Good morning ladies and gentlemen.

I've always had this question tugging a my everytime I think about the numerous religions and belief systems in the world and look at the sheer number of their adherents/faithfuls.

In the Bible, it has been explicitly stated that except through Christ, it is impossible to enter the kingdom of God/have eternal life. This presupposes that if one isn't born again (accepting Christ as one's Lord and Saviour) the chances of one being "saved" is totally foreclosed!

Now, we know about such major religions as Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and New Age. I for one believe none is more superior to the other, but truth be told, we tend (generally speaking) to believe the only "true" path to genuine righteousness and salvation is Christ, yet all the adherents of the various faiths believe in some form of supreme being with whom we are bound to spend the "here-after" depending on how you lived your life.

The question then is [b]what happens to the souls of the billions (over 3 billion) who aren't "Christians" and what happens to the billions (probably over 6billion out of a total population of 7billion) who aren't Born Again Christians??

Are their souls hell bound or is their some place else reserved for them elsewhere.

Knowing some of those practising these other religions have characters only comparable to that of Angels even makes the question more important- take the lifestyle of Buddhist Monks for instance. Can one be that righteous yet still go to hell according to our doctrine??

A lot more questions beggar answers...but this is sufficient for now.


Would like the pastors in the house to shed some light on this.

Thanks.

Just do what is right and leave the rest for yur maker if you believe in one.

Lalasticlala, would you do the honours before or after the day's service?? Very important poser raised here wouldn't you say?

Kondomatik:
Just do what is right and leave the rest for yur maker if you believe in one.

..and what would you tell someone who doesn't believe in one

Thought you were all about politics..and defending buhari

omenka:
..and what would you tell someone who doesn't believe in one

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.



That's all.

Did you say over 3 billion souls?


Are u forgetting the dead ones since time immemorial? They should all be more than 100billion souls

Religions always have a way of turning things on their head that you can't help but wonder how they do it.

Just like the OP's question for every religious beliefs they believe that there is no salvation except through their own religion.

Muslims think Christians are going to hell, Christians think same of muslims and others and so it keeps going.

This expressly reveals a salvation criteria that is outrightly unjust yet peddled by these religions as a 'just' position by these their alleged God(s).

Imagine if islam is right, they are 7billion people in this planet and only about 1.8 are muslims. if Islam is right then up to 5.2 are heading to be roasted by God.

if Christianity is right then about 5billion are going to barbecued in an eternal fire by God for his eternal glory.

these gory ideas are wicked, barbaric and disturbing shows these religious doctrines as men conjuring up these disturbing ideas to scare people into conformity.

reveals the basis of religion to be "Fear" no wonder to most theists in this planet God is no more than a divine angry vengeful wrath.

You see you need not know anybody's religion inside out, as long as it involves the concept of wrathful barbaric God who would burn every other person who don't believe same as you do in a literal fire reveals all that one needs to know about you and your religion and the God is professes

This culture of every religion laying out their own "beliefs" as the criteria for attaining salvation in the "here after" reveals in the idea a child of the human mind, derived and peddled by distinct minds in coincide with their aim which is to promote their religion.

In all these fantasies and imaginary salvations and vague "here afters" peddled by religions i rather think it is more noble to focus of what we have and where we are rather than start chasing what we don't have and not even sure of.

Play hard, love hard, work hard.

the bottom line for me is to live life to the fullest in the "Here and Now" instead of chasing after a vague hoped-for "Here after".

And to make ever day count in some meaningful way and do something no matter how small it is to leave the world better than i met it

The fact is that there is the existence of God.
God deals with everyone accordingly in His own special way and can be spatial.
For the Jews, it is Abrahamic(Christianity stems from there) Indians, it is Hinduism Arabs, it is Islam etc.
None is more superior.

Well, it's a waste of time thinking about religion and which way is the right way.

When a man dies, he falls back to the unconscious state he was during embryogenesis.

Destined2win:
Thought you were all about politics..and defending buhari

You thought wrong.

Face the topic mr, this isn't politics.

Smh.

matrix199:
Well, it's a waste of time thinking about religion and which way is the right way.

When a man dies, he falls back to the unconscious state he was during embryogenesis.

Atheist??


Where our pastors at??!! Oh, perhaps they've all gone to church.

omenka:
You thought wrong.

Face the topic mr, this isn't politics.

Smh.

Dress up and go to church...your pastor is waiting for you

Tolexander:
The fact is that there is the existence of God.

God deals with everyone accordingly in His own special way and can be spatial.

For the Jews, it is Abrahamic(Christianity stems from there)
Indians, it is Hinduism
Arabs, it is Islam
etc.

None is more superior.

..and where did you get that mr?? Certainly not from the Bible I read. It was explicit and didn't mention any "special way according to one's religion".

omenka:
Atheist??

