Thread: A few questions
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Old 03-10-2009, 04:05 AM   #10 (permalink)
asaris
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Location: Washington, DC
1. I'm sure there's a thread somewhere in here about the problem of evil.

2. I believe that we don't know what happens to people who never heard the gospel. (And by we, I mean relatively orthodox Christians). Here's what I think we know:

God is just, and would be justified in sending everyone to hell (and by everyone, I mean Everyone -- you, me, the pope, Mother Teresa, everyone)
God is merciful, and doesn't want anyone to go to hell
If you believe in Christ and trust in him alone for your salvation, you won't go to hell.

I suspect that if you hear the gospel, and reject it, you're going to hell. But that's for a fairly broad definition of 'hear' -- someone who was molested by a priest at a young age, say, probably hasn't heard the gospel.

So where does that leave people who never heard the gospel? I don't know. I don't think anyone else knows either. The speculation I've heard that makes the most sense is you get to hear the gospel after you die, and can make a choice there. This would potentially be available for people who rejected the gospel during their lives as well. The Great Divorce actually gives a decent picture of how this might work.

As Daniel points out, simply being 'good' can't be correct on the Christian picture, since missionary work of some sort is crucial on the Christian picture. I'd argue that since we *know* that Christians are saved, it still makes sense to proselytize. I'd also argue that just being good isn't enough. Christianity teaches that salvation comes from a submission of one's will to God's, and it seems to me that it's possible, at least in the short run, to be a decent human being without this.

I want to expound on that last point, but this isn't really central to the point of the thread. Humility is a virtue, and since there is a unity of the virtues, it is impossible to be virtuous in the long run without humility. But in the short run, and we're only here on earth for the short run, it's possible to exemplify one or several virtues without possessing all of them. So one can be 'virtuous' without possessing the virtue central to salvation.
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"Die Deutschen meinen, daß die Kraft sich in Härte und Grausamkeit offenbaren müsse, sie unterwerfen sich dann gerne und mit Bewunderung:[...]. Daß es Kraft giebt in der Milde und Stille, das glauben sie nicht leicht."

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