Sven

I'm not sure if this is the right forum - mods please feel free to move this to GRD or EoG or ...

[emphasis mine]

So, here is my question: Why didn't Jesus tell the disciples about America and Australia? After all, there also were a lot of people to be saved. Since he didn't mention these two unknown continents, they could not be baptized and could not believe and thus were condemned (at least according to a straightfoward interpretation of this passage).
Additonally, Jesus revealing the existence of two unknown continents would have been a great prophesy which would be very hard to deny by anyone.

And please don't tell me that Jesus did tell them about it, but the disciples simply forgot it, didn't write it up, didn't tell anyone etc. You know yourself that this answer is ridiculous.

MachineGod

I'm not sure I understand the question.

"All the world" means "All the world".

The evidence that this was done is here. Pretty much all the world has heard the news.

Resistor

But what about the people who died before that happened?

Sven

Don't you think it would have been much easier and could have happened much faster if Jesus had told them?

BTW, you contradict yourself. Is it "pretty much all" or "all"?

You also ignored the parts about that all those people would have been condemned for about 1500 yeras and about being a great prophesy.

Could you please explain why the most simplest explanation (assumed Jesus existed and indeed said something like this) is not that he (and the writers of the gospels) didn't know about America and Australia?

Magus55

And how would they have gotten to the Americas and Australia to preach? Had Jesus teleport them back and forth?

You're also assuming that anyone who never heard anything about Jesus or the Gospel would actually be condemned. As i imagine the population in the americas and Australia were extremely small back then, I don't think it was a big issue at the time.

Green

Well why couldn't Jesus defy the laws of Physics? I mean if saving souls was so important that he had to die on a cross and suffer so much? Are you're saying that people who have never heard of the gospel do not go to hell? Or that God doesn't care if small populations because numbers are important to him? And if they are what about the Chinese and Indians? They had rather large populations but had never recieved the gospel from Jesus.


To Sven this is kind of pointless because you're asking the Bible to have more knowledge than its creators. No matter how divinely inspired the Bible cannot hold knowledge about today's world that was not known at the time (spiritual/religious matters excluded of course)

Peter Kirby

Acts 8:38-40.
38And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him. 39When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing. 40Philip, however, appeared at Azotus and traveled about, preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea.

best,
Peter Kirby

nukular

I am curious why folks believe this to be the case, other than to justify that this wasn't a "big issue"? To put forward the idea (whatever the degree) that the New World or Australia were empty or mostly empty, is at worst an imperialistic myth or at best a mistake. Please provide some references which would indicate a New World population two thousand years ago was less than, say 10 million.

MachineGod

He "told them" to preach the news to "all the world." I think that is much easier than naming every town, city, country, and/or continent. Don't you?

I said "pretty much all", because I personally don't know if every single square foot or earth has been covered. I don't see a contradiction in that. Besides, it's still being preached.

How do you figure that? How could someone be condemned for something they have never heard yet? Condemning doesn't mean, "your going to hell!" I can condemn you for this, and I can condemn you for that, but I can still forgive for whatever was done.

Which prophesy are you referring to? The statement of "go and preach the good news to all the world" isn't a prophecy.

With that logic, I guess you have to say he didn't know about Italy because he never mentioned it.
But if I ask the question, why didn't he say anything about Iraq? Then assuming he didn't know about it is pointless.

I think your trying to make something out of nothing.
I'm actually quite surprised you didn't assert that "preaching to all creation" meant to preach to good news to the trees, the rocks, and the animals too.

This thread is pointless.

Sven

Also as answers to MachineGod: This is not my assumption. There were and actually are a great many Christians who determined exactly this from the bible.

To Green: I of course don't assume that there would be anything in the bible not known in the time of Jesus. But since Christians believe in the divinity of Jesus, which includes knowing that these continents existed I presume, they have to answer this question.