Not exactly... they are but they aren't. The Roman Catholics and the Eastern Orthadox religions
were Christian sects until they began fighting so bad in, I believe the 18th century, but I could be wrong, and they excommunicated each other from Christianity. So basically, they're pretty much identical to Christianity, but are not allowed to call themselves that because of the other banning it.
No hard feelings.
I absolutely agree that if one has the oppertunity to know God, but chooses not to, they will go to hell. To answer your question, I believe that if someone of another religion that does not know God as we do, (Muslims, for example) but do not have the oppertunity to, will not go directly to hell because since they don't believe in the bible (perhaps a better way of saying that would be they have no knowledge of it's teachings), they cannot be proved wrong with it. Maybe I'm just not explaining myself right. Sometime's it's difficult to put my thoughts to words. Let's put it like this, I believe (and I have no proof to back this up) that there is a kind of "waiting area" in the afterlife, where people who could not know God have the oppertunity to learn of him. If they choose not to, then they go to hell. Maybe I'm completly wrong, but that is my
theory. However, the bible does say that everyone WILL be able to learn of God, and there are people who have died without knowing him. God wants to save us from hell, and I don't think he would let people die without knowing him just so he could condemn them. I mean, Jesus died to save us. All of us. It was just wasted time if he skipped a few people.
I've never read the first one, but I have the second one, and it is very good.
H-D