It's illustrated briefly in an episode of Family Guy where Brian gives Stewie a basic run-down of various religions' answer to the fundamental question "what happens when we die?" Along with other religions, Brian explains to Stewie that Christians believe accepting Jesus Christ gets you into heaven, with a cutaway gag of presumably Osama Bin Laden (or perhaps any old terrorist) facing imminent death, raising his hands and quickly saying "I accept Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and savior!" He is killed, finds himself in heaven, and the cutaway ends with a victorious fist pump "yes!" from the former non-Christian.
While I'm not attempting to say that Seth MacFarlane or the Family Guy staff don't understand the actual concept of Christianity or were attempting to make a genuine argument and not just a gag, and I'm definitely not saying that Family Guy is somehow responsible for this belief, this scene actually does a great job of highlighting the fundamental misunderstanding of what it actually means to accept God's free gift of salvation through Jesus Christ.
When used as an argument from fairness against Christianity, the argument is based off of the concept that it isn't fair for someone to perhaps live a decadent and evil life and on their death bed simply shout out a sentence and go to heaven after he flatlines. This is interesting because it's actually a concept that's been explained multiple times within the actual bible - yes, believe it or not, the realities of "simply" accepting salvation through the free action of Jesus' sacrifice are not lost on us Christians. It's a hot topic - in fact, it was such a hot topic that it was discussed by Jesus Himself while He was still here. If you thought you beat Christians to the punch with this, they were there before "Christianity" was even a thing.
A notable example is the parable of the vineyard workers.
“For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’ And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’ And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’ So the last will be first, and the first last.” - Matthew 20:1-16
This parable, summarized, is about a vineyard owner who hires some workers and agrees to pay them a set amount of money for a day's work. He then goes around and hires more workers for the same pay, however these workers do not work a full day. He goes so far as to hire workers who work for only a few hours and pays them the same as the ones who worked all day. At the end, the workers who worked all day proclaim that this is unfair, but the vineyard owner says they agreed to work for the wage they were promised and they received it, and he can do what he wants with his money.
The acute might notice the most interesting part about this parable is that the workers who worked all day are the ones who are upset. It's not some guys standing off to the side, complaining that the vineyard owner is unfair and therefore they refuse to work for him - it's the workers themselves, the ones who dedicated far more time to their work than ones who came late.
Yes, the most striking part about this concept of unfairness is that the people who dedicated their entire lives to God are the ones being depicted as upset about the unfairness of getting the same reward as those who did not. It's a concept that started with the Pharisees when Jesus was still alive and teaching. The question of how it was fair that anyone could "simply" accept Jesus' sacrifice and attain salvation, even after living a life of unapologetic sin, was brought up not by people questioning whether or not they even want to accept the gift in the first place, but the people who had accepted it and been living it for perhaps their entire lives.
A very well known and oft cited parable that examines this is the parable of the prodigal son.
And he said, “There was a man who had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’ And he divided his property between them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.
“But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.”’ And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate. Luke 15:11-24
The quotation of this parable frequently ends here. It's a message about how even the lost who betray God and squander His gifts will be welcomed to the kingdom of heaven when he repents. However, this is not the entire parable - the next few verses bring to light our question of fairness.
“Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound.’ But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, but he answered his father, ‘Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!’ And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’” Luke 15:25-32
Yes, this parable is also about how even those who betray and squander God's gifts will be welcomed into the kingdom of heaven if they repent, but it's also being used as an explanation as to why those who dedicate their lives to God and never betray His gifts shouldn't be mad when those sinners are forgiven and allowed into heaven alongside them.
Again, it's not some guy standing off to the side, who isn't one of the father's sons, saying "that dad is unfair to his older son, I'm glad I'm not one of his sons." It's the older son himself who is upset that the younger son would be accepted back by his father after his horrible behavior.
It should be clear that these "guys off to the side" I invented are the atheists. Notice that they are entirely absent from these parables. It's the Christians themselves who first questioned the fairness of allowing anyone who accepted Jesus' sacrifice into heaven - before it even happened. Jesus was the one telling these parables.
The Pharisees - the ones who followed the law to the letter and spent their entire lives in devotion - were upset that Jesus was sharing meals with tax collectors and sinners, offering them the free gift of eternal salvation. They thought it wasn't fair. They also killed Jesus, so, you know, there's that.
The point of these parables is to illustrate that His promise is the same for anyone who will accept it - and He doesn't care if you have to spend your entire life in hedonistic sin before you do. He loves us, as a father loves his son, even when we do terrible and stupid things. He promises the same to those who come to Him early and those who come to Him late - there is no "better" heaven for those who have spent their entire lives devoted to Him.
There is more to the atheist's discontent, however. It's not just that it is unfair that someone can spend their entire lives as a non-Christian and then accept Jesus' sacrificial gift ten minutes before they kick the bucket. It's specifically the idea that someone could knowingly operate against God's will, knowing in the back of their mind that they have a "get out of jail free" card. It's not just that they can live an indulgent and sinful life before accepting Jesus at the very end, it's that they can do so knowing full well that they intend to only accept Jesus when it's convenient for them.
Here is the answer to that: they can't.
They cannot do that. No one has ever done that.
Accepting Jesus' sacrifice as God's free gift for your eternal salvation does not happen because you said "I accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and savior!" right before your final breath. This is an incredibly naive understanding - do you think you can fool God into believing something that is untrue just by saying it? As if He isn't able to see the true intentions of your heart?
You have to truly accept Jesus' sacrifice. The true intentions of our hearts are not hidden from God. If we superficially attempt to pass off years of purposeful sin with an insincere declaration, it won't work. Accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior has to be real. It comes with repentance, it comes with the true realization that the sins we committed were done against God and against ourselves. It comes with the actual, true, and usually highly emotionally devastating realization that we are broken and naturally sinful people who need God's gift to attain salvation. It's a purposeful, meaningful, and actual acceptance of the reality of our brokenness and acceptance of God's love. If you can do this without some sort of genuine emotional response, you probably aren't doing it. It should be a pretty big deal.
If you do actually do this on your deathbed, then sure, you did it, enjoy heaven. But it's completely within God's promise - He is entirely clear about this. There is no loophole being exploited.
So, yes, perhaps this is "unfair." You can spend your life in sin, only to accept Jesus on your deathbed and find yourself in heaven - as long as you actually do it. But grace is unfair. It's never been fair - the basic concept of God's promise is unfair. The punishment for sin is death, but - for God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
The fact that we have been given a way to heaven at all is unfair in itself. God is perfectly just - any sin against God must be punished. But He loves us, and He wants us to be with Him, so Jesus willingly took our punishment for us. He took our place, so that we could be forgiven. This is not "fairness." No one ever said it was fair.
If you truly want fairness, then we should all be in hell.
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