God's justice is perfect, and so is His mercy. A God who would allow a child to be born and die without a knowledge of Him, and then consign her to everlasting misery because of the accident of her birth, is neither a just nor a merciful God.
Quite true. But as I mentioned before, the book of Romans makes it abundantly plain that every one of us does have the knowledge of God -- sufficient knowledge to make us accountable to Him, and indeed sufficient knowledge to condemn us if we choose not to respond to the spiritual light He has given us.
The fact that some people on this earth have more knowledge or access to knowledge about God than others is undeniable; that does not prove that some people have no knowledge of God and therefore no responsibility.
a God who gives every person, no matter where or when they were born, the opportunity to learn of Christ and to accept Him as their Savior, is both just and merciful.
Quite so. And I believe in a God who, being both omniscient and omnipotent, is perfectly capable of giving that opportunity to people here on earth, in this life, if they want it. As I said before, there are abundant Biblical examples of God doing exactly this for people who would otherwise never have known about Him. But on this earth and in this life, not post-mortem.
In any case, the real issue at stake is not what God is going to do with some hypothetical virtuous pagan in the jungles of Irian Jaya, but what we in North America are going to do given that we do have full and ready access to God's Word and the good news of Jesus Christ. Too often the question "What about Person X in Country Y?" is used to dodge our own responsibility. But the Lord's answer to that is the same as He gave to Peter: "What is that to thee? Follow thou Me."
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Re:
Date: 2003-05-01 06:08 pm (UTC)Quite true. But as I mentioned before, the book of Romans makes it abundantly plain that every one of us does have the knowledge of God -- sufficient knowledge to make us accountable to Him, and indeed sufficient knowledge to condemn us if we choose not to respond to the spiritual light He has given us.
The fact that some people on this earth have more knowledge or access to knowledge about God than others is undeniable; that does not prove that some people have no knowledge of God and therefore no responsibility.
a God who gives every person, no matter where or when they were born, the opportunity to learn of Christ and to accept Him as their Savior, is both just and merciful.
Quite so. And I believe in a God who, being both omniscient and omnipotent, is perfectly capable of giving that opportunity to people here on earth, in this life, if they want it. As I said before, there are abundant Biblical examples of God doing exactly this for people who would otherwise never have known about Him. But on this earth and in this life, not post-mortem.
In any case, the real issue at stake is not what God is going to do with some hypothetical virtuous pagan in the jungles of Irian Jaya, but what we in North America are going to do given that we do have full and ready access to God's Word and the good news of Jesus Christ. Too often the question "What about Person X in Country Y?" is used to dodge our own responsibility. But the Lord's answer to that is the same as He gave to Peter: "What is that to thee? Follow thou Me."