(tim_from_pa;14124)
I'll give you my two cents on this..... first of all, I as of now do not believe in "second chance" doctrines. Some folks do. However, I was raised in a mainline Evangelical church as I found them to be wrong on other things, so I may be wrong. However, I am not aware of any Scripture teaching it as many times as I read thru the bible. There is a resurrection of the just and unjust (Daniel 12:2, John 5:25-29) In both of these contexts it seems to me with a plain reading of the text that a person's fate is decided at death because they are already labeled as righteous or wicked at the resurrection. The righteous goes to life eternal (the second birth, 2 births one death; and the wicked face the second death---- one birth two deaths). Now, you may be asking what happens to a person that never heard? I like what Paul stated---- in effect "none of your business". For God in His sovereignty created some people to be vessels of wrath and others for His glory (see Romans 9). But as for those who never heard the gospel, I'll say what I believe based on what Paul stated--- such a person is expected to walk in the light that they have, and that's how God would judge them. For Paul stated in Romans 2:15 that those without the Law have their own conscience bearing witness so they are likewise judged as surely as a person who knows the Law and yet sinned. In other words, if a person goes against their conscience (which is all they know), that presupposes rebellion and the mechanism is the same as if they had the Law. How are they then saved? What did Paul say? By keeping the Law? No. They OT saints were saved the same way that NT ones were saved. By faith. So one who does not have the gospel can be saved by faith in what they know (i.e. revealed) to them. Oftentimes the Lord sends missions to such people as testified in the bible and in stories one hears.Now.... all this being said, I am a person that believes in British-Israelite teaching. That is not a mainline position. But I believe it because of straight-forward promises in the bible (e.g. Genesis 35:11, Genesis 48:19) and logical deduction based on myriads of scripture that describes them, tells what direction they went, and so forth. I get a tad impatient when people do not see this. I'm not one to "song and dance" around a scripture verse to make it fit my notions.On the other hand, the churches that teach lost tribes I think have the strangest interpretations on other parts of scripture especially subjects dealing with spiritual subjects. I tend to hold mainline doctrines there. The reason being that I see some who otherwise present scripture plainly enough regarding Israel "song and dance" around other scriptures (which seems somewhat contradictory to me). I hate when one reads something straightforward I'm told it does not really mean that.
Thanks for the great response. I see they do get more chances ot hear God and have faith in God.Or as Romands 9 says, perhaps God jusges them on what is good in their heart. Either way, it sounds good to me.