The actual answer is “I don’t know, the Bible doesn’t say.”
The contradictions between doctrine and the Bible make so much more sense when you view it in the historical context of a tribal religion, as it was written, not as some kind of universal truth. The Bible doesn’t say what happens to people who never hear about it because the writers weren’t thinking about that.
Mathew 18:18 is the circuit breaker for those situations: whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven
AKA when in doubt, god defers to the Pope for some reason.
The evolution seemed to be Old Testament = God of Israel, New Testament = God of the Jews and Gentiles, but they still clearly weren’t thinking about people in distant lands like the Chinese or Mesoamericans.
I think that any religions that have survived to the present day did so in part because they contained flexibilities like “defer to the Pope”
I always believed that God would accept anyone, even if they don’t believe, as long as they were good people. I can’t imagine He would just turn away the kindest people because they were born on the other side of the planet. But I don’t get along with fundamentalists.
The actual answer is “I don’t know, the Bible doesn’t say.”
The contradictions between doctrine and the Bible make so much more sense when you view it in the historical context of a tribal religion, as it was written, not as some kind of universal truth. The Bible doesn’t say what happens to people who never hear about it because the writers weren’t thinking about that.
Mathew 18:18 is the circuit breaker for those situations:
whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heavenAKA when in doubt, god defers to the Pope for some reason.
The evolution seemed to be Old Testament = God of Israel, New Testament = God of the Jews and Gentiles, but they still clearly weren’t thinking about people in distant lands like the Chinese or Mesoamericans.
I think that any religions that have survived to the present day did so in part because they contained flexibilities like “defer to the Pope”
It’s almost like these books of supposed divine revelation could only have been informed by the experiences of the people who wrote them… 🤔
From a religion maintenance POV it makes total sense. From a “god is omniscient and infallible” standpoint, it makes my head hurt.
I assure you it doesn’t merit that amount of thought.
But what about the “sheep that are not of this flock”? Couldn’t have been more explicit.
I always believed that God would accept anyone, even if they don’t believe, as long as they were good people. I can’t imagine He would just turn away the kindest people because they were born on the other side of the planet. But I don’t get along with fundamentalists.