Where our pastors at??!! Oh, perhaps they've all gone to church.

That's just the truth, any other thing from what he said is a lie

omenka:
..and where did you get that mr?? Certainly not from the Bible I read. It was explicit and didn't mention any "special way according to one's religion".

Mr, does it look like I'm posting from the Bible or you saw any scriptural back up in the post?

@Omenka... refer back to Noah and the antediluvian age... if that did happen as history suggest it did, look around you... there's something big coming... now if at the time of Noah GOD instructed Noah on an ark for safety and preservation though widely unpopular then... same as today HE has given some instructions... the point is, it is a matter of choice just as it was then as it is now...

omenka:
Atheist??


Where our pastors at??!! Oh, perhaps they've all gone to church.

..Humanity is so vulnerable that we leave that which is in front of us to chase after that which we do not have or know but a figment of our imaginations, thoughts and wishes.

the above quote of mine holds true for our perception of death.

Haven't you noticed how the word "Death" gives rise to different philosophies of hopeful realities to many.

-On one hand some speculate we do not really die but transcends and then gets reborn and live again and so it goes in a circle.

-Another suggests we do not get reborn but some thinking formless needless part of us continues somewhere else.

-Plato suggests the body is a prison for the soul.

Where as all these philosophies are profound and hopeful, i also call it greed, selfishness and a product of an unmatched ego wielded only by the human mind.

Humans have that egoistic tendency of deluding themselves to be the most important part of the universe..

That is why in this deluding ego they see themselves as deserving to live again but not every other animal or living thing in this earth that also live as they live and feel as they do.


-Just how important are we in this universe?

More important than the stars? Without the stars we won't be here but without us they were, are and will be.

More important than the plants ? without them we won't be here but without us they were, are and will be.

So how exactly are we more important, why do we prize ourselves the most important part of the cosmos when we are so deplorable and expendable that the cosmos won't even notice our disappearance.

So many stories have littered the course of human philosophy on the eventuality of death.

So many wishful hopeful fantasies has been conceived to give hope and comfort to the human mind when faced with the inevitability of death.

-We shall see again in paradise
-we shall be reborn again
-we shall make merry in Valhalla

amongst thousands of such tales.. I do not know how enticing these stories are but i know the greed of a human mind makes them comforting as nobody would like to imagine the absoluteness of the end of our being.

That to me comes from a short memory cus just a little journey backwards whene we were not here, imagining inexistence won't be far fetched.

We have been dead for an infinite time backwards, now we are here and we will soon be dead how then can we not imagine our the state we were before coming to this?.

I really understand the reasons why all these stories crop up in the human mind, why all these philosophies and emotional clutch to a comforting tale defines a huge part of our belief

It is because of the vulnerability of our being.

Being that almost certainly we are probably the only species amongst all in this planet that know at a very young age that we would die one day.

This knowledge of our inevitable end is somewhat like a burden to us .

I doubt that other species Chimpanzee, dogs , elephants even though alive as we are are fretting over an afterlife or performing rituals to earn a place in paradise or somewhere else outside the cosmos.

No they just live in the moment.

With all these stories filling the gap left by fear, vulnerability of our mind, we yet have no evidence to support these fantasies.

I do not claim to have knowledge of what happens in death but if anybody, person or book claims to know, they are both lying and fraudulent.

Because they do not know.

We are so concerned by what we want to be, by what we wish for that we forget and pay little mind to what we have which is NOW

So isn't it better and more noble we forget all these stories and focus on what we have and where we are which is Now and Here

Here and Now are the most important, certain aspect of it all, make them count and don't waste them chasing after a vague shadow of an uncertain wishful fantasy.

TheFirstLady:
@Omenka... refer back to Noah and the antediluvian age... if that did happen as history suggest it did, look around you... there's something big coming... now if at the time of Noah GOD instructed Noah on an ark for safety and preservation though widely unpopular then... same as today HE has given some instructions... the point is, it is a matter of choice just as it was then as it is now...

The Noah's tale was copied from an older sumerian tale Epic of Gilgamesh. . . that's mythological borrow of cultural and religious cents.

TheFirstLady:
@Omenka... refer back to Noah and the antediluvian age... if that did happen as history suggest it did, look around you... there's something big coming... now if at the time of Noah GOD instructed Noah on an ark for safety and preservation though widely unpopular then... same as today HE has given some instructions... the point is, it is a matter of choice just as it was then as it is now...

I'm afraid you haven't tackled the most important questtion here.

Matter of fact, you've somehow simplified the question: Noah and his ark was to that time what Jesus is to this time. Everyone who refused to heed the call of Noah perished in the flood. This time, God has given us his son through which we can be saved and I doubt he'd still commission someone to build us some mighty bunker to save us from an impending catastrophe- Jesus is that "bunker".

