I think that God would save an honest agnostic / non Christian, who searched for God and could not finally find Him. I have such examples in mind of great minds who struggled with God all their lives. What do you believe ? Would God apply His sacrifice to honest seekers who failed to reach a conclusion ?
Discussion
50 comments
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Many years ago Billy Graham gave an answer to Barbara Walters in an interview She asked: Dr Graham, do you believe all people who don’t accept Jesus will not go to heaven. He wisely said; God is merciful and loving. And we don’t have an exception in scripture. But, he said he would not be surprised if God’s mercy did not encompass them. We don’t know. No one knows. But we do know God is merciful
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How can you fail to seek when the truth is written right infront of you? If you are seeking and seeking and still scripture isn’t enough then your heart is hardened. They aren’t seeking for God, they are seeking for a god that they would like or believe in on their terms. That’s Idolatry. Jesus sacrifice applies to all who believe in HIM. Not any generic idea of “God”
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A fool in his heart says there is no God.
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Absolutely Not! Healthy people don’t need a doctor; the doctor’s waiting room is filled with sick people. God don’t what your rituals; He want you heart. God wants a heart attitude that includes a right relationship with Him and with others, an attitude that reaches out to those in physical and spiritual need. Jesus do not call those who think they are already good enough, for the self-righteous do not recognize their sinfulness.
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Jesus said, I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. NO ONE comes to the Father except through ME. Sorry, nothing but accepting Jesus as Savior will get you to heaven.
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I disagree with your statement of not finding him. As mentioned before all who seek him WILL find him. No one seems after God unless God puts it on their heart. Look at Lee strobel he honestly sought out to prove God was a myth and feel before him declaring he is real. Anyone who truly seeks after God WILL find him and his will rejoice.
Luke 15:7
Jesus said, “In the same way there is more happiness in heaven because of one sinner who turns to God than over ninety-nine good people who don’t need to. -
Read Roman 3 ; 11 – 12
“As it’s written there is none that understands, there is none that seeks after God.” -
Yes, He will.
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So couple of problems with the Op.
1) No man seeks after God .
2) no person is honest all are evil .
3) all people deserve Hell because they have all violated the Law of God . -
Well let me just say with your post if you are an honest agnostic or atheist than any opinion you have on what God would do is based upon you not God.
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Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be opened.
I take Jesus are His word that the scenario you describe doesn’t happen. -
God is merciful that’s what I’m 100% sure about
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No because if you diligently seek Him, you will ALWAYS find Him. The Bible says to seek Him while He may be found.
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John 3: 5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
6+ That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7+ Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. -
If a prospector who spends his whole life seeking that Eureka gold nugget, yet fails to find it, he is still without the nugget. It does not matter how honest he was, he is still nuggetless.
It’s good for one to seek, but if the seeker does not find what is sought, he is without what was sought. The seeker who doesn’t find is in the same boat as one who does not seek.
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“I am the truth the way and the life, no man comes to the Father but through me”. Clear enough for ya’all
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The Lord is not willing any should perish
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It matters not what you believe, but what the word of God says. “This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”” https://ref.ly/Ac4.11-12;esv
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No. If he heard the gospel and did not accept it then it wouldn’t matter how much seeking he did.
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Let me clear this up to the question I think is being asked. If a person is never presented with the Gospel of Jesus, but always believes in God can the go to Heaven?
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Do not lie to him! Jesus is the only way. If these people heard the gospel and didn’t accept it, then they will not be saved. I can’t believe how much Christians are willing to contradict the Word of God. Smh
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Makes sense. But what would hold someone back from knowing Him through actually reading His word?
As long as I’m consistent reading it, I realize how he’s shown up in my past and gain confidence in how he will show up.
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God is very specific and clear how to be saved. You will NOT go to heaven being a nice person or being unable to find. If you are unable to find your heart is not right. If you sincerely want to find God you would go to his word and ask him to reveal himself to you and if your heart is right he will reveal his self to you.
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Jesus knocks at the door. All we have to do is open it. If someone were genuinely open to Jesus, they would find him.
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God made it as simple as possible and the most available way possible to.
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“Jesus *said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”
John 14:6 -
“There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.”
Romans 3:11 -
If he‘s.God‘s sheep he will hear the Shepherd‘s voice and turn to Christ in the end.
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Finding God is a gift from God, man can not approach God on his own.
