Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!genrad!decvax!harpo!floyd!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!uw-june!emma
From: emma@uw-june.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Re: exclusive salvation
Message-ID: <477@uw-june.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 11-Jun-83 19:47:41 EDT
Article-I.D.: uw-june.477
Posted: Sat Jun 11 19:47:41 1983
Date-Received: Mon, 13-Jun-83 12:42:11 EDT
Lines: 25

Well, since Tim asked....

My own views (note I make no claim for the Church) on salvation are
very close to those of C. S. Lewis.  Essentially, something we see very
clearly in this life is responsibility for your actions.  You walk off
a cliff, you land on the ground and so forth.  My own view is that this
extends into the afterlife as well.  If in this life you choose to
alienate yourself from God, you will find yourself alienated in the
next as well, possibly with no better idea of the fact that you
alienated at that point than you have now (Lewis spends most of "The
Great Divorce" on this topic).  I too doubt that God would consign
anybody to an eternal weinie roast.

As to whether only Christians are saved.  I do believe that salvation
is through Christ, and only through Christ.  However, Paul spends some
time in Romans (2:12-16) saying that those who have not heard of the
Law are saved according to how they have behaved-- in other words, if
you haven't heard of Christ it would hardly be sporting to blame you
for not accepting His salvation.  If you have heard and have chosen not
to accept it, you have chosen alienation.  If it has been preached at
you but for some reason you don't "really" hear it, as with people who
decide that the accounts of Christ's life don't fulfill some standard
of historical documentation they choose to apply for example, well I'm
not God and I'll just leave that question up to Him.
-Joe P.