You got it bd
I am going to throw in a side topic.
If Faith is all we need to be "saved", and Christ said: I am the way the truth and the light, no one comes to the father except by me". and "you must be baptised by water and by fire or you can in no wise enter the kingdom of heaven" (that might not be exact, but you get the point.)
What about all the people who lived before christ, not of the family of abraham, and what about all of the billions of chinese people who have never heard of christ? Are these people screwed? Does God not care about them? They didn't \ don't have any faith in Christ. They were certainly not baptised. How can you account for these people? If there is no second chance after death, there are a very large number of God's children that will not be "saved".
Simply put, at least I think it is, before Christ came, there was a different set of "rules" to go by. If you followed those "rules" then you were going to go to heaven (preforming the proper sacrifices, etc.) Christ came as the ulitmate sacrifice, so that we wouldn't have to stand by the old rules anymore. They still had to live by faith, and did so.
Actually chim, a lot of the world is still "in the dark" so to speak. It is lightening every day, but there are many people groups unreached. There are still people groups being discovered!!
How great is this earth God created huh?
Incredibly, I'll have to find it, but there is a documented story (i'm sure there is more) of the story of Christ being manifested as a "pagan religion" A Southern Baptist missionary went to a people group in Africa 30 some years ago, to share the word. When he got there, he discovered that the basic structure of Christ's story was in place, and that ths people group already worshipped God/Christ!! He filled in some details, but here was this people group, undiscovered until then, that already knew
Yes, God is a just God, and things go on that we don't know or could even comprehend. We have our directive (go out unto all the world, and make disciples of all men) and when we follow it, God will bless us, and those around us.
