A question for Christians.

[HoreTore]

Well, if my memory of Dante serves me right, those who have never heard the gospel, as well as "notable heretics", ie. people of different religions who lived righteous lives(for example Saladin), spends some time in Limbo, until they are judged by their actions and go to paradise(o not...).

[Kralizec]

Well, if my memory of Dante serves me right, those who have never heard the gospel, as well as "notable heretics", ie. people of different religions who lived righteous lives(for example Saladin), spends some time in Limbo, until they are judged by their actions and go to paradise(o not...).

I don't think it was because of not having read or heard the gospel (reading biblical texts was a privilige of the higher clergy) but because of not receiving the Holy Sacraments, including baptism.

Also if you're in limbo you stay there, you're thinking of Purgatory.

[HoreTore]

Also if you're in limbo you stay there, you're thinking of Purgatory.

Ah. True that. My memory I worse than I thought then...

[Blodrast]

Div, are you asking for people's personal opinion on this, or for the "official" stance on it (and presumably you only addressed it to Christians because they're potentially more likely to know what the official stance is as opposed to non-Christians) ?

[Ironside]

Well, if my memory of Dante serves me right, those who have never heard the gospel, as well as "notable heretics", ie. people of different religions who lived righteous lives(for example Saladin), spends some time in Limbo, until they are judged by their actions and go to paradise(o not...).

They're stucked in Limbo, those that gets transit to heaven are in the purgatory.

No. I'm talking about grown adults in parts of the world that have remained, amazingly, unexposed to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This could be in parts of Asia, Africa, some weird island, etc. According to the Christian faith, they would all be sinners simply by being born of course.

Yes, condemed by the original sin. The point I was trying to make was on the interesting people that only have done the original sin. I mean, the child molester in (insert random place in the middle of nowere place here) is pretty much condemed to hell even if he was Christian.
Another group that also only have the original sin are unbabtised children, thus most likely suffer the same fate.

You could of course make the argumernt of that only Christians does have the chance of repenting thier sins and end up in purgatory, giving them an "unfair" advantage to redeem thier souls, but I didn't get that feeling.

[atheotes]

What happens to me??? i am from India, born into a Hindu family... I can be calssified as atheistic...

p.s. guess i am not qualified to vote.

[Rodion Romanovich]

Well, if my memory of Dante serves me right, those who have never heard the gospel, as well as "notable heretics", ie. people of different religions who lived righteous lives(for example Saladin), spends some time in Limbo, until they are judged by their actions and go to paradise(o not...).

They're stucked in Limbo, those that gets transit to heaven are in the purgatory.

Hm... So for those that never hear the gospel, God either 1. sends them all to heaven, 2. or all to hell, or 3. judges them by the moral standards they had in their life.

If 1 is true, then that would be a good argument against ever letting your children hear the gospel, because if they do, they will be judged based on their moral standards - a test they may fail - whereas if you don't let them hear it, they will have a safe passage to heaven - why risk giving that away to let them see the gospel?

If 2 is true, then it would mean God's primary and highest prioritized attribute is not defender of good, since he rewards blind belief over high moral standards in life. Thus an evil dictatorlike creature, refusing to believe in him and defying him while living a life of high moral standards will make you a martyr of good in the afterlife, or in case afterlife doesn't exist, you die a good, honorable man and don't have to suffer after your death

If 3 is true, it would mean that it doesn't matter whether you believe or not, as long as your moral standards are high. Thus, I would only show the gospel to my children, if I am of the belief that this would be the only way to make them acquire some decent moral standards, but if they already have high moral standards, I would not show them the gospel, as there's a probability that no. 1 is true, in which case showing it to them would hurt their chances for salvation.

The conclusion is then: at all costs avoid showing the gospel to your children if you wish them well!

But what if they were very bad people but never hears the Gospel?
And a friend in my school, when I asked the same question, said that everyone goes to the heaven/hell/limbo/next life of their own religon.

This can be abused Let's say we now declare the existence of the religion org-ism, in which you come to a paradise that is optimally enjoyable in every way (it will give you everything that you wish when that is what makes you most pleased, but also refuse to give you what you wish, in the cases when the unpredictability and tension caused by this is likely to be more enjoyable). To get to this paradise, all you need to do is to write "dfawtefergrhhdgs" at least once in at least one forum post. "dfawtefergrhhdgs"

[Xiahou]

FYI: Limbo has never been officially accepted by the Roman Catholic Church.

And the answer to the poll question would be 'gah'.

"Non-Christians who seek God with a sincere heart and, moved by grace, try to do His will as they know it through the dictates of conscience can also be saved without water baptism; they are said to desire it implicitly."

[doc_bean]

FYI: Limbo has never been officially accepted by the Roman Catholic Church.

Then why the recent need to revoke the idea of limbo ? Was it just something done against a popular (mis)conception ?

I know in Dante's time limbo wasn't officially accepted, but the idea was at least 'tolerated', seeing as he was allowed to publish.

[Navaros]

I believe there is a loophole in the Bible whereby according to the Bible, those who have never heard the name of Christ are not held to the standards of the Bible, therefore do not go to Hell. They do indeed get a free pass to Heaven.

I'm not familiar with the chapter and verse of this loophole. It may have simply been engrained into my memory from what others told me when I asked this question as a youth. Or it may indeed by in the Bible as those I've asked the question to had told me it was.

It always did seem very ironic to me that the "good news" of Jesus may end up condemning people to Hell for having told them about it and thus revoking their free pass to Heaven at that moment once they've heard. This is an issue that has always troubled my understanding of Christianity.

[Sigurd]

"dfawtefergrhhdgs" ... Just to cover all bases.