How many will be saved?

[McCulloch]

To say that anyone not hearing the Gospel is going to hell and therfore the plan is flawed is based on the assumption that God is unjust. But he is just and I'm sure there is a back up plan. He will judge those people that have never heard the Gospel in the manner in which they've lived their life against the moral values he has placed in us. Roman 2:11- 16

For there is no partiality with God.
For all who have sinned without the Law will also perish without the Law, and all who have sinned under the Law will be judged by the Law; for it is not the hearers of the Law who are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified.
For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them, on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus.

Because of this, I assume there will be more people in Heaven than only the ones who have accepted Christ. I believe only those that have heard the Gospel, evaluated it, and ultimately rejected Christ will perish according to scripture. So if you look at the "numbers" of people going to heaven, taking into account Romans 2, there should be far more people in heaven than not. Assuming of course the people not exposed to the Gospel live a good moral life.

Questions for debate: According to the Bible, how many ways are there to get to heaven without explicitly accepting Christ in your lifetime?
According to the Bible, what proportion of humans will be saved? A small minority? Less than half? More than half? Most of us? Almost all? Everyone?
Or is it that the Bible does not address this question?

[micatala]

My short answer is that we don't know how many will be saved. Consider the last part of your citation from Romans.

God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus.

God will judge what no man can see or know. Thus, we cannot tell how many will be saved.

[Confused]

My short answer is that we don't know how many will be saved. Consider the last part of your citation from Romans.

God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus.

God will judge what no man can see or know. Thus, we cannot tell how many will be saved.

I fail to see how this post answers any of the questions for debate. I don't interpret the Romans citation to say we cant tell how many will be saved. And what about the rest of the questions?

[Confused]

To say that anyone not hearing the Gospel is going to hell and therfore the plan is flawed is based on the assumption that God is unjust. But he is just and I'm sure there is a back up plan. He will judge those people that have never heard the Gospel in the manner in which they've lived their life against the moral values he has placed in us. Roman 2:11- 16

For there is no partiality with God.
For all who have sinned without the Law will also perish without the Law, and all who have sinned under the Law will be judged by the Law; for it is not the hearers of the Law who are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified.
For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them, on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus.

Because of this, I assume there will be more people in Heaven than only the ones who have accepted Christ. I believe only those that have heard the Gospel, evaluated it, and ultimately rejected Christ will perish according to scripture. So if you look at the "numbers" of people going to heaven, taking into account Romans 2, there should be far more people in heaven than not. Assuming of course the people not exposed to the Gospel live a good moral life.

Questions for debate: According to the Bible, how many ways are there to get to heaven without explicitly accepting Christ in your lifetime?
According to the Bible, what proportion of humans will be saved? A small minority? Less than half? More than half? Most of us? Almost all? Everyone?
Or is it that the Bible does not address this question?

According to Christs own words, the only way to the father is through Him. Romans, Acts, etc... are all words of apostles etc... None of them are the words of Christ. So there is only one way to get to heaven, Accept Christ as your Lord and Savior, follow his commandments. Period.

[melikio]

According to the Bible, how many ways are there to get to heaven without explicitly accepting Christ in your lifetime?

I don't think anyone "really" knows. Or at the very least, people can't seem to agree on a set number of "ways"; it has been argured and argued...etc.

According to the Bible, what proportion of humans will be saved?

Most interpretations I've heard, indicate it's a "small" proportion.

Everyone?

Nope.

Or is it that the Bible does not address this question?

I can't see how the Bible or any book can (really) address that question.

If so many people would stop taking sacred texts so literally, I don't think questions like this would be anything but "interesting".

-Mel-

[Confused]

To say that anyone not hearing the Gospel is going to hell and therfore the plan is flawed is based on the assumption that God is unjust. But he is just and I'm sure there is a back up plan. He will judge those people that have never heard the Gospel in the manner in which they've lived their life against the moral values he has placed in us. Roman 2:11- 16

For there is no partiality with God.
For all who have sinned without the Law will also perish without the Law, and all who have sinned under the Law will be judged by the Law; for it is not the hearers of the Law who are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified.
For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them, on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus.

