salvation

[heavenseeker]

First of all, I was raised in church, my brother is a pastor, and I have been saved. But I still have LOTS of unanswered questions. I have always had unwavering faith in God.  At the same time, the Bible has made no sense to me what so ever. It just leaves so much up in the air. Lets do this one one question at a time. Suppose you never heard The Word? If you never heard of Jesus, how can you accept Him as your savior? If this is the case, and you die, do you go to hell? Certain tribes in Africa and South America, Maybe even Australia, have never heard The Word.

[Soldier4Christ]

Your answer is quite simple and the following scriptures give us this answer as does all that is around us.


Rom 1:18  For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;
Rom 1:19  Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.
Rom 1:20  For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
Rom 1:21  Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

[airIam2worship]

Heavenseeker, you would be surprised just how many nations and tribes have never heard the Word of God, have never even seen a Bible. But man was created to worship, there is a desire in the human spirit to worship. Those who have never heard about the One and only true God, the God of the Bible worship somethingeven the wrong thing. That fact alone reaveals that man seeks the True and Living God. Many are deceived and worship false gods.

There is also the natural human instinct to and desire to live forever, that is because God did not create mankind with death and defeat in them, He created man to live forever, the body may die but the spirit lives eternally.

When our earthly father, Adam, sinned he cusrsed us all with death, bodily death, and although the spirit itself cannot die, it too was dead to God, in that God cannot abide where sin is, so in a sense spiritual death came about.

 Ro 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:

We inherited death, because Adam sinned. Now Adam was created by God Himself and he was perfect, so for mankind to be redeemed from the curse of sin and death another perfect man had to die, to take away that curse. That man was Jesus.

 Joh 1:29 ¶ The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.

Joh 3:13 "No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven.

Joh 3:14 "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,

Joh 3:15 "that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.

Joh 3:16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Joh 3:17 "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

Joh 3:18 "He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

So how does a man get saved? First of all we have to realize that we are sinners. That we cannot save ourselves. That there is no other name by which we may be saved.
Ac 4:12 "Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."

By believing that Jesus is the Son of God, that He came to the earth to wash away our sins with His own Blood, by confessing that we are sinners in need of salvation thru Jesus Christ, confessing our sins to Him, asking Him to forgive us and to come into our heart.

I pray this will answer your question (following)

If you never heard of Jesus, how can you accept Him as your savior?

[workinprogress]

 Isn’t this why are missionaries, to go into all the nations and teach the gospel, were created? 
  Now I do understand not all are appointed by God to be missionaries, but those who are and are directed by God to do so.
  Such as Philip, as it is written in:
[KJV]
Acts 8:26, and was told, by an angel of the Lord, to go into the desert where he came upon a man of Ethiopia.  I know that the Ethiopian eunuch was already exposed to the word because he was reading Isaiah.

[KJV] 
Isaiah 56:3  Neither let the son of the stranger, that hath joined himself to the LORD, speak, saying, The LORD hath utterly separated me from his people: neither let the eunuch say, Behold, I am a dry tree.


 And as airIam2worship  said “But man was created to worship, there is a desire in the human spirit to worship”

[KJV]
Psalm 22:27All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee.
 
 As for going to hell, those of us who have accepted Christ and been washed clean by his shed blood at the cross will go to heaven and stand before the judgment seat of Chris, where He will intercede for us:
[KJV]
Rom 14:10 for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
2Co 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ;

And the rest will go to the “Great White Throne of judgment”
[KJV]
Rev 20:11  And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.
Rev 20:12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
Rev 20:13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.
Rev 20:14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
Rev 20:15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

[airIam2worship]

Yes Workinprogress, you are correct, but there are far more people and geographical areas where missionaries have not been able to reach, for various reason. That is why Jesus also told us to pray, for the laborers are few.

Mt 9:37 Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few;

 Mt 9:38 Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.

[workinprogress]

Thank you airIam2worship;
   how very true, without intercessory prayer, let alone prayer for all, and the awsome power of God and prayer. Where would we be!

[lightninboy]

Here are some links I've found about the subject:

http://www.ankerberg.com/Articles/Salvation/salvation-heathen.htm
http://www.dougbeaumont.org/SoulDevice/writings_gospel.html
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/pentecostal/New-Ch12.htm
http://members.aol.com/OrthodoxUM/SalvationAndrus.html
http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:I7_YCxAeNxUJ:wri.leaderu.com/offices/billcraig/docs/politically.html+unreached+heathen+salvation&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=15