[Esaias]

Also, there is an underlying a priori presumption here, that "salvation involves going to heaven and damnation involves going to hell". What is being presumed is that the soul is inherently immortal, that the divinely desired destiny of man is heaven, that the divinely ordained punishment for sin is eternity in hell, and that the purpose of God in giving mankind the Gospel is to rescue all souls from hell and deposit them in heaven.

But ALL of that is presumed, and I would suggest is in fact not taught by the Scripture. As a result, the doctrinal positions that are based on such presumptions are in error to one degree or another, and need to be re-examined. I would submit to you that the Bible actually teaches that humans are NOT immortal, that immortality is strictly limited as a gift to the believers, that the destiny of the "saved" is not heaven but the earth.

And I sense another presupposition. It is hard to put into words, because nobody who has it ever actually states it. But it is very near the idea that somehow God OWES salvation to people. "If God sends someone to hell because they weren't (fill in the blank) then how can He be just? Especially if they never heard of (whatever fill the blank)?" Nobody says God owes anybody anything yet they actually seem to think He does, for they feel He would be UNJUST in "denying heaven" to certain persons who failed to meet certain requirements. But is it not true that EVERYONE IS ALREADY under sentence of death to begin with? That to withhold a PARDON to the convicted criminal is no injustice whatsoever? Are criminals OWED a pardon? OF course not. So there would be no injustice whatsoever in God withholding eternal life from anyone at any time under any circumstances EXCEPT in violation of His own stated conditions by which He has bound Himself.

Please contemplate that last bolded statement carefully, it will greatly inform the reader how best to approach the subject.