Originally posted by: xEDIT409
How come in Christianity, they believe that if one is not Christian or if they do not follow Jesus... something along those lines... they will go to hell?
I'm in a World Religions class, and today, we had a Minister come in as a guest speaker. When he said this, I asked him,
"Well sir, I'm Hindu, and so is my entire family. Back in India, my grandparents live in a remote agricultural village where Christianity or any other relgion except Hinduism and maybe Islam, don't exist. My grandparents are the nicest people I have ever met. They both used to be elementary teachers, they've contributed much of their time and money to their community, and overall, they're very good people. So which leads to my question... are they going to hell because they don't even know Christianity is a religon?
His response: "I'm very sorry to say, but, yes, they will be going to hell"
My reaction: :disgust: +
+ :Q + (A mix of those)
That is the belief but of only a few radical Christians.
Pope Pius IX answered this question best:
Invincible Ignorance: What does the Church Teach?
A Concise but Clear Reply
Fr. FRANÇOIS LAISNEY
Ignorance is the privation of knowledge. Knowledge being of itself something good, if that knowledge was due (=should have been there), then it is an evil (privation of a good due). For example, it is not evil to ignore Chinese for people for whom this knowledge is not due. But it is evil to ignore the basic moral natural laws, which each one endowed with reason can know. There are two kinds of evil: when it is willful, it is an evil of fault (sin); when it is against our will, it is an evil of pain (punishment or trial sent by God).
Invincible ignorance is that kind of ignorance that is not willed at all: neither directly (as when a child intentionally refuses to learn his lesson: the ignorance of his lesson is directly willed), nor indirectly (=consequence of neglect and lack of due care, as when a child plays so much that he no longer has enough time to learn).
Invincible ignorance does not save (since good can only come from good, and never from an absence of good). What invincible ignorance does, is that it excuses from a sin against that rule which is invincibly ignored. This is what Pope Pius IX says: "It must likewise be held as certain that those who are affected by ignorance of the true religion, if it is invincible ignorance, are not subject to any guilt in this matter before the eyes of the Lord" (Singulari Quadem of December 9, 1854, Denzinger 1647; emphasis added).
The Pope does not say that it excuses of guilt in all matters. For instance a cannibal kanak in New Caledonia before the arrival of the missionaries was invincibly ignorant about the Catholic Church, and thus had no sin in this matter, but that did not excuse him of the sin of cannibalism, because there is no need of a missionary to know "thou shalt not eat thy neighbor"!
It is important to know that the Church does not recognize invincible ignorance in matters that belong to the primary natural laws, the very elementary natural laws that anyone who has the use of his reason grasps, such as "thou shalt not to do others what thou dost not want others to do to thee." The Church teaches that the Ten Commandments are a reminder of this Natural Law. Thus the Church does not admit invincible ignorance not only on killing innocents, adultery, theft, dishonoring parents, but also on idolatry (natural reason grasps with evidence that the works of human hands are not gods), blasphemy, and the complete absence of prayer. The existence of God belongs to natural truths; "The heavens tell of His glory" (Psalm 23): thus there cannot be invincible ignorance about the existence of God.
There may be a partial ignorance, there may be an obscuration of reason because of customs, which would then diminish responsibility, but that would not amount to a totally invincible ignorance. Only the fool, i.e. the insane, who never had the use of his reason, would be totally invincibly ignorant of such things.
Matters which are above nature, supernatural truths and laws, positive divine law (e.g. the determination of which day should be consecrated to the Lord), can of course quite easily be invincibly ignored, if one had no access to public Revelation. Thus in countries where no missionary had gone, the people were in invincible ignorance of the one true Church, and of the necessity of water Baptism. But that would not excuse from - much less obtain forgiveness for - the other sins that they had.
Now the Good Lord, Who "wants the salvation of all men and that they come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Timothy 2:4), does give some actual graces to people even who had no contact with the Church, since "the hand of the Lord is not shortened" (Isaias 59:1). The goal of all actual grace is to lead to sanctifying grace. If the soul does not resist, but cooperates with this actual grace, then he will not be denied sanctifying grace, as Pope Pius IX says in the next paragraph (Denzinger 1648): "The gifts of heavenly grace will assuredly not be denied to those who sincerely want and pray for refreshment by the divine light." That divine light enlightens the soul on the mysteries of the Faith; for sure God is a good teacher and knows what the man needs to know! (But it does not belong to us to decide what God should teach them: this is why Pope Pius IX says that we are not allowed to inquire further.)
To embrace that which divine light shows to the soul is precisely to have Faith, which must lead to work through charity. Such a man is thus saved by Faith (living Faith), not by invincible ignorance. Having the true Faith, he belongs by right to the Community of the (true) believers, which is the Catholic Church. Having charity (which is always connected with sanctifying grace) he has (at least) the votum, the true will and full desire, to do all that God wants him to do, and thus the votum to receive Baptism if God would make him know that this is required, even if he does not know about baptism. This votum can thus be implicit, compatible with invincible ignorance on that particular point of Faith. Yet he is not in complete ignorance about God: he knows what God has chosen to reveal to him, and must adhere to all these truths which have been revealed to him. Similarly, his votum is not completely implicit: it is virtually contained in the explicit will to do all that God wants him to do.
Moreover one must add that adherence to the truth and love of the truth necessarily goes with departure from error and rejection of error. It is not possible at the same time to adhere to the True God and to adhere to false religions. However, God is not obliged to enlighten the soul on every truth, and may leave the soul in invincible ignorance of certain points, and even in error on some secondary points. In this latter case, the soul does not fully adhere to the error, but rather dubitatively, as a (false) opinion rather than as a firm belief. One can see a few examples of this even in some Doctors of the Church, how much more in us and in other souls! It is not possible to fully adhere to a false religion and have the true Faith at the same time: and "without which faith no one has ever been justified" (Council of Trent, Session VI, Chapter 8).
All graces come from Our Lord Jesus Christ, they were "purchased" by Him on the Cross. All actual graces lead to Our Lord Jesus Christ. If the soul cooperates, they will lead it to union with Our Lord Jesus Christ, which union is made by sanctifying grace. Sanctifying grace is the living bond of the Mystical Body of Christ. It always comes with the virtues of Faith (true Faith of course), hope and charity. These inner virtues always tend to manifest themselves in the profession of Faith, the prayer and worship (consequence of hope), and the submission to the legitimate religious authorities (consequence of charity): thus inner union with Christ always goes with external union with Him (=with His Church) "re aut voto" -- in deed or at least in desire.