Roux wrote:What happens when the person who died never had an opportunity to "believe"? For example, when an infant dies, even before there is a chance for baptism. And also when someone has lived in a remote place, who may not have ever heard of Christianity or Jesus.
Are such people condemned to Hell for eternity? If so, that seems like an unduly harsh scheme for a purported all-loving God.
Two things before I reply to your question.
1. You
have heard about Jesus Christ, and yet you deny that He is your Savior. In such a case, a person is walking around with the background of hell. This is truly frightening, and you should immediately correct this.
2. I am not God. God judges righteously, imo. I can tell you
my understanding. My faith.
For some perspective on this topic, you could look at Acts 17:24-31.
Notice verse 26, specifically.
Creator God determines the times and places of a person's habitation.
He is very well aware of the infant, and of the person, for example, who lives in a remote place in Africa and never has the opportunity to hear about Jesus Christ.
To reply to your question, this is my perspective...
There are two camps.
One camp (reformed theology) believes, broadly speaking, that God predestines people for salvation. They have verses and passages to support their view. Acts 13:48, Ephesians 1:5, and others. The verses plainly say that God has predestined believers.
The other camp (Armenian) believes, broadly speaking, that people have free will. They claim that if God has predestined some for salvation, He has then also predestined many others for eternal hell. And loving God would not do that. Moses plainly told the Israelites to
choose life (Deuteronomy 30:19). What an odd thing to say if life and death was already predestined. And there are many other verses pointing to the reality that people are free to make a
choice about believing in the things of God or not.
So which view is correct?
Is it predestination or free will?
One must be right and the other must therefore be wrong, correct?
Poptart says they are
both correct.
I will briefly explain.
Predestination is looking from God's point of view.
Free will is looking from the human point of view.
As humans, we are bound within the time and space confines of this world that God has created. Our view is finite.
God is eternal. No beginning and no ending. He is not confined by the time and space that we are confined by. God's view is infinite.
If I am in the mission field and I testify to a person about Jesus Christ, the person absolutely makes a choice to accept it or not.
If a person accepts Jesus Christ, they gain eternal life. They have moved into -----> eternity. There is no beginning and no ending to the spiritual life they have. It has always been and always will be.
This being so, God has
always known this soul, because it is eternal. So, we can understand that from God's point of view, the eternal view, not bound by time and space, the person was predestined for salvation in his lifetime.
It was a given that at some point, he would choose to trust in Jesus Christ and live eternally.
Acts 17:26 -- God has determined the time and place of the habitation of the infant, or the person living in remote Africa.
Eternal God knew, imo, that these souls were never going to choose to believe in the salvation God has given, so they were assigned the bodies, times, and habitations that reflect their own state.
From God's perspective, the eternal perspective, they (infant, remote African man) were not appointed for eternal life. Acts 13:48. Instead, they wanted to follow the god of this world.
Yes, I believe that if an infant dies, he goes to hell.
The original sin is frightening.
