Saturday, March 05, 2005

Theology talk part II

Note that to understand why I am bringing up this topic, you will need to read the previous post.

God being described as a "God of Wrath" is a necessary attribute to understand about the Lord. God is so divine and holy beyond our comprehension that by merely looking upon His face, one will be disinegrated because of His radiant holiness. Sin is in sharp contrast from this. As such, God has zero tolerance for sin. The greatest example of this is the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Sin was so overwhelming that God spared only the righteous family of Lot and demolished the rest of the city with fire. One can either see God in this picture as evil for doing this (regardless for what the people did), or to see it as it trully is: sin is THAT bad. The other attribute of God that keeps "Wrath" in check (if I may use that phrase) is the title "God who is Just". This plays in role with what I was mentioning in the previous post about babies being able to go to Heaven. What I wanted to extend on this matter is the idea of those who may not have "heard the Gospel".
Take, for example, the Native Americans who had no interactions with missionaries. Obviously, this would mean they never heard of "Christ the Messiah" or any other Christian ideas. I believe God understands this. Considering he "so loved the WORLD" it is necessary for Him to make known about Him to those who never heard the Good News.
God does this by nature. Romans 1:19, 20 says, "For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For His invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse." Nature speaks VOLUMES of the idea of "creation" and is evident of a wonderous working behind the scene. One may ask, "so how should they know 'Jesus'?" This questions brings up many theological concepts, but (considering I am unaware of official names on this subject minus one) I will put in my own words how this works. Throughout the Old Testment, as well as a few places in the New Testmant, the Lord has been called by many names. Protector, Counselor, Friend, Judge, Deliverer, Refuge, etc. Each name captures only a glimpse of the true God. As is mentioned in the New Testament, "all who call on the name of Christ will be saved". The Native American could call out a name (any name) to describe that one true God, and in His heart accept Him as such. If a Native American was to look at nature and decided to give his heart and devotion to "that God", then the "God who is Just" would take his devotion as unto Him. This doesn't negate Christ, for even that native american would have to answer to Him, but I'm sure that a "Just" God would be one who would realize that persons unawareness of the Gospel; and if the individual was to look at the evidence around him and worship the God that penetrates his heart through that evidence...then I believe Christ would accept him as such.
So this is how I see the nature of those who aren't aware of the Gospel and how that comes into play with certain attributes of God.

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