Because of this, I assume there will be more people in Heaven than only the ones who have accepted Christ. I believe only those that have heard the Gospel, evaluated it, and ultimately rejected Christ will perish according to scripture. So if you look at the "numbers" of people going to heaven, taking into account Romans 2, there should be far more people in heaven than not. Assuming of course the people not exposed to the Gospel live a good moral life.

Questions for debate: According to the Bible, how many ways are there to get to heaven without explicitly accepting Christ in your lifetime?
According to the Bible, what proportion of humans will be saved? A small minority? Less than half? More than half? Most of us? Almost all? Everyone?
Or is it that the Bible does not address this question?

The more I have sat back and thought about this question, them more I have researched into finding a semblance of some sort of answer, the more I have had to admit to myself the following:
1) According to the bible, the only way to the father is through the son: without explicitly accepting Christ, you cannot get there,
2) The bible never really says or hints at how many will be saved, but states several times that more will perish. So I guess it never really addresses the question.

[r~]

Accepting and following Jesus’ Commandments (Love your neighbors as yourself, do not judge or condemn the sins of others) is, by (spiritual) definition, “accepting Christ”; whether this is done “explicitly” or knowingly or not. Believing Jesus is God incarnate and professing acceptance of Him as Savior, yet ignoring these Commands is the road to destruction. No one will find the gate by that path.

It is no more complicated than that.

Consider the parable of the Good Samaritan. The Samaritans were the homosexual/Muslims to the Jews of that day. Good Jews did not associate with Samaritans. Jesus forbade his apostles to go among the Samaritans; the Samaritans would not welcome Jesus to their city. Any Pharisee worth his salt would gladly cast the first, second and last stones at those blasphemous traitors to God.

Yet when Jesus was asked who will inherit eternal life, His answer was not the priest. His answer was the Samaritan that loved his neighbors as himself; that sacrificed for his neighbor. Repeat the parable with “Christian” in place of “priest”; “homosexual” or “Muslim” in place of “Samaritan” if you would understand how this parable relates to us in our day.

ItS
r~

[weird7]

Mathew 7:13,14

13 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:
14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

These scriptures are an indication about the small proportion of people who will go to heaven.

McCulloch:
"According to the Bible, how many ways are there to get to heaven without explicitly accepting Christ in your lifetime?"

I have been taught (I go to a southern baptist church) that there is only one other way (without explicitly accepting Christ), and that is to never have been given the opportunity to accept Christ. For instance: babies who die without ever living long enough to comprehend salvation. Another example I thought of is: people (like you see on National Geographic) who live deep in the forest with no contact with the outside world. They are primitive, act strange, have even stranger beliefs, and they never get to hear about Christ in their entire lifetime. These are extreme examples. There are probably people in the U.S. who have never heard the preached Word of God.

1 Corinthians 1:21
"For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe."

Romans 10:14
"How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?"

We believe that you have to have heard the preached message of God, and then God lets you to know that you are lost and he gives you an opportunity to accept Christ as your Savior. You then have the choice of rejecting Christ knowing your on the path to hell or accepting Christ and going to heaven.

In other words, no one has died and gone to hell without God letting them to know where they stand with him and giving them the opportunity to be saved

[McCulloch]

I have been taught (I go to a southern baptist church) that there is only one other way (without explicitly accepting Christ), and that is to never have been given the opportunity to accept Christ. For instance: babies who die without ever living long enough to comprehend salvation. Another example I thought of is: people (like you see on National Geographic) who live deep in the forest with no contact with the outside world. They are primitive, act strange, have even stranger beliefs, and they never get to hear about Christ in their entire lifetime. These are extreme examples. There are probably people in the U.S. who have never heard the preached Word of God.

The Southern Baptists teach that. Does the Bible?

[weird7]

I am sure it does though I can tell you where right now. I will have to ask my preacher and get back with you or maybe someone else in this forum can help. My preacher is a firm Bible based preacher and I have never known him to preach or teach anything that cannot be backed up in the Bible.