Let’s say a young man is trying to decide his direction in life as far as it pertains to religion. He does all the research he can on all the major religions.
Now said man decides he wants to go with Judaism.
Said man now lives his whole life by the “rules” of Judaism with out fail.
Now said man dies and old St. Pete tells the dude: “Sorry man, Catholic was the way to go. Now get your ass down to Hell and burn.”
My question is: How the hell was this guy supposed to know Catholic was the way to go? And wouldn’t this be God’s fault for not making things a little more clear?
If there was a “God”… and HE/SHE/IT actually KNEW of OUR existence, I doubt he/she/it would give a shit if we knew of him/her/it or not. He’s/she’s/it’s probably too preoccupied wondering how the hell he/she/it came to be.
It’s how we react in times of controversy that makes us who we are, not what we believe. Given an apocalyptic scenario, how do you think many people will react? Some will spend the time with their families, some will turn to religion or act like jerks. Some people, convinced they have doomed themselves to Hell or Oblivion, will go crazy or try to warn others. If you are convinced of something yet still perform good and selfless acts, that says more about you than anything else.
Perhaps this is the test? Will you selfishly seek out your ticket to Heaven, or will you try to help others?
For what it’s worth, the Calvinist answer, if understand it correctly, is: You betcha. God predestines some people for salvation and some for damnation. It’s not a matter of what you choose, but of whether you’re one of the “elect.”
Understandably, a lot of people have a problem with this belief.
Paul spent a lot of the New Testament, especially in the book of Roman, trying to explain why the “rules of Judaism” (aka the Law) were inadequate for salvation, and faith in Christ is necessary. I don’t feel qualified to explain or summarize Paul’s arguments here.
Different people, even different Catholics, would give you different answers to this question.
God will make it clear, though it may be on the person’s deathbed such as the thief on the cross. An interesting verse about people of other forms of worship:
Since you mentioned Judaism, there are some verses about their salvation:
If that is the case, then salvation is not a matter of choosing the right vs the wrong religion, in the sense of checking the correct box on a survey or showing up at the right building on Sunday morning. Rather, it’s a matter of accepting vs rejecting Jesus.
And there are at least some things in the Bible, such as Jesus’s teaching about the “sheep and the goats” in Matthew 25, that suggest a person could be accepting or following or serving Jesus without knowing that that is what they are doing.
Well, duh, but the OP is pretty clearly arguing against the belief that there is one right religion that you have to believe to achieve “salvation”. And certainly there are at least some religious folk who do believe that.
The OP is asking how the problem is resoved from the perspective of those who do believe that specific belief is essential to salvation, though. It’s not a question I’ve ever seen answered adequately. I like to characterize it as God deciding that the only way to be saved is to be able to guess what number he’s thinking of between zero and infinity.
My crazy Seventh Day Adventist friend told me that at one moment of everyone’s life they have a flash of truth where they realize it’s all about Jesus. They will know it is the truth in their heart, and then can choose to accept or reject it.
An all knowing being that created a person and knew he would rot in Hell He would be at fault, if knowing this He created him anyway.
If a human intentionally makes a product that is faulty the human maker is held responsible, so an all knowing being, knowing the human He created would cause harm to others and still let them be born would be at fault, Just as if Mrs and Mr Hitler knew that their son would cause so much unnecessary suffering knew this ahead of time and still conceived him they would be as guilty as Hitler.
If an all knowing Being created an entity such as satan and the other demons you speak of, then God is responsible for the evil as he could have avoided it by not creating such a being, or beings.
A good parent doesn’t create a monster that he knows will destroy some, or all of it’s children.
If I remember my Chronicles of Narnia correctly, there’s some stuff in there about how evil done in Aslan/Jesus’s name goes to Tash/the Devil and good done in Tash/the Devil’s name goes to Aslan/Jesus. Someone who’s more familiar with the works of C.S. Lewis will have to explain the concept more thoroughly.
Some Eastern religions approach this question differently, but since your focus seems to be on Christianity, I won’t hijack the thread.
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