GRACE IMPLIES NO SALVATION FOR NON-CHRISTIANS

The Bible says that those who have never heard or responded to the gospel will not be saved. It sees no injustice in this for it holds that they will not be punished for not believing as long as they would have tried to believe or check out the Christian faith but they will be punished as their sins deserve in Hell forever (page 46, God, That’s Not Fair!).

The Bible say that it is the duty of all to seek God (Deuteronomy 10:12,13). This implies that even the simplest soul can find him and that Atheists who do not seek him are automatically evil sinners. Psalm 11:10 says that wisdom starts with fearing the Lord indicating that Atheists and Agnostics are stupid or resistant to the charms of God. They are not doing their duty which is to keep the commandments of God (page Ecclesiastes 12:13).

The Roman Catholic Church claims to be the one true Church. Today, Roman Catholics still hold that there is no salvation out of the true Church but add the new doctrine that anyone who is sincere and does what is thought to be right is a part of her. They are said to belong to her because they want to be right and since Catholicism is true they are implicitly Catholics. She says that all who sincerely adhere to a false religion will be saved (Handbook of Christian Apologetics, pages 324-328).

Rome says that salvation is utterly impossible without the grace – the supernatural assistance – of God. So God gives his grace to all the sincere to make them close to him. The sincere Buddhist gets close to goodness which is God but he does not know it is God. All this contradicts the Christian doctrine that God cannot lie (Titus 1:2). It would be the same as helping someone to deceive another or themselves. When you cause a person to mislead another it is the same as telling them a lie yourself. God would be out of order for asking us to devote our lives and make sacrifices for his doctrines when they may be untruths. Religions of dishonest god are wicked. If God gives grace to the heathen or the unbeliever they will think that it is their dogmas or gods that are making them nice and happy and will grow more devoted to them and love them and adore their demonic gods more. He would be falsely convincing them that they are right. God could reveal the true faith in dreams instead of lying.
 
Here is the only objection, “God can give grace to the victims of false religion because any misleading it does is justified when it brings them more light. He has no choice for it is better to deceive to refute lies when not doing it will lead to greater deception.” Still, we wouldn’t be able to trust this God for he could be deceiving us for a mysterious purpose. He could not bring us to the truth if he lies for then we wouldn’t know what the truth is. We would be capable of believing neither in Jesus or in God. The evidence for the perfection of Christ has no value for the Roman Catholic because she or he embraces a faith that teaches many bad things as the word of God.
 
God’s revelation is not entitled to be called a revelation if we cannot have full confidence in him. We would be still in doubt especially when we can’t understand his plans.

If the objection works then most religionists who do not know a lot about it are not right with God. Children, for example, are not saved until they get old enough to be able to memorise a complete list of dogmas.
 
It is unjust to send people to Hell for not having the truth unless there is some reason we cannot understand why this has to be done.
 
If sincerity will save you there would be no need for a public revelation from God and there probably would not be one for God could speak to us in our hearts even if we don’t know it is him.

Doctrines apart from ethics would be of no account if it is true that the sincere will be saved. They only lead to division and strife.
 
If God gave us a code of morality alone and didn’t give any metaphysical or theological doctrines there would be less sin for there would be less to squabble and cause rifts over. His doing this implies that knowing the truth is essential for salvation. He would not increase sin like this unless the worse evil of damnation would happen when people do not know his doctrines.
 
You cannot will without thinking first so you do not will your thoughts. When you cannot help what you think God would have programmed you to believe the truth if he wanted to save you in Heaven. Those who are to be saved would know the truth so conscious faith in Christ is required for salvation.
 
So, there is no salvation for those who don’t believe in Christ. While sincerity will not help you if you believe that there is no open manhole in the street and fall into it that does not prove that being sincerely wrong about Jesus should do the same. Sincerity should not harm you because it is doing your best. If God won’t let sincerity stop you tumbling down the hole it means he cannot but would if he could. The way things work in this world is not necessarily how it should be. The religion of Christ when properly understood is saying that sincerity should not save you which is terribly unkind. Christ was promoting bigotry by making hearing of him necessary for salvation. He wanted to hurt people for not letting him tramp all over them. That attitude leads to war and fighting and true Christianity fuels it.
 
Belief is not a free act so if you don’t have the truth then God spites you and wants you in Hell.