Re: Do people who have never heard the gospel go to hell?

you: I really believe your interpretation of these scriptures is being effected by the cult you were once in.

me: It's not. I just genuinely want to understand what the scriptures are saying here. Whether or not we go directly to heaven when we die is not an essential issue. But I just still want to know the truth on it.

I know there are scriptures that sound like they are saying we do go directly to heaven, just like there are scriptures that sound like people will be forever tortured in hell. But I believe all those scriptures can be answered within context and carefully reading them and laying aside preconceived notions. I don't in anyway have anything against the idea of going directly to heaven if that was the truth, but if that is not the truth, then it does no good to believe it and can affect the way we understand other scriptures.

you: The Bible is clear that for those who are in Christ "to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord" referring to our physical death."

me: But reading that passage more in context, I see it saying something else:

2 Cor. 5:
1For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, 3if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. 4For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.

6So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, 7for we walk by faith, not by sight. 8Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. 10For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.

To me, all this is talking about being in our mortal, corruptible bodies and longing for our glorified, immortal ones, hence where it says in verse 4, "4For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life." To me that passage directly relates to the passage in 1 Cornithians 15:53 that says "For the perishable must be clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality."
And there is no doubt that 1 Corinthians 15 is talking about our resurrection and receiving our glorified bodies.

Then verse 6 and 7 say,
6So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, 7for we walk by faith, not by sight.

Again this is talking about being in our mortal, corruptible bodies and while we are in these bodies, we are away from the Lord and we are walking by faith, and not by sight. When we receive our glorified bodies, we will no longer walk by faith, but we will walk by sight and will be at home with the Lord.


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