Agreed.
It would be wonderful if some of these "grandious" comments made were backed up by Scripture. After all, this is a Christian web site and according to the stated rules in the Statement of Faith:
1) The Holy Scriptures, in it's original form, is the inerrant Word of God.
Just a thought!
Jeremiah 9:23-24 (KJV)
23 "Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches:
24 But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord."
Unfortunately, there is not a specific passage related to Gandhi's specific fate.
However, in Romans 2:14, 15 Paul says, "Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that they have the requirements of the law written on their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts not accusing, now even defending them."
This is from NIV but I know other translations say that those who follow the law when they have not been given it are better off than those who have the law but do not keep it.
Now, this is tricky because a few verses prior to this, it indicates that those who are outside of the faith are lost. For me, I read this, however, as it saying that those who display virtue despite being visibly outside the Church, are indeed
not without hope. And in the parable of the sheep and the goats there is amble scriptural indication that those who do good and righteous things in fact do
know God, giving them membership in the Church albeit invisibly despite their visible absence.
This position has a fairly good standing in historical Christendom, though some of the unfortunate consequences of scholasticism have uprooted it, we do in fact have an obligation to evangelize as best we can, and also to profess a belief in Christology, but whether those who reject it because of what is known as "invincible ignorance" are entirely without hope and damned to hell is not entirely clear, and depends greatly on one's theology and what weight it gives to various scriptures.
Now, I identify with mainline Protestantism more so than evangelism which means I tend to view theological questions through more of a mysterious lens than a definitive or dogmatic one.
Major, your theology is more dogmatic than mine and I presume you are fairly comfortable saying Gandhi is in hell because he died without believing in Christ, 1 John 5:12.
I look at the totality of scripture, reason, experience, tradition, and some common sense, and I'm just not comfortable saying Gandhi is in hell. And this is because my theology holds that virtue comes from God, and Gandhi demonstrated the beatitudes very well throughout his life, so for me, I just don't know where he is at the moment, but I also don't believe he is without hope.