Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: smith_c@ncsatl.uucp (Spawn of a Jewish Carpenter) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Salvation for ALL! Message-ID: Date: 25 Oct 89 09:02:12 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: National Computer Systems, Atlanta, GA Lines: 46 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu Somewhat in keeping with the conversation on Salation, I have a question for you: Who can be saved? Can anyone who embraces Christ be saved? Before you say, "yes," let me caution you: You may not realize what you're getting into. If this is inappropriate for the newsgroup, I ask the Moderator or whomever please to let me know. Recently, I posted a dialogue, which I had written, featuring various members of the crew of the Starship Enterprise in the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation. In it, the crewmembers discuss the nature of salvation for nonhuman races. Assuming that there are nonhuman intelligent beings out there in the universe, did Christ die for them also, or only for human beings? I maintain in my dialogue that Christ died for all people, of whatever race, throughout the universe. Some believe that Christ has to be born again on different worlds; I don't subscribe to this viewpoint: One birth, one life, one death, one resurrection, forever and ever amen. Even an android (Commander Data) questions his own salvation in terms of Christian belief. If one has the presence of mind to ask if one can be saved, I believe God can find it in his heart and his mind to answer the question, probably in the affirmative. Debates on whether or not androids can become self-aware aside: Can anyone with the presence of mind to ask to receive Christ Jesus do so? If you'd like, I'll be happy to post here a copy of the complete dialogue; in rec.arts.startrek, the dialogues were scattered throughout different postings. It's a questions that interests me personally and deeply. I hope some people out there share my enthusiasm for this topic. Baptism by desire for nonhumans? I await your responses. -- __________________________________________________________________________ \ \ \ \ SPAWN OF A JEWISH CARPENTER | "Repent, Klingon heathen!" | \ \ \ \ | - born again Trekkie | (_) \ \ \_) Spirit comes, Spirit goes. | | \ \ Whence it comes, no-one knows.| gatech.edu!smith_c%ncsatl | (__) \_) -Petra, "Voice in the Wind"| gatech!nanovx!ncsatl!smith_c | __________________________________________|______________________________| [I have a hard time answering that until we have met at least one and preferably several non-human intelligent species. On strictly Biblical ground I think one could argue for the idea that Christ appears separately to each species, that ours is the only one and we are supposed to preach to all other species, or that there are no other intelligent species. This is the sort of thing that seems to be hard to settle a priori. Since the world tends to be stranger than we can imagine, the true situation may be none of the above. Not that I object to speculation, of course. ... --clh]