Question:

May I know why God did not send anybody to India or some other countries just like he sent Jonah to Nineveh?   Some good people in India such Gauthama Buddha searched for truth.   Why did the true God Jehova did not respond to them by sending some angels to inform them?

Answer:

God did send someone to India. He sent you! God works in his own time and in his own ways. We have to trust God’s wisdom, which I assume you are doing. God has worked in different ways at different times. In the time of Genesis he principally worked through the male heads of households. Later, in the time of Israel/Jacob and afterward, God spoke to his people through the nation of Israel. Even later, he gave them a Law and a Covenant. God had a plan, which was to send the Messiah to Israel, with the idea in mind for the message of the Messiah to spread around the whole world. Jesus could not come to everyone at once. It just so happens that God chose the literal crossroads of all Europe, Africa and Asia. This allowed the message to spread to people as fast and as far as possible. The gospel got to India, probably by the second century, but definitely by the third century. If the gospel did not spread more rapidly, that would not be God’s fault, but ours for not taking up his commands with sufficient zeal.

As for Buddha and others, God will judge and God will have mercy where appropriate. This is up to God. I personally believe that to question God’s wisdom in the way he sent the savior is not a wise thing, as he is God and we are not. This does not mean that you should not ask the question!!! But you should be willing to trust the wisdom of God. I believe he chose the perfect place (Israel: at the crossroads of the entire world) and the right time (during the Roman peace, when the Greek and Latin languages were extremely wide spread). Was Buddha sincerely open to God’s truth? I do not know. I am not in a place to judge. Will he be in heaven? I do not know. We should leave such things to God. My personal opinion (which is not worth very much in this particular area) is that Buddha was a sincere seeker for truth and that, if he had met Jesus, he would have made him Lord. But that is just my opinion. Why did God send Jesus to Palestine and not to India? 1. Because he chose Abraham, a man of incredible faith, through whom to bless the world. and 2. Because of his providence, in that Canaan is, like I said, at the center of the world.

God will judge everyone fairly, but clearly it is the light of Jesus which is the best and only way that anyone will ever be saved. The fact that God did not send Jesus to India 2000 years ago is not very relevant for you today, because he has sent the truth to India, and you are one of the ones God is using right not to spread word of Jesus to India.

To summarize, I understand why you ask this question. It is one that we all ask at times. In the end, we are in a position that we must trust in the providence, the love, the mercy the wisdom and the judgment of God.

John Oakes