Well this is just really bad news for unbelievers like me. Why did God allow me to be born to spend eternity lanquishing in Hell, when he knew in advance I would reject him? I'm sure there is a reasonable explanation but why should you need a Phd. in Philosophy to understand any answer.
So, do you believe that God predestines people to heaven and hell before they are born? That is not standard Christian belief. This article sums up my view of Christ's sacrifice, though it comes from a Roman Catholic source. http://www.strangenotions.com/atheists-redeemed/
More specifically, God foreknows whether people go to heaven and hell before they are born. This is the standard catholic (low-c) Christian belief and was taught by Aquinas and the church fathers before the Reformation. What makes this different from Calvinism is that God's predestination is contingent on our acceptance of Him, in the present. Agnostic is somewhat right that this is a complicated subject, simply because topics of time and infinity are difficult for the human mind (but not for God). In short, we accept God now, and he foresees that choice before the foundations of the world are laid. This is a simple topic for God, because "a thousand years are like one minute, and one minute is like a thousand years". To answer Agnostic's point, God allows sinners to be born because they all have a chance to accept or reject him. And when they reject him, it is not His fault, because they condemn themselves. Just because he knows this does not absolve them of their responsibility.
This is wrong on so many levels... God loves those whom He saves and those whom He saves were predestined by Him for eternal bliss. The reprobate suffer the punishment for their sins and God's wrath.
I was well aware of the range of views on predestination and election and salvation, but in my ignorance I was unaware that God's love was supposed to be coterminous with election. I understood well that once actually shipped off to hell one was separated from the love of God, but I had supposed that in this life, elect or not, one was within God's love. The assertion that this view was incorrect was what surprised me.
I disagree. I do not believe in universalism, and would agree that God knows who will accept or reject him; however, I would differentiate between God knowing and God choosing who is going to Heaven and who is going to Hell. It is us who make that decision.
This view is by no means unanimous. Some Eastern Orthodox believe Heaven and Hell are the same place, with the difference being a person's point of view. From the Orthodox Church in America's website: