Why the Hebrews?

[drfuzzy]

Right Wyrd.  I don't believe god exists.  I don't think that spirits go to an afterlife.  I think that "god" is just a means of control - a way for priests to gain power, a way for warriors to imagine they have the protection of a powerful invisible being who is on their side, etc.

I was raised right-wing Protestant xtian.  I'm pretty read up on the fairy tale.  I know that some folks believe that the "good" people who lived before Jesus would be saved.  (Most apparently believe that only applies to observant Jews though.)   What I'm saying is, that I have never heard a good explanation from a Christian, a preacher, a priest, a theologian, etc., about what their church's stance is on the "other" nations.  There are enough preachers on this forum, there are enough bible scholars, surely someone has run across an explanation that . . . well, some folks thought made some sense.  Because I have never found a decent answer.

The official fairy tale answer to that question can be found in Romans 2:12-29 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?se...;MEV;VOICE

Yes, Wyrd, but what does that MEAN?  It seems to say what I have heard before - that there are those "who do not have the Law" but who have good hearts anyway. After death, god will look into their hearts and judge them accordingly.  

Well, that's pretty word salad, isn't it?  That's precisely the type of non-answer a preacher who really believes that he, his congregation, and a few scattered others are going to heaven, and the rest of the (tiny little flat world) are evil monsters who will go to hell - except a few other special ones that he just hasn't met yet.
     If you go by Jesus' "no man cometh to the Father except through me" - - which apologists explain multiple ways; most historians believe Jesus never said; and most evangelicals take to mean "if you don't love Jesus you can go to hell" - - well, then, this is a huge contradiction, isn't it?   If you think like most xtians, non-xtians will burn, period.  
     If you think like a lot of liberal xtians (including, apparently, the current Pope), then there are many paths to god.  And anyone of any different faith who has a good heart, searches for god, tries to be good, gets a pass.

Anyone who does not have the law but is good gets a pass?  Anyone who has heard the law but then doesn't follow it goes to hell?  There are so many problems with this that it would take me more time than I have right now to type it all out.  Here's just one issue: a god that can judge a pure heart surely knows that people raised in a "different" religion are very unlikely to abandon it.  But according to that Romans passage, if they read about what xtians believe, then they know of the law - even though it will seem ridiculous to them.  But now they are doomed, because they know.  

And if god decides they were good even if they were raised in the wrong religion, and lets them avoid eternal damnation, then yes, he has just completely circumvented the sacrifice of Jesus.  Which means it wasn't necessary.  Which means, as another thread says, Christianity implodes.  The message would be "just be good, no matter what you believe, or even if you don't believe in god" - a message that I like, that makes most theologians scream.

No, this scripture passage doesn't really answer the question.  It was probably meant to, for those who were discouraged from asking questions.  But if you dig a little, it falls apart.