Why you believe what you believe I

[Lief Erikson]

Originally Posted by Nurvingiel

One can base one's standards on being a decent human being without religion.

A decent human being to oneself. Nurvi, I bet Adolf Hitler would have been not only a decent human being from his own perspective, but an excellent human being. Does that make him so? Everyone knows how to justify his or her faults- as a race we are very, very skilled at it. People that are greedy are prudent, people that are lascivious are playful. I think the vast majority of the people of the world "try to be good people as they see it." Those who committed human sacrifices to idols in the past also believed they were doing the right thing. But according to scripture,

"There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one. Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit. The poison of vipers is on their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ays, and the way of peace they do not know. There is no fear of God before their eyes."

If you look at Japan and Germany during World War 2, and see how entire populations behaved with such callous brutality, or if you look at the American South and see how hundreds and even thousands of "decent citizens" became racist thugs or mobs, or if you look at the mob of the City of Rome during the days of the Roman Empire . . . I could go on and on. Human nature is described accurately in that passage, in my opinion.

Belief in Christ is therefore of critical importance, because people's views without looking to the Godly standard as it is revealed to us can easily be skewed and incorrect. Indeed, without Christ in our lives actively changing us into his likeness, we cannot truly be good people.

Originally Posted by brownjenkins

but back to this nonbeliever, yet extremely good person... even if i buy the fact that his "goodness" comes from god... if he never chooses to recognize god for whatever reason... maybe deep down he just doesn't sincerely believe god exists, is never convinced throughout his lifetime, and does not want to be insincere... would that person go to heaven?

It's not a matter of head belief entirely, though without the head belief it is often impossible to experience the heart change. I do believe that some people who have not known the name of Christ, and have never heard of Christianity, and probably too some people that learned about Christianity in this life but rejected it, will be coming to heaven. That is not based upon their own merit, upon their own decency, but upon faith in God. Also, according to scripture ignorance will be impossible to plead on the Judgment Day.

"The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 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."



It's my personal opinion that physical death is not the end of people's chances of accepting Christ, also.