Just one question, before I leave. This may sound a bit cheesy/corny, but it's the only way to see another side of this:
Let's say that's the way it works. Let us say a man brutally rapes and kills the daughter of a kind and innocent family, but feels TRULY sorry and goes to heaven.
What about the daughter of which the life was forcibly taken after humiliation? What about the parents that lost a part of their life? Can you immagine what kind of pain they will feel for the rest of their life? No matter how much they'll try, they will never TRULY get over it.
The girls life will be ended in a horrible way and she will never ever see her parents (and vice versa) or daylight again , yet the killer will still be able to go to heaven in the end.
After ruining the life of an innocent, after ruining the life of a family, is feeling TRULY sorry, confessing and repenting, really enough to go to heaven?mastersword007
The short answer is: yes.
That's a hard thing to hear for some, which I think is closely tied to a lack of ability in some people to truly understand (let alone offer) forgiveness. But there it is -- genuine repentence is salvific.
Here's something to chew on, though: two of my sisters-in-law were rather brutally raped in their youth. And it would be fair to say that the experience has certainly taken its toll on them, spiritually and psychologically, elements of which linger to this day.
But will their lives end "in a horrible way," as you posit? No, not at all -- for whatever they've been through, they are today very positive people who try and live life in an optimistic, full way. Far from becoming basket cases, they've formed stable relationships again, pursued their interests and recreation with verve and vigor, and (in one case) have even brought new life into the world (by which I mean "have had kids"). And their family has remained warm and loving, close-knit and supportive -- indeed, one could argue that the earlier traumas have served to strenghten the resolve of the family (which, I should note, has always drunk deeply from the wellspring of the Catholic faith).
That doesn't excuse the horror of the rape that they suffered, of course. But I think it serves to illustrate something about your contrived attempt at an example -- you're overstating the case.
And before you think I'm straw-manning, talking about rape in which the victims have survived, let me hasten to add that in the various families to which I am related, I've seen people come through many things -- the suicide of a spouse, the murder of a child, rape, depression, and all the bloody rest of it. The story of my extended family is not suitable for family television by any means. And yet, those of us who have survived have done so in a way that has ultimately been positive and life-affirming, which has demonstrated that out of even the worst trauma good can be brought forth.
And in each case, where we've been wronged by others, we have found the resolve to offer forgiveness. Because at the end of the day, those who have wronged us have still been as human as we are, as weak and flawed as we are...and yet every bit as much someone's son or daughter as we ourselves are. And because of that, they still possess an inate dignity, and a right to be treated justly, despite whatever depravity they may have displayed in the past.
That's just common sense, really...and it's a common sense that Christianity acknowledges. No matter what we have done, we can be forgiven...and our forgiveness in Christ begins with our penitence.
Of course, there are still the lingering temporal effects of our sinfulness. The concept of salvation is not actually related to this directly, since it is primarily concerned with the eternal aspects of our fate, and the eternal ramifications of our sinful actions. Questions like yours, I think, lend credence to the Catholic notion of Purgatory...the idea that as a part of the process of our salvation, we atone for the temporal effects of our sinfulness. And if one meditates on the concept of justice, not as a human concept but as a distinct, timeless principle, I think this makes the most sense.
Every human -- even the most wretchedly sinful -- must be saveABLE, or else it is meaningless to believe in the promise of salvation that Christ brought; if the potential does not exist for Christ to save everyone, then Christ is not God, and Christ can save no one.
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