Nullifidian said:
Why? What's so great about justice that God would deem it to be imperative, that the universe couldn't exist without it? Or was it God who chose the rule that "justice had to be satisfied"?
That's the major problem with the western view of Penal Substitutionary Atonement - you're left with two choices, either God is evil because He chooses to not forgive without his blood payment or He simply isn't omnipotent, because He's bound by the necessity to satisfy justice. Thankfully, this sort of an idea is anathema in the east where we continue to hold to the Incarnational soteriology that long pre-dates this warped, scholastic and peculiarly Latin view.
And why couldn't he simply forgive our sins whether we believe in him or not?
He wiped Mary's original sin off the slate, in the Immaculate Conception, so why could he not do that for everyone, since it's his choice to make?
You'll actually find that non only is this idea purely Roman Catholic, it's also very recent. The Immacualte Conception is by no means a foundational teaching of Christianity. In fact, we would deem it heretical.
But then we wouldn't be risking eternal torment in Hell, so we wouldn't need a Saviour to save us from it.
The salvation given mankind is not salvation from hell. In fact in our view hell isn't exactly a place at all. It's safe to say that from our point of view salvation would still be necessary even without any possibility of our suffering after death.
James