{"id":19892,"date":"2009-08-15T22:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-08-16T03:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=19892"},"modified":"2020-02-12T22:05:59","modified_gmt":"2020-02-13T04:05:59","slug":"what-about-people-who-spend-their-whole-life-following-the-wrong-religion-in-ignorance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-about-people-who-spend-their-whole-life-following-the-wrong-religion-in-ignorance\/","title":{"rendered":"What about people who spend their whole life following the wrong religion in ignorance?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t<h2>Question:<\/h2>\n<p>People are born into other religions and live their entire lives thinking that they are following the correct religion. They live life doing good deeds but follow their own religion. How does God view these people?<\/p>\n<p>Thank you for the web site and the learning that it provides to people such as myself that sometimes have tough questions with needed answers.<\/p>\n\t<h2>Answer:<\/h2>\n<p>Imagine being back in the first century. Millions of people have grown up their entire lives worshiping idols. They practice good deeds in the name of their religion, but this is all they have ever known. What did God ask of these people? &#8220;<em>Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent<\/em>&#8221; (Acts 17:30).<\/p>\n<p>The reason ought to be clear. Man-made religions do not save people. Though it might get twisted, people have basic ideas regarding what is right and wrong. The problem is that people don&#8217;t even keep their own standards accurately.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;<em>For there is no partiality with God. For as many as have sinned without law will also perish without the law. As many as have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. For it isn&#8217;t the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law will be justified (for when Gentiles who don&#8217;t have the law do by nature 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 testifying with them, and their thoughts among themselves accusing or else excusing them) in the day when God will judge the secrets of men, according to my Good News, by Jesus Christ<\/em>&#8221; (Romans 2:11-16).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>These days, Bibles are widespread and easily accessible. People can read them any time they want. They have minds that can analyze facts and compare what they learn to what they see being done. If a person is ignorant of what God has taught, whose fault is it?<\/p>\n<p>Which is sadder, a person who never thought to question whether his religion is correct, or a person who realizes that his religion doesn&#8217;t follow God&#8217;s teachings but then does nothing about it?<\/p>\n\t<h2>Additional Resources:<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-lost-who-never-heard-the-gospel\/\">The Lost Who Never Heard the Gospel<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Question: People are born into other religions and live their entire lives thinking that they are following the correct religion. They live life doing good deeds but follow their own religion. How does God view these people? Thank you for the web site and the learning that it provides to people such as myself that&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[300,354,47],"class_list":["post-19892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-denominations","tag-responsibility","tag-salvation"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":36332,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-christianity-a-religion-or-a-way-of-life\/","url_meta":{"origin":19892,"position":0},"title":"Is Christianity a Religion or a Way of Life?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 3, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Osamagbe Lesley Egharevba Unmasking Sophistry, vol. 1, no. 1, April-June 2021 Unmasking Sophistry, vol. 1, no. 2, July-September 2021 Many scoff at the idea that Christianity is a religion. It is very common to hear and read people speak about Christianity as not a religion but only a way\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":52160,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-does-it-mean-to-suppress-the-truth-in-unrighteousness\/","url_meta":{"origin":19892,"position":1},"title":"What does it mean to &#8220;suppress the truth in unrighteousness&#8221;?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 16, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good afternoon, Jeffrey. I've been meaning to ask for a while now what it means to \"suppress the truth in unrighteousness.\" It's something that gets said about atheists quite a bit. For the longest, in regards to Yahweh, I've thought it meant pretending He doesn't exist for the sake\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":67500,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/religion\/","url_meta":{"origin":19892,"position":2},"title":"Religion","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 15, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton I keep hearing people talk about \"religion\" as a bad thing. I hear some say things like, \"I believe in God but not religion,\" or \"I accept Jesus but reject all religion.\" It's as if they have a concept of \"religion\" that is all negative, but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":41356,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-chrislam\/","url_meta":{"origin":19892,"position":3},"title":"What is Chrislam?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 19, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What is Chrislam? Is it a widely accepted religion? Are followers of this faith allowed to marry anyone either Christian or Muslim? I have seen usually people with Christian family backgrounds adapted to this theory, but how is it possible that you travel in two ships together? Answer: You\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":57405,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-problem-with-organized-religion\/","url_meta":{"origin":19892,"position":4},"title":"The Problem with Organized Religion","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 29, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"by Andy Sochor via\u00a0Unmasking Sophistry, January-March 2023 Many people today disparage \"organized religion.\" Instead, they simply desire a \"personal relationship\" with the Lord. However, this is not an \"either-or\" proposition. In our service to God, we have personal and corporate responsibilities. Notice what Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":57543,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-wise\/","url_meta":{"origin":19892,"position":5},"title":"Is It Wise?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 2, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"by Garreth L. Clair Many people today are living their lives a certain way because they have decided that is the way they want to live. Everyone lives a certain way today because they have made the choice to live that way.\u00a0Environmental conditioning has played a part in the lifestyle\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19892\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}