I have always held firmly that the victims of abortion will not be condemned for eternity. I have also held firmly that should a child perish before they have an understanding of the Christian doctrine, such child will ascend to Heaven.
But in these assertions are also delivered the additional assertion that God sometimes forgives those who are not capable of asking for forgiveness, or those who do not know to ask for forgiveness. In abiding my model, the opposition might indicate that in doing so, God breaks His own rules.
I agree completely, for God is not subject to the rules which He gives to humans. In demonstration of this point, consider the issue in this manner. If I trick somebody into walking outside with a long metal pole pointed at the sky during a lightning storm, to the end of their being electrocuted to death, I would undoubtedly be in sin. But when God takes somebody's life, He is not in sin! He is God, and therefore He simply does what He pleases.
Likewise, when a three year old approaches God in the afterlife, God is not obliged to do anything other than what He pleases. He is not required by anything beyond Himself to release a proportional amount of anger toward the child for being born in sin, for there is nothing beyond Him.
There is nothing at all to suggest that God is a stickler for strictures. In fact, Biblical texts indicate that Jesus was not a stickler at all. While the scriptures command that nobody work on the Sabbath, Jesus worked on the Sabbath. While the scripture commands that everybody be baptized, Jesus said that the kingdom of Heaven is made for children, despite that children do not have sufficient understanding to accept Jesus and be baptized.
Further, it is recorded that as Jesus was dying, a man also being crucified next to Him said “I deserve this, but you do not! When you go into your kingdom, remember me!” This man clearly did not live up to the laws of the Old Covenant (as he was subject to capital punishment) and he did not live up to the laws of the New Covenant, as he did not even know who Jesus was, nor was he capable of accepting Jesus or being baptized.
Yet despite this, instead of measuring this man by his deeds or the fulfillment of rituals, Jesus measured him by his heart and his repentance. It is my opinion that it is this concept, not the concept of 'accept of me or die' which indicates the unfailing love of the great Messiah.
To expand this, there were Jews all over the world who likely died minutes after Jesus died. Many of these people had never been delivered the Good News, nor did they have any knowledge that the promised Messiah had come and gone. It stands to reason that God would never commit such an injustice as to condemn people for breaking rules that they were never aware of.
Jesus did say “Nobody comes to the Father except through me.” But that does not necessarily indicate that it is only those who adopt Christianity who have access to Jesus. I think it is demonstrably true that Jesus is often present even when He is not known.
I do not think anybody can be rightfully condemned except in cases of overwhelming evil or the rejection of the scripture in the when that person has strong knowledge and understanding of the scripture. The Jews of the Holocaust likely perceived a rather distorted view of Christianity. I cannot persuade myself that God would condemn those people for rejecting that which they do not understand. I cannot persuade myself that God would condemn anybody for failing to fulfill rituals that they did not know existed.
I support these radical claims in only the room for ambiguity that the New Testament allows, the statement that Jesus made of children, the man bleeding on the cross next to Jesus, and the very nature that a loving, just God must have. Finally, I appeal to the self-evident standard of morality and fairness which God has engraved on our hearts.
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