So, what happens to those who don't take cover in the "bunker"??

omenka:
I'm afraid you haven't tackled the most important questtion here.

Matter of fact, you've somehow simplified the question: Noah and his ark was to that time what Jesus is to this time. Everyone who refused to heed the call of Noah perished in the flood. This time, God has given us his son through which we can be saved and I doubt he'd still commission someone to build us some mighty bunker to save us from an impending catastrophe- Jesus is that "bunker".

So, what happens to those who don't take cover in the "bunker"??

Amicable09 what are you waiting for?

johnydon22:


The Noah's tale was copied from an older sumerian tale Epic of Gilgamesh. . . that's mythological borrow of cultural and religious cents.

...ancient history from around the world gives credence to the Noah's flood... there was a flood at a point in the earth's history... it is an historical fact not some mythical tale...

johnydon22:


The Noah's tale was copied from an older sumerian tale Epic of Gilgamesh. . . that's mythological borrow of cultural and religious cents.

Lol. I like this guy, he'd make one helluva Scientologist.

Where in seven hells do you get your ideas??

omenka:
Lol. I like this guy, he'd make one helluva Scientologist.

Where in seven hells do you get your ideas??

I am not a scientologist, all you need do is do your research

TheFirstLady:
...ancient history from around the world gives credence to the Noah's flood... there was a flood at a point in the earth's history... it is an historical fact not some mythical tale...

there was no global flood, the story is of Sumerian origin and then later found in younger cultures afterwards..

Younger stories do not give credibility to old ones rather only stories of the same timeline can do that.

Myths and legends are centered around some original motif or theme, the historical consensus is that the Sumerian legend was actually referring to an in land flood in the mesopotamian region.

It cannot and never was a global flood, there is no such rain.

The myth of the God Ea warning the chief character and instructing him to build a boat is a plain myth in the sumerian legend..

It is a complete myth.... These stories, legends and myths served a theological purpose to these semitic cultures not a historical one its only 21st century moro_ns that tag them historical because their beliefs are centered around these myths.

omenka:
I'm afraid you haven't tackled the most important questtion here.

Matter of fact, you've somehow simplified the question: Noah and his ark was to that time what Jesus is to this time. Everyone who refused to heed the call of Noah perished in the flood. This time, God has given us his son through which we can be saved and I doubt he'd still commission someone to build us some mighty bunker to save us from an impending catastrophe- Jesus is that "bunker".

So, what happens to those who don't take cover in the "bunker"??

comparative analysis my friend... wouldn't it be logical to point out the same fate faced by those who rejected the bunker of Noah's time will be faced by the rest of those who reject Salvation?

TheFirstLady:
comparative analysis my friend... wouldn't it be logical to point out the same fate faced by those who rejected the bunker of Noah's time will be faced by the rest of those who reject Salvation?

Of course! So what you are trying to say essentially is that all Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and Atheists will perish- including all unborn-again Christians?? What is a whole lot of people oo!

johnydon22:


there was no global flood, the story is of Sumerian origin and then later found in younger cultures afterwards..

Younger stories do not give credibility to old ones rather only stories of the same timeline can do that.

Myths and legends are centered around some original motif or theme, the historical consensus is that the Sumerian legend was actually referring to an in land flood in the mesopotamian region.

It cannot and never was a global flood, there is no such rain.

The myth of the God Ea warning the chief character and instructing him to build a boat is a plain myth in the sumerian legend..

It is a complete myth.

ok, let's do this this way... was there ever an historical figure in all of earth's history called Abraham, the Patriach of the Jewish race? if you attest that the Israelites of old have their founding father in ABRAHAM who birthed Ishmael and Isaac... the Islamist being descendants of Ishmael while the Hebrews are descendants of Isaac...Abraham Originally from Mesopotamia,is the flood not recorded in their ancient history that precedes the Sumerians seeing Abraham is a descendant of Shem a son of Noah?

omenka:
Of course! So what you are trying to say essentially is that all Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and Atheists will perish- including all unborn-again Christians?? What is a whole lot of people oo!

alot of people then at that time perished as it was 8 persons that got into the ark- 7 of His family members, himself the 8th person... realise the number 8 is symbolic...compare that to the earth's population at that time. The higher powers don't deal with sentiments but principles... it is a matter of choice, the choice to be made by mortals.

its not like their religion(xtianity) even makes sense.

crusadistic:
its not like their religion(xtianity) even makes sense.

it is human nature to be put off by what we don't understand,that is why it is called prejudice ...somethings don't need to make sense to you to be credible ...the eyes of your understanding only need to be enlightened...btw Christianity is not a religion... men only succeeded in making religion out of it.

crusadistic:
its not like their religion(xtianity) even makes sense.

Which religion?Christianity isn't one anyway except what men may call it.
What sense are you talking about anyway?Don't people call nonsense what they don't understand?