on this belief, and I may be an extremist in this matter, but this is what I will say in respect to that belief.
It is God's exclusive domain to decide who will and will not go to hell. If someone asked me if they will go to hell for any reason, it would be ultimately presumptive and arrogant of me to give them any sort of definite answer.
Also, Jesus preached forgiveness, humility and love of one's neighbor. He would, I believe, accept anyone who holds these values in their heart and acts on them.
Finally, Jesus told his disciples, that on the day of judgement, there will be some to whom he will say, "You did not feed me, you did not clothe me, you did not comfort me, be gone." And they will ask, "When did we not do these things?" And they will be answered, "As you neglected the least of my brothers, you neglected me."
Likewise, Jesus also said, that on the day of judgement, there will be some to whom he will say, "You did feed me, you did clothe me, you did comfort me, enter into my Father's house." And they will ask, "When did we do these things?" And they will be answered, "As you have done these things to the least of my brothers, so you have done them to me."
Now, every Christian I know shares the belief that Christ is in everyone, and that how we treat others is how we treat Christ. This implies to me that the latter group who were unaware that when they were acting toward other people out of love, they were also doing so toward Christ, were ignorant of thise belief. That would therefor imply that they were not Christians in the sense of claiming it as a religion. They were merely acting out of love with ignorance of the beliefs of Christianity.
I grant you that this is interperetation on my part, but I do see it as a possibility. |
