Secrets from Beyond The Grave

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. --Romans 1:16, KJV These men, eleven out of twelve, willingly died as martyrs for their message that Christ is the Savior of mankind. Most of their deaths came at the hands of leaders of other religions who rejected their teachings, which contradicted the ideas of these other religions. Once an individual has heard the message of the gospel, at that moment that person is responsible for his or her own choice to believe or reject it. "He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned" (Mark 16:16). However, for years there has been one major sticking point. Even if a person had never once heard a clear gospel message, would God condemn him or her to a place of separation and eternal confinement if that person were not an idol worshiper and lived a moral type of life? This is perhaps the most difficult question to answer, because it questions the justice and mercy of God. I know you have heard it said, "How can a loving God send a person to hell?" Some will not accept a teaching on eternal punishment because it does not agree with their logic. I remind such logical thinkers that God never sends someone to hell . All men are born under a death penalty, and if a person does not remove this sin penalty passed on through Adam, that person is separated from God. Hell was not intended for man but was prepared for the "devil and his angels" (Matt. 25:41). In Scripture, many sins are listed that are either sins against man or sins against God. Any sin against God must be confessed to God, but with a sin against another person, the offender must ask forgiveness from the one he offended and also ask God for cleansing (Matt. 6:12-14). There are also willful sins and sins of ignorance . The writer of Hebrews gives a strong warning (Heb. 10:26-27). Those who sin in ignorance are those who do wrong but are unaware that what they are doing is a sin (Lev. 4). How does the one true God reveal Himself to humanity? There are basically four types of people on Earth: People who have no religion and no concept of or access to biblical truth People who have a belief in a religion and have never heard the gospel People who have a religion and practice it but have at least once heard a message of the gospel. However, they have never received the truth. People who have no religion, have heard and believed the gospel, and are saved The Bible indicates that in ancient times God once winked at men's spiritual ignorance, but He no longer ignores men's ignorance (Acts 17:3, KJV). There are many individuals, perhaps primitive tribes in jungle regions and other remote areas, who have lived on the land and rivers for many generations yet have never heard a clear message of Christ's power to redeem. In light of this, it is written in 2 Peter 2:21: "For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them." If it is better to have never heard than to have heard and turned, then does this imply that those who never hear the gospel could automatically go to heaven? If those who never hear can have a free pass to the kingdom, then should we quit sending missionaries and printing Bibles and let those who have never heard remain in their ignorance? Certainly not, for Christ told us we were to go into the entire world and preach the gospel to every creature, baptizing them in water and making disciples for Him (Mark 16:15-16). However, there is another aspect of this that must be considered, written in Romans