that.
So yes, people who have never heard are going to hell, but not because God damns them, but because that it the penalty for the sin they commit.
They're headed there anyway until they're kept from it.