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The Error of Theory C

The third theory is a rebound from the folly of the first two. Realising that it is impossible for God to blame the sinner for his sinful nature, for which he is not responsible, it boldly declares that God does not blame man for sinning for He knows that he could not avoid it, but only for refusing to be saved from that sin. It is not till the Gospel is heard and rejected that man is condemned.

This theory also involves itself in a mass of difficulties. In the first place it means that the unevangelised heathen cannot be condemned by God, no matter how wicked they may be! In this way it is a direct contradiction of Romans chapters 1-3, which declare that all men have knowledge of God quite apart from the Gospel, and are guilty before Him for not living up to that knowledge. This theory however makes it impossible for God to judge the vast majority of mankind at all: for only a very small proportion of those who have lived since Christ rose from the dead have ever heard of His Name.

Also in the second place it would really be safer never to have heard the Gospel and so to be in no danger of judgement! The Missionary would be obliged to tell his audience that up to his arrival they were secure from judgement, but that now they are in real danger! Neither would he be able to tell them that God was angry with them for what they had already done, however cruel: but only that, if they refused his preaching, God would begin to be angry with them for the first time. They might well wish that he had never come to preach to them!

In the third place even at the Last Judgement The Lord would be unable to deal with those folk who had never heard the Gospel: for they would be able to plead in their defence that they had only lived according to their nature for which

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they were not to blame, and had never come under the condemnation of having heard and rejected the Gospel.

Finally this third "Born in Sin" theory, like the other two, labours under the difficulty of having made repentance impossible, and thus having made void the Word of God, which commands all men everywhere to repent. Although Rom. 1-3 holds out no hope of salvation to the unevangelised world, it does call for repentance, and blames the sinner for his hardness of heart and impenitence. There is not a single hint in these three chapters that the sinner cannot avoid sin and so is not to blame for it, as this theory states. On the contrary God's anger is said to be upon the sinner before he hears the gospel, because he sins deliberately when he need not, and therefore ought to be repentant for having done so.

It is impossible to repent of coughing or snoring or being ill. These things are natural to us, and a man has no say in the matter, nor any ability to avoid doing so. So also it would be impossible to repent of sinning if one's nature made it impossible to avoid doing so. So that upon examination this theory turns out to be as unscriptural and illogical as the other two.

Error always ends in absurdity and self-contradiction. It is only truth that becomes clearer the more it is examined and tested. No wonder men have been so perplexed at these various statements about the grounds of God's condemnation of them that they have given it up in despair, and either surrendered in an unthinking way to Authority which has left their consciences untouched, or else decided that it is all very mysterious and too difficult to try to understand, or, worst of all, that it is a mere illogical hodge-podge, not worth worrying about.

Yet actually God is the soul of Justice and Fair Dealing, generous to the heights of self-sacrifice, and wholly upon the side of His creatures. He is slow to anger and condemns no one without being forced to do so by the facts. His judgement is such that all who see it are more likely to complain of His long-suffering, as did Elijah and Jonah, than to cavil at its severity.

The one desire in the heart of God when moved to condemnation is to give time before punishment in which to bring the criminal to repentance and enable him to escape the

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due reward of his deeds. "The Lord is not slack concerning His promise as some men count slackness; but is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance" (2 Pet. 3,9).46 So far from blaming men for what they can't help, He is loth to condemn them for what they can help, and is always ready to listen to an excuse or covering for what they have done, "when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him" (Luke 15,20).47

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The Disastrous Effects Of The Doctrine Of Original Sin | By His Stripes We Are Healed | The Book Of Revelation | The Second Coming Of Christ | The Baptism And Gifts Of The Holy Spirit | The Comforter Is Come