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I recently read an essay saying that only 30% of the world is Christian.

Assuming that there is a Christian afterlife, is 70% (apx. 3.5 billion) of the world going to Hell? Also remember the animal issue and that some Christians aren't good people, which can only escalate the hellions.

So, what do you think?

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171st POST ANNIVERSARY!!!

Well, that article has been reviewed on Snopes, and many of the things are inaccurate, but the Christian thing is almost correct, with 33% of the world Christian (not 30).

Alright, forget about the article. (It was on my math teacher's door.) That's still a lot of people going to Hell.

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Um.. I'd like to know what the title of this thread has to do with the topic of discussion.

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This topic has to do with going to Hell, and, "Ding! Dong! The Witch is Dead!" from "The Wizard of Oz" was the proclomation that the munchkins sang announcing that the Wicked Witch of the East was in Hell.

You could also relate that sixteen so-called "witches" were unlawfully hanged in 1692, while this topic could connect to unlawful hell sentencing. "Ding! Dong!" could represent the bells of the Catholic Church, that strongly believes in Hell. There are many exclamation points in Hell as in the title of this post.

You could have a whole thread dedicated to disecting meaning out of the title of this post. I'm shocked that YOU, INTERRUPTOR JONES could not find one simple meaning out of the title of my post? You could have added to the discussion I started instead of tweaking at technicalities, but NOOOOOOOOOOOO, YOU complained, as always.
I'm just kidding, IJ.

Now, will someone PLEASE respond meaningfully?

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someone's looking for a banning

The point IJ was trying to make (I am guessing here) is that the topic to a post needs to be relevant to what is being posted. Forcing the users to guess as to what this post is about is hardly relevant.

As you pointed out in your response to Jones, one could interprete the meaning to many different concepts... none of which have anything to do with non-christians going to hell (without stretching a little).

So before you go off on any of the mods, make sure that you are on solid ground with the argument you are making. I personally take IJ's side here (and it has nothing to do with him being a mod).

As for the topic:

I don't believe that all of the non-christians will be going to hell. I also don't believe that children who die before being baptized will go to hell. I believe in an age of accountability (so... children, being under the age, are exempt)

I feel that everyone will eventually have a chance to learn what is true (whatever that may be, I am not claiming that I know what it is). If they accept what is true, then they will go to "heaven". If after being given the option to accept it or not, and they still deny it, then they may be in some trouble.

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Well, if that is true, then you are right, Hell is filled with a lot of souls. But personally, I don't think it's like that. But think of this,
The council of Trent was a Catholic meeting a while back. So now, which version of chistianity is right? Protestant or Catholic?

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Now that I've enlarged the very small writing, you can see that this post was just a joke; a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to catch IJ in the act of making an (in my opinion) unjust post. Please don't ban me. I've really tried to be a good poster and I'm almost up to 100 posts. If you hate this title so much I'll change it to "Are all non-christians going to Hell?".

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171st POST ANNIVERSARY!!!

They are all the same. There is no real difference. They all believe that Jesus Christ is the lord and savior.

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Then of course you have the other Abrahamic religions: Islam and Judaism...

And the Universal Church of Google.

You're right to a point. Catholics like myself blief that when you recieve the eucharist you are actually earing the body and you are actually the blodd of Christ. Protestants believe that the bread and wine are just symbolic.

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Not all Protestants. We Lutherans believe in the True Presence as taught by the Scriptures, but the Baptist church in which I grew up doesn't.

Frankly, at the risk of sounding religiously arrogant, I think we Lutherans combine the best elements of both the Protestant and Catholic traditions.

But back to the topic at hand:

Before I answer that, I would like to point out that behind this question (who's going to hell and who isn't) is an even more fundamental question: Does Jesus Save? Did he indeed accomplish on the cross what the Bible says he accomplished--forgiveness of mankind's sins, reconciliation with God, new life in his resurrection? That, I think, is the question that needs to be asked.

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That's because Lutherans were the first Protestant sect. Lutherans and the Anglican Church were basically Cathoilcs who didn't go along with the pope.
I know the Anglican Church (up until the Puritans took over) was identical to the Catholic Church.

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It may come off sounded arrogant, but shouldn't that be part of a true religious conviction? Of course you are going to believe that you have the best parts of several religions.

But you can't really expect someone devoted to either of those other religions (Catholic and Protestant in this case) to agree with you. Right?

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Don't worry, I won't be banning you. I tried to say that in jest as well. It is just difficult to convey our true meanings when all you have is what you know about me from my previous posts (next to nothing I would assume) and some random smiley-face pictures

Personally I don't really care if you make posts with obscure titles in the off-topic forum. But we try to keep things somewhat organized down here in the religious/political discussion area.

So this was (in my opinion) a decent topic, worth debating for sure. I just wanted to make sure that it got looked at for the right reasons

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I believe that as long as you are a good person, you will go to heaven (if there really is a heaven, anyway), no matter what religion (as long as that religion doesn't harm anyone). Of course, I'm only saying this if we assume that a heaven exists.

