Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: gad@eclipse.its.rpi.edu (Garance A. Drosehn) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Non-Christians in Heaven (was: Original sin of infants) Message-ID: Date: 11 May 91 03:39:11 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Lines: 34 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article smittie@beach.csulb.edu (Mark Smith) writes: > The problem I have is that if even one person can get to heaven without > Christ then Christ's whole trip to Earth was a waste. I don't very much > believe that God is real into wasteful practices such as that. Sidestepping the greater issue for the moment, the above sentence is not true. If Christ did not die on the cross, then NO ONE could be saved. It is his death that is the atonement for every person who is saved. The justice of God would have demanded that we all die in our sins, because no one would have paid the price for our salvation. His death (and resurrection!!) paid the price so everyone could be saved. I'm not saying his death *makes* everyone saved, but his death was a sufficient enough sacrifice that it would pay the price for everyone's sins. Without that sacrifice, *none* of us could be saved. Jesus may possibly decide to save someone who did not have any chance of comprehending his gospel. If he decides to do that, it will not mean his sacrifice was a waste. After all, it is his sacrifice that is the event which gives him the right to save that person (along with the rest of us). As to the larger question, my position is... (fade into vague mumblings...I don't want to get into speculating on a case-by-case basis. I won't be the final judge anyway, so my answer will not mean anything. I am confident that God will be the judge, and I am confident in his justice, whatever his decision will be) I do know one way a person can be certain they are saved, and I expect I should act on that knowledge rather than worrying about some of the details that God has not explicitly given us in his holy scriptures. - - - - - - - - Garance Alistair Drosehn = gad@rpi.edu or gad@eclipse.its.rpi.edu