A question for Christians

[YaeMPs]

If the Bible is truly the Word of God then what could be a more important message for all people than God's Law and His Covenant with humanity.
Why, then, did He only gave it to a small group of men in a very small geographical area.

How many billions of people in the non-western world have lived and died without ever hearing the Good News. They have lived outside of the Law and the new Covenant not because they rejected Christ but because they did not have the opportunity to choose.

If God has a master plan for each and every person on the earth then was His plan for these people to live outside of His Love and/or to burn in hell for eternity?

[McCulloch]

And not only this, but there was Rebekah also, when she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac; for though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God's purpose according to His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls, it was said to her, "THE OLDER WILL SERVE THE YOUNGER." Just as it is written, "JACOB I LOVED, BUT ESAU I HATED."

What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! For He says to Moses, "I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I HAVE COMPASSION."

So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, "FOR THIS VERY PURPOSE I RAISED YOU UP, TO DEMONSTRATE MY POWER IN YOU, AND THAT MY NAME MIGHT BE PROCLAIMED THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE EARTH." So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.

You will say to me then, "Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?"

On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, "Why did you make me like this," will it? Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use?

What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles.

[YaeMPs]

"I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I HAVE COMPASSION."
"So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires."

Is it your opinion, then, that God does hate two thirds of the people of the Earth? Has he allowed them to live without His Word for thousands of years willfully?



"...to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His name's sake..."
"FOR THIS VERY PURPOSE I RAISED YOU UP, TO DEMONSTRATE MY POWER IN YOU, AND THAT MY NAME MIGHT BE PROCLAIMED THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE EARTH."

Don't these two passages seem to reveal God's desire to be known to the whole world as the one true God?

[McCulloch]

YaeMPs, I believe that the passages I quotes are part of the authentic Christian doctrine. I no longer believe in the existence of the Christian God.

Don't these two passages seem to reveal God's desire to be known to the whole world as the one true God?

These two passages reveal nothing about God. They reveal their author's view about the arbitrary nature of God and of human subjugation to that god.

[YaeMPs]

Thank you, McCulloch, for taking the time to respond to my questions.
I thought at first that you were quoting scripture in order to support the idea of God's right to do as He will.

That piece from Romans is a very powerful exposition of the capricious side of the Biblical God. I don't remember reading it before.

[McCulloch]

That piece from Romans is a very powerful exposition of the capricious side of the Biblical God. I don't remember reading it before.

I believe that improved Biblical literacy would greatly swell the ranks of the non-believers, or at least, deplete the ranks of the Christian literalists.

[officer2002]

Your question makes perfect sense. Salvation is available for everybody.
People who did not learn about Jesus Christ or have the opportunity to partake of saving ordinances when they were alive, are taught those things in the spirit world. The ordinances which are needed for salvation are performed for the dead in the temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. They will be given the chance to accept those ordinances.
I can understand people who are atheists because they have not heard this.

[YaeMPs]

(1 Peter 3: 18-20, & 4:6) speak to the issue of teaching the dead. Some, I have read, consider it as only meant to bring the new covenant to those who died before the flood while others consider it just as officer2002 has presented the idea; that those who were outside the knowledge of Christ in life might be shown the gospel in death.

What is not explained is why so much of humanity did and does currently live outside of the knowledge of Christendom.

The bible says that God's Law is perfect and many, if not all, books of the Bible make it abundantly clear that God demands that we live by His Law. He hates Sin, right?

Why, then, has he allowed the majority of creation to live outside of His Law? Are these billions of people not part of His master plan? Does He not love them as He loves those who were born into Christ?

[JehovahsWitness]

If the Bible is truly the Word of God then what could be a more important message for all people than God's Law and His Covenant with humanity. Why, then, did He only gave it to a small group of men in a very small geographical area.

While it is true God did not drop 5 billion copies of the bible from heaven (in an incomplete state just after the first line had been written), indeed the bible was intitially given to one man (starting with Moses) and one people (the Hebrews). From these small beginnings however it has became available to most people on the planet - as indeed is fitting for an "important message for all people".

FACTS

** The Bible is the best-selling book of the year, every year, According to The New Yorker magazine. As pointed out by the Guinness Book of World Records, the Bible is by far “the world's most widely distributed book.

** According to Bibelreport of June 2002, the Bible has been translated into 2,287 languages”at least in part.

**There are presently an estimated 5 billion copies of the bible so far produced (in whole or in part).

**The bible has been translated and printed and distributed more than any other book in human history, with more than 100 million new copies produced each year.

**. According to the American Bible Society, nearly a decade ago the languages in which the Bible was printed made it available to some 98 percent of the world's population.

So in terms of sheer availability the Bible, more than any other book ever written, by far meets the criteria of being called a book for all peoples, available TO all people.

[YaeMPs]

To JehovasWitness,

You wrote: "(the Bible) is available to most people on the planet - as is indeed fitting for 'an important message for all people'"

Its clear that Christianity has had a huge influence on much of the World and perhaps there are few alive today who are not aware of it at least in an academic sense. There are very many more, however, for whom it is percieved as an artifact of a distant and foreign culture.

Consider this scenario:
Lynn was born in rural Oregan to a Christian society and was taught that if she accepted Christ into her heart then she would go to Heaven.
Lin was born in rural Cambodia and was raised a Bhuddist and although he may have heard stories about other belief systems he sees no reason to reject his heritage.

Did God favour Lynn by causing her to born into a situation that made it easy for her to find Christ while doing the opposite for Lin?
Did God not love Lin enough to provide him with the means to live a holy life?