Moroni 8

I think that the world in general has no conception of the mercy of Christ, how expansive and encompassing of all people it is. Certainly some religions don't understand it and the area that they don't understand it most is in determining who will be saved and who will not. The most repulsive doctrine is the the one put forth that says little children who have not been baptized or accepted Christ are condemned to hell. At one time, an infant who died without baptism in the Catholic church ended up in a state of limbo between heaven and hell. The only way to get the child out of that state was to pay the priests. What was simply an act of greed on the part of the priests was gradually accepted as a doctrinal practice. Now the Catholic church has a more modified version as do most protestant and evangelical churches. Their view now is, that children who die, still die in sin because they are born sinners. This is because of the fall of Adam. Since the child did not commit sin but was born into that condition, his sin is hopefully pardoned. The fact is, they do not know what happens to children because there is no specific scripture that explains it. The only verse that relates to children is when the Savior said, "Suffer the little children to come unto me, for such is the kingdom of Heaven." Their discussion is on whether the children are saved into the Heaven or this is simply saying that people need to have humility like little children to be in heaven.

Most churches today are less inclined to condemn unbaptized children. But where the churches fall especially short is in all people who are not children and have never gained an understanding of the gospel, accepted Christ, or been baptized. All of these people, and this is the vast majority of people who have ever lived, are condemned to hell. I'm not sure about Catholics, but evangelicals embrace the doctrine of predestination which basically says that God has chosen certain people to be saved and all else are condemned. They take this from verses like Romans 8:29 which says, "Whom he (God) did foreknow, he also did predestinate, " and other various verses such as Ephesians 1:4, "According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world." If they actually believed in a pre-earth life, that would make some sense. But their explanation is, since God knows all things from beginning to the end, a pre-earth life isn't necessary for him to know us before we are born. This is in spite of the many scriptural references to a pre-earth life.