No, it doesn’t work that way at all. The Pope is 100% wrong. There would be no need for Christ in your “universal salvation” scenario.
“There would be no need for Christ in your “universal salvation” scenario.”
The Pope didn’t preach universal salvation nor does he believe in it. Also, Christ would still be necessary even if universal salvation were true because it would still be ONLY THROUGH HIS GRACE won on the Cross that anyone could be saved. He opened the gates of Heaven. No matter who it is who walks through them, got through them because of Jesus Christ.
How does what the Pope said not comport with the following?
"For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but the doers of the law who will be justified. When Gentiles, who do not possess the law, do instinctively what the law requires, these, though not having the law, are a law to themselves. They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts, to which their own conscience also bears witness; and their conflicting thoughts will accuse or perhaps excuse them on the day when, according to my gospel, God, through Jesus Christ, will judge the secret thoughts of all." - Romans 2: 13-16
Peace be with you.
Those who do not accept Christ cannot be saved by His blood. The Pope is saying, "Atheists, do good and avoid evil! Approach the Source of Good, approach Christ and be saved."
What way would be better?
"Hey, atheists! Jesus hates you, and we do, too"?
I never did understand sado-evangelism.
The article’s assertion that “only the saved are redeemed”, is mistaken.
The Blood of Christ redeemed all human sin, past, present, and future. Redemption is the payment of the penalty of sin.
Forgiveness is a separate issue.
Nobody is condemned to Hell for their personal sins. The issue of sin has been settled, once and for all, on the Cross.
Every human being is condemned upon birth due to the imputed sin of Adam which separated man spiritually from God. We are dead spiritually prior to our being reborn.
The good news is that Christ died on the Cross for our sins.
This is why God is free to immediately regenerate our human spirit at the immediate point of our acceptance of Him by faith in Christ and what He did on the Cross, because the sin has already been redeemed and He is free to forgive us once we face Him, confessing our sins by accepting Christ’s redemption on the Cross.
Christ still paid for the sins of those who reject Him. They just ave not been forgiven until they accept Him by returning to Him. They are born condemned and are redeemed, but are not yet saved.