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Yours is one of those questions I know many Christians have and it is the one, along with why bad things happen to good people, that it seems most of my atheistic friends have. It is particularly difficult to answer given Jesus and the Apostles pointing out the importance of accepting salvation now. That said, I suspect given that God is Love and what I see in God working with Israel and the rest of us that the statements in Job 36:5 and Wisdom 11:24, that God does not hate anything he has made, God will take loving care of everyone; but particularly, as Peter points out, those anywhere who do the right thing.
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Mt7:7 ask it will be given, seek you will find knock it will be given
God works in mysterious way -
God has revealed Himself the the nature, Scripture, and in the person of Lord Jesus Christ. I don’t think there is no reason behind that that one will not get God.
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For those who don’t have exposure during this life to the Gospel itself I am convinced God will offer the Gospel in a similar way it was offered to those who died before Christ came. I have two stories: first is there are isolated Muslims in the Middle East who are having visions of Jesus. Second, an indigenous man in South America new there had to be a God, so he prayed, “To the one true God, please reveal yourself to me.” Not long after, missionaries came with the Gospel. I can’t remember the source, but I remember it was trustworthy. So we know God is active in ways we don’t know. However, agnostics who heard the Gospel but never accepted I don’t think are saved, because they never accepted the reconciliation offered.
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The Bible teaches that sin separates us from God. Period. The Bible teaches that we are all sinners. Period. The Bible teaches that there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. Period. Those are inescapable truths. So, without faith in Jesus Christ, what removes the sin for their lives? Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved…if a person is an honest seeker, Jesus is inescapable. If they’re doubting what the Bible teaches, they’re not honestly seeking. All who seek find what they’re seeking…not all seekers are really seeking truth.
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All Men Are Included
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The act of saving is only by one means, the applied blood of Jesus Christ. So either God elects you to salvation and you seek him with all your heart, or you are separated from God for all of eternity. God is God, we are not, he may do as he pleases with his creation. This is what God has said, so it is true and final. Whether you like it or not doesn’t make the facts or truth any less absolute.
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“Israel hath not obtained what she has sought for. The elect have attained it, and the rest were blinded.” — Rom. 11:?
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I don’t see any exceptions to “NO mam cometh to the Father but through me”, nor do I see any asterisks attached to “without faith, it is impossible to please God”. It’s a lovely thought, but in the end, only true Christians will be saved. Even an agnostic has no excuse.
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Seek Him with your whole heart and you will find Him , it’s a scriptural guarantee. Hebrews says God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
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Interesting question. I heard that in remote parts of the world where there are. No missionaries etc that god knows the heart how someone would believe and that person that God saw they would believe in Christ would go to heaven. I have not backed this up with scripture but the pastor that said this was extremely knowledgable of scripture and knew Hebrew and Greek
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Incorrect. You MUST be born of water and Spirit or you cannot enter the Kingdom of God–jn 3
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Learn how to be born again here:
https://acts2216.org/understanding-the-gospel -
not an issue what people beleive but what God has already said in his Book the bible
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“And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us,” (Acts 17:26-27).
“And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him” (Heb 11:6).
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No one comes to the Father unless its through the Son.
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If you’re talking about people who struggled to reconcile extremely difficult passages or dark decisions that God had to make that are documented, then I don’t think those struggles vacate any promise to heaven. HOWEVER, it is specifically stated that without a complete embrace of the cross and resurrection, there is no eternal life. Now, we don’t have to understand or even agree with specific events that took place in the bible or decisions that God made. Agreeing with everything that God did or said is NOT a prerequisite for eternal life with God, only acceptance (by faith) of what Christ did on the cross AND His resurrection afterward. I do believe that there are those who honestly struggle with this and talk to many on a regular basis. I honestly don’t have an answer for your question and I DO believe it’s ok to admit that. Some believe that unless you actually pray an official formal prayer at an altar and experience some kind of tearful heart-wrenching transformation, you haven’t accepted Christ. I’m just really glad it’s not up to those same people who gets into heaven. I honestly don’t believe that people will fail to reach a conclusion. They may question their own conclusion a lot and make sincere attempts to reconcile it, but I don’t think people fail to reach a conclusion. That conclusion may not be easy and might even take a lifetime to make, but I really do believe that people do eventually make a decision to accept or reject God.
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Struggled with God? As in they did not like something? They did not like condemnation for being against God’s ways?
If someone is struggling God, and do not find Him, I do not thing there is salvation there. Part of coming to the Lord is surrendering yourself.
For those who never hear the message of Jesus, there is greater speculation to be had. Even then though, take it upon yourself to spread the message as far as you can.
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Romans 1:20 makes it clear that all men are without excuse because the fingerprints of God are plain to see in creation.
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