Posted on 09/12/2013 1:29:41 PM PDT by BenLurkin
In comments likely to enhance his progressive reputation, Pope Francis has written a long, open letter to the founder of La Repubblica newspaper, Eugenio Scalfari, stating that non-believers would be forgiven by God if they followed their consciences.
Responding to a list of questions published in the paper by Mr Scalfari, who is not a Roman Catholic, Francis wrote: “You ask me if the God of the Christians forgives those who don’t believe and who don’t seek the faith. I start by saying – and this is the fundamental thing – that God’s mercy has no limits if you go to him with a sincere and contrite heart. The issue for those who do not believe in God is to obey their conscience.
“Sin, even for those who have no faith, exists when people disobey their conscience.”
(Excerpt) Read more at wnd.com ...
The opinion of the Church has always been that people of good will can be saved, but that all are saved through Christ. Preaching the Gospel is the commission of every Christian, but there are people who can’t hear it because it never comes to them, and even people who are incapable of hearing it because they are appalled by the behavior of some people who call themselves Christians.
There is also natural law, which is the basis of our Constitution and was the basis of all Christian legal thinking prior to Luther. Even the pagans can understand it, and it was what early Christian missionaries built on, even in this country, where the Franciscans found what was good in the Indian beliefs and customs and showed them the real meaning of it in Christ.
You think God should just damn them?
Did you read the entire article? I see it as the secular press that did the headline is who has an anti-Christian agenda is wrong.
So, my Masonic neighbor was right?
You rather doubt the word of God then because that’s precisely what it teaches. You are essentially suggesting that you, a fallen sinful creature, are more moral than your Creator, that your conception of what is right and fair exceeds His.
It is an old problem never answered in the scriptures-the only authoritative statement by the Good Lord. If it is NOT IN THE SCRIPTURE then mankind does not KNOW! What is God going to do with the soul of the Eight year old Athenian boy who died in the plague that swept Athens during the War with Sparta?
Well said, ping
That question is answered plainly in Scripture. They will stand before God with no excuse because they didn’t live in accordance with the light they had. The Bible tells us that in their wickedness they suppressed the truth of God. They will be damned.
God is a god of love, but He is also a god of wrath. His wrath is just as much a part of who He is as His love.
Exactly. That means that salvation is possible for all (but certainly not guaranteed for all, depending on their moral decisions), but that it all comes through Christ. The Son is coeternal with the Father. That was my point, and I think that was the Pope’s point.
God doesn’t expect people to respond to something they’ve never heard. But He does hold us accountable for what we HAVE heard. This idea is expressed by the following passage: “sin is not taken into account when there is no law” (Romans 5:13). If a person cannot respond to the good news of Jesus dying on their behalf (because they haven’t heard that good news), what are they accountable to respond to?
The Bible tells us that there are some basics. First, all people are accountable to know that God exists. “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities — his eternal power and divine nature — have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse” (Romans 1:20). The complexity of the world around us tells us that there is a God (even though people can suppress that knowledge in their heart). Even those who haven’t heard of Yashua are accountable for knowing that God is.
You have to read the whole book of Romans to understand what Paul was trying to convey through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
Basically what you're saying is that you could run down the street yelling "G-D" and "Yashua" (Jesus) and everybody who hears you say that has no right then before G-D to say that they've not heard of Him. Then too, by your logic you are condemning those born before Yashua came and never heard of Him.
Give the precise biblical citation of your statements.
Well said.
Believe what you will. I listed one verse, but the principle is taught throughout. You don’t understand what really happened to mankind in the Garden of Eden or how God saves sinners.
Your argument falls apart in the 1st chapter of Hebrews. God has now revealed his Son, and expects people to seek and find Him.
Romans 1 beginning around verse 18. That passage deals with what I said, but the concept is taught throughout Scripture.
Obviously you've not read my comments and the beginning of this thread.
I am a Messianic Jew. I live, breath my religion which is Judaism, everything - my culture its customs and its courtesies. So don’t be presumptuous that I do not understand my religion nor the suffering my people have gone through at the hands of tyrants from the Old Testament through today. My family has lived and breathed the latest horror of the Holocaust and have had relatives die there as well as survive. Do not tell me I don’t understand mankind. I have seen and read what it has done to us.
Note, I said he “worries.” Not believes.
It’s not a real concern, but relates to intentional heresy of leaving the Church and knowing it is a mistake. Not at issue with 99.9999% of Protestants even if correct theology.
I’m not suggesting anything other than the God of the Bible will not excuse people simply because they never heard of Jesus Christ, just as He didn’t excuse the ancients who did not have the law and the prophets that ancient Israel was blessed to have.
God saves people today precisely the same way He saved people in the Old Testament. Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness (Genesis 15:6, Romans 4:3, Galatians 3:6). It wasn’t his faith that saved him, it was the object of his faith. Abraham looked forward to a coming Savior, we look back on that same Savior.
Mine too. When my oldest child died, I opened my Bible (1966 version of the Jerusalem Bible) to a random page.
On it was Job’s final answer to God. You know how much it helped me.
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