Let me get this straight; the standard Christian belief is that if you accept what is right (for the purpose of argument, that Jesus Christ is the savior and there is one God) you'll go to heaven. Otherwise, you'll go to Hell.

This doesn't make sense to me; isn't being a good person more important than accepting "the truth"? For example, if an athiest gives great amounts of charity, never commits crimes, and is good to him or herself and other people, will he or she still go to Hell for not accepting "the word of God"?

This is the point of the thread: just under 70% of all people do not accept the Christian word of God, whether they know of Christianity or not, although most are good people. After fifteen posts no one has really started to answer my question from a Christian point of view. Please do.

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I am more under the impression that "doing good things" is exactly what God wishes for us to do. There are other more important "religious" things that need to be done, but I feel that if you are living a life worthy to enter heaven you will be willing to accept whatever truth is beyond the grave.

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Jesus came to Earth to save everyone, not just the ones that follow him. He knew that there would be those that won't believe, but he still set out to save everyone. If you are a good person, and don't commit heinous sins, that you are going to Heaven. Or at least that's the way I see it.

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^No one doesn't sin.

Just check out my posts here for my opinion.

It's not about being a "good" person, but rather having faith in God and a relationship with him. That's his will: To be with and have a relationship with you.

I'm not saying that we are all sinless, but as long as we don't do relly heinous sins, like kill someone, and if you try to help othere, then you will be rewarded.

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we are born sinners. You know it's a little thing called origninal{SP} sin

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Yeah, it even says what it takes to go to heaven in the Bible. Just check the ever-so-famous John 3:16!

You haven't answered the question though, Jimmie Johnson. Do you think that all non-Christians are going to hell? Yes or no. It's as simple as that.

My answer: no. I just don't believe that God would say "you have to do this this and this and be part of this club for me to be bring you to heaven."

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K, I say yes. It's the relationship you have with him, not if your "part of the club."

If an atheist is a better person than a Christian, then which has the greater chance of going to heaven?
Even Popes have done things in the past that, were they not the Pope, would have been thought of as nearly blasphemous. People have tortured and killed others in the name of God. Does their belief protect them?

If you are refering to the Spanish Inquesition(sp), the Catholic Church would like to erase that from history.

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I bet they would.

Here's part of the problem, a flaw in the mathematics, if you will: no one can possibly deserve an eternity of heavenly bliss. That's the chief mistake most people make: they assume that by living average, mediocre lives (what most people call "basically good"), they are somehow entitled to God's favor. That's the fundamental flaw that many people make, including some Christians: they want to think of eternal heavenly bliss as something they deserve, and they are simply wrong.

Why, even the greatest of saints recognize this. If you were to ask St. Paul, "Do you think you deserve an eternity of heavenly bliss?" his answer would be (and in fact he's already said this in Ephesians 2:8-10), "No one could possibly deserve that except Christ himself." I'll bet if you were to ask Mother Theresa, "Do you think you deserve it?" her response would most likely be, "Certainly not! In fact, I'd much rather do more work on earth just to repay the kindness of my Lord."

And in fact, despite my immense respect for her, the truth is she wouldn't. Even after all her years of faithful service to God and people, she could only actually deserve a single lifetime of bliss, not an eternity of bliss. Ninety years max.

So what does that mean for the average mediocre person who doesn't live the life of a St. Paul or a Mother Theresa (i.e., what most people call "basically good")? They couldn't possibly earn even a few years of heavenly bliss, much less a lifetime, and certainly not an eternity.

We Christians have this one simple fact straight: since no one deserves heavenly bliss, it can only be given or received as a GIFT, not a reward.

And a gift can only be received in the way that it is given. And since this gift of eternal heavenly bliss was given in the form of a crucified and risen Savior, then that is the only way it can be received. There is no other way. Jesus himself tells us there is no other way:

I know this is hard for people to accept. I know it doesn't fit with the way most people view the universe and themselves ("I'm a good person. I'm entitled to heaven"), but it's the truth. Frankly, I don't like it myself. It makes me sad that there are people who will lose out on an eternity with God for no other reason than they cannot bring themselves to accept this free gift. Jesus' own words come to mind: "How I longed to gather you to me as a mother hen gathers her chicks beneath her wings. But you would not have it."

So the choice is yours: either you can accept as a free gift what God has freely offered through his own son, or you can reject this free gift and cling to the illusion that you deserve it. Humility that leads to eternal life, or arrogance that leads to death.

I will confess that this is a temptation for Christians as well. Sometimes Christians operate under the illusion that, just because they are Christians, that this means they deserve eternal life, too, on account of their good theology or their right choices. Christians, too, sometimes need to be reminded of the words of St. Paul, "You are saved by grace through faith, which is not of yourselves, but is a gift from God."

So my logic is quite simple:

1. No one can possibly deserve an eternity of heavenly bliss.
2. It can only be given and received as a free gift.
3. God gave us this gift in the form of his crucified and risen son Jesus.
4. Christians understand this and gratefully accept it.

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I agree with what you said. I don't go to church or anything (even though I'm catholic), but I believe as long as there is a heaven, then I'll be going there as long because I'm a good person.