Dear Fr.Ivo, Sorry for the late reply. If you thought I'd given up, I haven't... :-)
You said :> All human beings have the law in themselves, not without the activity of God in them. Faith with knowledge is better. Better that what? It implies that faith without knowledge is also acceptable. That is called blind faith. The ancient people had faith without knowledge. The people who believed in Baal, and all those weird gods who's names I don't really remember. That did not please God. The ancient people built idols and had faith in them (an earlier kind of human-invented religion). We know how pleased God was with them. You also said :> That is the reason why we have to proclaim the Truth, salvation by Jesus. It is always a 'narrow road', that of sacrifice for all, whether they are believers or atheists or agnostic. But then as you said, faith without knowledge is also acceptable, right? I mean, in your last few mails, you've been saying that we have an obligation to witness, but haven't quite stated the reason why. On one hand, your argument is that all get saved, irrespective of whether they know Jesus or not, and yet you say, we have an obligation to witness. What's the point? Isn't it an exercise in futility, if the end result is going to be the same in anycase? I never really did understand the concept of atheism, because, the very existence of the atheists proves the existence of God. When I first heard of atheists, my first thoughts were, how can you not believe in something you don't believe exists? Agnosticism is a more understandable concept, since you doubt the existence of God. (PS, this definition changes, according to what kind of agnostic you're talking to). And if you talk about the sacrifice for 'all', extending to atheists and agnostics, it really defies the concept of the narrow gate. Infact, it renders the Biblical notion of narrow gate obsolete. If I may quote a Scripture, Matthew 20:28 says, The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many". Note the word used is many, not all... Then you said, The Gentiles have the law in their hearts. But if they do not glorify God, sinning against their light, they are convicted. I don't know about people having the law in their hearts, and anyway I wouldn't trust the conscience as a just evaluator of good and bad. After all, we're only human, and as you said, All have fallen short of the Glory of God, which implies that however good/bad we are, we're light years away from God's Holy standards. The conscience may or may not be God's voice. No comments on that. And about the scipture you quoted, Romans 3:23, "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God", that implies we need to bridge that gap. How do we do that? The answer is in the very next statement, Romans 3:24. "Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus". Need I say more? You later made the statement that Christian life is very difficult, but God's Grace is always there. We are too selfish. That is the drama (or tragedy) of our lives. I agree with that statement. [ This seems to be the first statement that we agree on :-) ] Later about the astrology thing, you said that "They found God in the nature and in the Scriptures. This is a 'foretelling' of the conversion of the Gentiles." How is it a foretelling? It's just an instance. After that incident, did everybody go and somehow follow stars/planets/astrology and meet Jesus? No they didn't. Then you quoted that the Church teaches about salvation of non-Christians. The Church did not originally hold this teaching. It suddenly changed its stance sometime during the century. God's Word doesn't change. I do not know the basis or, as you say, 'background' of the Church's teaching of Salvation of non-Christians. I would appreciate if you would post a link to what/how/when/why the Church came up with that. It might not convince us, but would definitely enlighten us on why people believe the things they do. Lastly, to copy paste from your post, >> Know Jesus, Know Life. No Jesus, No Life. *Therefore, we have the duty of proclaiming. All people have the duty of searching meaning for life and living according to their light. God does the rest. This is NOT what I meant whan I said Know Jesus, Know Life. No Jesus, No Life. I meant that Eternal Life is ONLY through Jesus Christ, and without Him, it's not attainable. And then you mentioned about proclaiming, which contradicts your earlier statements about salvation for non-Christians Truth Liberates Nigel Britto