My comments were more to P-Marlowe who states:
"In regard to the latter, each man shall be responsible for the light that he is given. As Jesus noted in John Chapter 9, to those who are truly blind, those to whom no light has been given, their sin shall not remain."
I think it would be his claim that those who who have not heard the preaching of Christ are off the hook. Maybe you should address this issue to him??
Also, I'm not exactly sure what you mean by light. Is this light the Gospel that is preached to me? Or is this light a measure of my intellect? Or is this light an indication of the grace that God has given me? Please explain in more detail...
I think I know Marlowe pretty well. I'd guess he was talking about infants and retarded people.
I pretty sure he believes in Romans 1's statement that the law is in every heart and they all are responsible.
He can correct me if I'm wrong.
"In regard to the latter, each man shall be responsible for the light that he is given. As Jesus noted in John Chapter 9, to those who are truly blind, those to whom no light has been given, their sin shall not remain."
I think it would be his claim that those who who have not heard the preaching of Christ are off the hook. Maybe you should address this issue to him??
One of the problems with P-Marlowe's comment is that what he paraphrased is not what Jesus said in John 9.
Here is what Jesus really said;
John 9
35 Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when He had found him, He said to him, "Do you believe in the Son of God?"[5] 36He answered and said, "Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?" 37And Jesus said to him, "You have both seen Him and it is He who is talking with you." 38Then he said, "Lord, I believe!" And he worshiped Him. 39And Jesus said, "For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind." 40Then some of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these words, and said to Him, "Are we blind also?" 41Jesus said to them, "If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, "We see.' Therefore your sin remains.
Jesus is drawing the distinction between those who think they "see"(in this case the Pharisees) and those who know they are blind(in this case the healed blind man), and that it's those in their arrogance think they see, when in reality are blind, who's sin remains.
marlowe's paraphrase and misinterpretation was totally backwards from what the text genuinely says.
And you would be wrong. I would say that those who are never offered saving grace are off the hook as they cannot be offered saving grace unless they have the capacity to see it. Jesus stated that to those who are "truly blind" their sin will not remain. That appears to be a grace not contingent upon some action on the part of the recipient. Children and incompetents I believe fall under this grace.
So the elements of saving grace are the fact of a sincere offer of salvation coupled with the capacity to accept it or reject it. How God goes about getting the message to the potential believer is His problem. What the potential believer does with that enlightenment or that grace is the hearer's problem. No matter what the potential believer does with the offer of saving grace, God will be glorified.
Actually, Vis, xzins is on the record for stating that those who never hear the gospel -as in those, say, who lived in North America 1500 years ago- are saved. They are saved because they never had the opportunity to ~reject~ the gospel.
We used to call it the "Plan B" method of salvation.
He even hinted at this within the past couple of days.
He seems to be talking out of both sides of his mouth on this issue.
Jean