Expert: J.M.J. West - 8/7/2008

Question
I just read an answer to one of the questions on this site. My question is, if you have had the chance to follow God like I recently have because I studied with the Jehovah's Witnesses and don't like their teachings does that mean I will go to hell? Because in a way I have rejected God. But I don't believe I am a bad person. I donate to charities, treat people the way I would like to be treated and when I leave home I plan to do such things like adopt an aids orphan and volunteer for charities. I am not trying to toot my own horn but I also would like to think that these things don't exactly make me hellbound; wanting to help others and make this world a better place. So because I believe that I am not exactly deserving of hell but in a sense have rejected God, will I go to hell?

Answer
Jaimi,

Great questions.  I'll do my best to answer fully and honestly.  

YOU WROTE:
"If you have had the chance to follow God like I recently have because I studied with the Jehovah's Witnesses and don't like their teachings does that mean I will go to hell?"

The Catholic Church - which is the first and original church founded by Jesus Christ - teaches that it is not impossible for those who've not been "card carrying members" of the church in this life to attain heaven, so long as they earnestly sought God with their whole hearts.  Many people will not be privy to the full truth revealed by God to his people (found in it's fullness in the Catholic Church, protected by the bishops his apostles ordained at his command).

However, God is a God of Mercy, who wills that all should be saved and that none shall perish (1 Tim 2:4 and 2 Pet 3:9), and he is not a God of technicalities, but one who judges the heart.  He knows how much of the truth we've been privy to, and how we've honestly responded to it (and thus to Him, who is Truth Itself.)  This may sound hard to understand, but I'll let C. S. Lewis sum it up for me.  In the last of his Narnia books, "The Last Battle," a Calormene soldier named Emeth who has served the wicked God Tash all of his life comes face to face with the true Creator of the Worlds, Aslan the Christ-figuring Lion.  This is his exchange with the Lion:

* * * * * *
“So I went over much grass and many flowers and among all kinds of wholesome and delectable trees till lo! in a narrow place between two rocks there came to meet me a great Lion. The speed of him was like the ostrich, and his size as an elephant’s; his hair was like pure gold and the brightness of his eyes like gold that is liquid in the furnace. He was more terrible than the Flaming Mountain of Lagour, and in beauty he surpassed all that is in the world even as the rose in bloom surpasses the dust of the desert.Then I fell at his feet and thought, Surely this is the hour of death, for the Lion (who is worthy of all honour) will know that I have served Tash all my days and not him. Nevertheless, it is better to see the Lion and die than to be Tisroc of the world and live and not to have seen him. But the Glorious One bent down his golden head and touched my forehead with his tongue and said, Son, thou art welcome. But I said, Alas Lord, I am no son of thine but the servant of Tash. He answered, Child, all the service thou hast done to Tash, I account as service done to me. Then by reasons of my great desire for wisdom and understanding, I overcame my fear and questioned the Glorious One and said, Lord, is it then true, as the Ape said, that thou and Tash are one? The Lion growled so that the earth shook (but his wrath was not against me) and said, It is false. Not because he and I are one, but because we are opposites, I take to me the services which thou hast done to him. For I and he are of such different kinds that no service which is vile can be done to me, and none which is not vile can be done to him. Therefore if any man swear by Tash and keep his oath for the oath’s sake, it is by me that he has truly sworn, though he know it not, and it is I who reward him. And if any man do a cruelty in my name, then, though he says the name Aslan, it is Tash whom he serves and by Tash his deed is accepted. Dost thou understand, Child? I said, Lord, though knowest how much I understand. But I said also (for the truth constrained me), Yet I have been seeking Tash all my days. Beloved, said the Glorious One, unless they desire had been for me thou wouldst not have sought so long and so truly. For all find what the truly seek.
* * * * * *

The Catholic Church would call this the doctrine of invincible ignorance (cf http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07648a.htm), which means if we are truly, honestly ignorant of some fact about God, we will not be judged because of it.  Jesus himself demonstrates this when he chides the Pharisees for denying him, saying that if he had not come and revealed the truth to them, they would not have sinned (John 15:22).  This is the case with Emeth above, he had not ever known the Lion, an yet in his heart he always sought to follow Him.

In fact, our ignorance can be a means through which God works on us (and others).  "He works through Nature, through our  own bodies, through books, sometimes through experiences which seem (at the time) anti-Christian. When a young man who has been going to church in a routine way honestly realizes that he does not  believe in  Christianity and stops going -- provided he does it for honesty's sake and not just to annoy his parents -- the spirit of Christ is probably nearer to him then than it ever was before," (C. S. Lewis, -"Mere Christianity").

That said, I'd warn you to stay away from the Jehovah's Witnesses, as they are a false church and are arguably not even Christian, for they deny Christ was God Incarnate, and have even altered the bible (eg. their New World Translation says in John 1 "in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was *A* God." - the article 'a' is nowhere in the original texts, and they inserted this in English precisely to deny the Trinity.)  

More on Jehovah's Witnesses here: http://www.catholic.com/library/noncatholic_groups.asp

YOU WROTE:
"In a way I have rejected God."

I cannot judge this to be the case or not, but it sounds only like you've rejected bad doctrine from an aberrant "Christian" group (many of them sprung up after 1517ad, when the Reformation began and Christianity began to faction and shatter, which was never in the plan).

That said...

YOU WROTE:
"But I don't believe I am a bad person. I donate to charities, treat people the way I would like to be treated and when I leave home I plan to do such things like adopt an aids orphan and volunteer for charities. I am not trying to toot my own horn but I also would like to think that these things don't exactly make me hellbound; wanting to help others and make this world a better place."

It sounds like you have a big heart, and legitimately care for others, and this is important, but is not the ultimate factor - and it is possible to do all of those things for selfish purposes (eg. they make one feel 'good' or 'better' or even 'superior').  What is most important is that we pursue Truth all of our lives, for if we deny this, we deny reality itself and end up in that eternal psychosis which is self-exclusion from God - and which makes any other "good" we do utterly self-centered as opposed to Love centered.

But you sound like one honestly searching, which is important.  I must encourage you to keep searching, and search www.catholic.com, because if Catholicism is false, you can pretty much discredit all other Christian denominations because they were the first, and the very canon of the scriptures comes from Her, so if you can disprove her, you can disprove the bible.  I say this, of course, because I do not think that you can do that.  Catholicism is utterly true, and ultimately the most reasonable faith I've found (I converted from Agnosticism myself).  You might also dig around the Catechism of the Catholic Church here: http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc.htm

Good luck and God bless.  If you have any other questions, feel free to address them.  I hope I've sufficiently answered your questions.

Peace of Christ,

-J.M.J. West