(May 24, 2017 at 10:25 am)alpha male Wrote: First, Christianity doesn't claim that anyone's salvation is JUST, remotely or otherwise. Salvation is a function of mercy and grace, not justice...grace is by definition unmerited, it's nonsensical to complain that it's not just. Of course it isn't. That probably doesn't make sense to you. The Bible acknowledges that - "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing."
Except in the sense that Jesus suffered the penalty of sin on our behalf - an act of Grace that restores justice.
It seems to me that the injustice of the situation depends on the ultimate fate of the unsaved. I'm reading a very good book on annihilationism, "The Fire that Consumes". I'm not completely convinced but my initial impression is that Fudge's exegesis is very strong. If annihilationism is true (and again I'm not so sure) then the unsaved just die like any other animal. In one sense it is in fact a death sentence. But for those without faith that's what they already expect, so in that sense, they aren't losing anything at all. The only apparent injustice is that the unsaved don't get a gift they don't want anyway. Essentially, their complaint would be that God is generous to those willing to receive the gift. To me, that does not seem to violate any principle of justice. I suppose that concept could be extended for unending conscious torment if the unsaved are forever hardened against grace, though.
