INCEST IN THE BIBLE IS HORRIFYING. The Fact That Adam And Eve Had Sons And Daughters Who Are Our Ancestors Means Incest Is How The Human Race Came About. Still incest today is taboo and people question the Bible because of this, while overlooking incest had to have been a part of our ancestry, whichever way you look at it.

What does the Bible say about the fate of "virtuous non-believers"?

Struggling to understand how someone like Lot (impregnated his daughters) can be called righteous, where, say, a doctor who spent their life saving lives and did so out of genuine love for others but didn't happen to be born into the Christian faith would be condemned for answering to the wrong God.

Harry Riches · Answers

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First of all, how do doctors save lives when their patients die, mostly before the age of 70 yrs and definitely by the time they are 123 yrs old. So the concept of a human being saving lives is really a non-sequitur. The evidence is doctors sometimes prolong the lives of their patients. The majority of their patients would have lived just a long as they do without the doctors, but maybe with a little more discomfort and pain. This is, of course, if a patient does not die from iatrogenesis.

Secondly, God saves the ungodly. This is very important to understand. Because we are all ungodly and have sinned at some time in our lives. Nevertheless, the Bible tells us that there are good men to whom people may even sacrifice their own lives in an attempt to rescue or live, but God recognizes that humans have no hope of being truly righteous. Therefore every human is ungodly and does not measure up to overcoming sin and death. This is because of our moral weaknesses. From the Bible we learn:

• While we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.Why, one will hardly die for a righteous man—though perhaps for a good man one will dare even to die. But God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. (Romans 5:6-8)

Thirdly, generally speaking, people are not prepared to die on behalf of other people willingly. Jesus of Nazareth did though. However, only those who acknowledge their need for forgiveness and accept the death of Jesus on their own behalf, can be reconciled to God. This is what the Bible states:

• Since, therefore, we are now justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. Not only so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received our reconciliation. (Romans 5:9-11)

Fourthly, we are justified by faith when we accept that God created the Heavens and the Earth and recognize that unless we put our trust in Him, death reigns over us. Now faith that does not produce the qualities of God's nature in the individual that is observable by others is not faith at all. If the grace of God saved people, all people would be saved because Jesus died for the ungodly (which is everyone). However, only those who exercise faith in God are saved. Now that Jesus has died, those who reject the message of faith in Him for salvation reject Him. For God only rejects those who reject Him (Jeremiah 15:6). However, the Bible teaches concerning the message of Salvation:

• “He who hears you hears me, and he who rejects you rejects me, and he who rejects me rejects him who sent me.” Luke 10:16

Concerning the Savior:

• He who rejects me and does not receive my sayings has a judge; the word that I have spoken will be his judge on the last day. John 12:48

Concerning the blameless:

• “Behold, God will not reject a blameless man, nor take the hand of evildoers."Job 8:20

Fifthly, God is impartial. God's judgment is just. While we might not understand the big picture and see matters from our limited understanding, God takes everything into account and judges with absolute righteousness. In the book of Romans we learn how God deals with everybody when it comes to judgment, even those doctors who do not know Him:

• For God shows no partiality. All who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. When Gentiles who have not the law do by nature what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or perhaps excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus. (Romans 2:11-16)

While a doctor may give of himself for the sake of others, the doctor cannot save other people from death. Only God can save people from death. In the Bible, there is a record of Enoch (Genesis 5:24) and Elijah (2 Kings 2:9-11) having not seen death. The body of Moses was not found (Deuteronomy 34:4-6) but it was evidently disputed over by the Devil (Jude 1:9). Both Moses and Elijah appeared on the Mount of Transfiguration and spoke with Jesus (Mark 9:4) The body of Jesus was raised from the dead and He appeared to people at different times (John 21:14), even to five hundred (1 Corinthians 15:6). Those who had died before the resurrection of Jesus and who were to enter eternal life have also been raised from the dead after His resurrection (Matthew 27:52-53).

While it may appear outrageous in your eyes that Lot's daughters would get their father drunk and then lie with him; your charge against him with incest is false. In this instance, Lot might be considered blameless. For you charge Lot with incest, and accuse the Righteous One with injustice, but look what really happened:

And the first-born said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is not a man on earth to come in to us after the manner of all the earth. Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve offspring through our father.”

So they made their father drink wine that night; and the first-born went in, and lay with her father; he did not know when she lay down or when she arose. And on the next day, the first-born said to the younger, “Behold, I lay last night with my father; let us make him drink wine tonight also; then you go in and lie with him, that we may preserve offspring through our father.”
So they made their father drink wine that night also; and the younger arose, and lay with him; and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose. Thus both the daughters of Lot were with child by their father. (Genesis 19:31-36)

God delivers the ungodly and the blameless who have faith in Him. Everybody is judged according to what they knew to be right and did not do. Those who repent of their evil deeds and exercise faith in Lord Jesus Christ are saved. Those who reject the salvation of God have to give an account of themselves. If their name is in the book of Life they are safe, because they have not rejected their Savior.

The reason Enoch did not see death was because he exercised faith towards God:

• By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death; and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was attested as having pleased God. (Hebrews 11:5)

The reason Lot was saved is because he hated evil and had to have expressed his pain to God (2 Peter 2:7). The only way Lot could have been declared righteous is if he exercised faith. For the Bible is clear that the only those who exercise faith in God are righteous.

• For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, “He who through faith is righteous shall live.” (Romans 1:17)
• And be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, based on law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.(Philippians 3:9)
• Now it is evident that no man is justified before God by the law; for “He who through faith is righteous shall live.” (Galatians 3:11)
• The promise to Abraham and his descendants, that they should inherit the world, did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. (Romans 4:13)

The only way any person can be saved is by exercising faith towards God and trusting Him to cleanse away all sin. This applies to everybody, there are no exceptions. So if you have heard the message and you do not exercise faith in Lord Jesus Christ's sacrificial offering to cover the sin of the world, then you are rejecting your own salvation and have no hope of being among the living, and being raised raised from the dead unto eternal life on the Day of Judgment.
Understanding Virtue Is Important, For Without It, There Would Be No Salvation