Through Him

I just can't get this out of my head. My heart struggles with what I have been taught the fate of a certain group of people are, since they have chosen to live an alternative, atheist, or agnostic lifestyle. I might even be thrown in the same category for questioning the Creation Story. According to the church I grew up in and some friends and family, they are going to hell and will not be welcomed into the City of God at the end of their lives. I am struggling with accepting a God who looks at all their pain of loneliness and rejection and adds to it. Is this true? Is this the way He really is? I want to get to know the LOVE of God, but in the right way. Have we been placing His love in a box that we can pull out and pour on people when we're comfortable with it, but keep it hidden when we're uncomfortable?

Take this link for example http://www.tillhecomes.org/coked-up-whore/#comment-3185 . If she found herself in this situation, with no way out, and she's not aware that Jesus can rescue her, I still believe that he WILL reach down and RESCUE her, even if she doesn't ask him to, because he says THROUGH him, men (and women) are saved. And what does it really mean, To Be Saved, anyway?

So where does this put my friends? If they have been taught incorrectly about God's love and acceptance, and this resulted in hurt, rejection and/or hatred of Christianity, then are they really to blame for not accepting Christ? Or are we, the "church" to blame? If they don't ASK God to forgive them and Jesus to save them, does that mean He won't, because He wasn't asked? Or He won't, because they rejected Him first?  Is He as petty with His feelings as we are? It seems petty to think that if we don't love God, He won't accept us. I just struggle big time with this one.



Quote from C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity:

"We do know that no person can be saved except through Christ. We do not know that only those who know Him can be saved by Him. "

I love that.