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Does Ignorance
Excuse All Sin?
Is ignorance bliss in God’s sight? For example, suppose someone who is 45 years old but has the
mental capacity of a five-year-old child.
Is he responsible for his sins? My answer here is "partially
yes," but let's explain why ignorance is only a partial excuse, not a
complete one.
True, Scripture doesn't directly answer this question about how
the mentality handicapped are regarded concerning their sins. However, it does discuss the issue of
whether ignorance excuses for sin or not.
And that’s really the question that’s being asked here: Does the ignorance of a mentally handicapped
man excuse him or not? A balanced view
would be that ignorance is a partial, but not complete, excuse. On the one hand, Jesus told the Pharisees
who rejected Him (John 9:41): “If you
were blind, you would have had no sin; but since you say, ‘We see,’ your sin
remains.” In John 15:22, likewise He
said, “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now
they have no excuse for their sin.”
On the other hand, some punishment is still due to the one who
knows less (Luke 12:47-48): “And that
slave who knew his master’s will and did no get ready or act in accord with his
will, shall receive many lashes, but the one who did not know it, and committed
deeds worthy of a flogging, will receive but few. And from everyone who has been given much, shall much be
required.“ So some punishment still
occurs to those who know little. This
is in accord with the principle found in the Old Testament (Leviticus 4:2-3)
that sacrifices were still required for sins that were unintentional. Notice that Numbers 15:22-24 similarly commands
animal sacrifices for sins done in ignorance or at least not done
deliberately: “But when you unwittingly
fail and do not observe all of these commandments . . . Then it shall be, if it
is done unintentionally, without the knowledge of the congregation, that all
the congregation shall offer one bull for a burnt offering . . .” So there is still a penalty assessed on the
ignorant sinners as well, even though it’s a lighter punishment.
Furthermore, in order for God to condemn all people as sinners, He
has to assess sin against all of those who break His law, even if they didn’t
know better (Romans 3:23; cf. verse 19):
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Everyone is being called to account even now
(Acts 17:30): “Therefore, having
overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all
everywhere should repent.” Notice also
that the law defines what is sin and educates people as to what is right and
wrong (verse 20): “for through the Law
comes the knowledge of sin.”
Now, there’s a related issue lurking here, which concerns whether
people have only one chance to be saved.
However, can people be saved after they die if they weren’t called
during this life (John 6:44)? However,
people who are ignorant of salvation during this life, whether because of
physical/mental conditions or just because they never heard the gospel, still
can be saved. That requires
considerable explanation, however. In
truth, anyone who wasn't
called during this life for the first time will receive his or her first
opportunity to be saved after the second resurrection at the end of the
millennium (Rev. 20:5, 12-13). In the
case of someone mentally handicapped, that person will be healed when he is
resurrected after the millennium ends so he would become fully morally
responsible at that point.
Can those who died unsaved still get saved? According
to Scripture, unsaved people who die aren't immediately put into an eternal
hell fire. Instead, they simply aren't judged until the second resurrection
takes place (see Rev. 20:5; cf. I Cor. 15:22-24). This would be true for
both babies and adults who were uncalled in this
lifetime. Because they weren’t called during their first lives on
earth (see John 6:44, 65; Acts 2:39; Matt. 13:11-16; Romans 8:28-30), they will
get their first and only chance (not a “second chance”) to be
saved after their resurrection at the end of the millennium, after Christ had
ruled on earth for a thousand years. Ezekiel’s vision of the valley
of dry bones of the house of Israel provides the clearest passage showing the
unsaved dead will be resurrected and then given an opportunity for
salvation. Now the Chosen People generally had a dismal history
spiritually. Israel was often very disobedient. Israelites
born in the pre-Exile period (not just Jewish, of the tribe of Judah only when
strictly defined) commonly were violating the First Commandment by being
idolaters, just as typical Hindus are today. Most of Israel
obviously was not saved back then since so many were so faithless and
disobedient that they often used statues while worshiping false gods, such as
Baal, Chemosh, Molech, and Dagon. But instead of being thrown into the
lake of fire after their resurrection, they are lovingly put back into the land
of Israel, as God told Ezekiel (Eze. 37:11-14):
“Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel; behold,
they say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope has perished. We are
completely cut off.' Therefore prophesy, and say to them, 'Thus says
the Lord God, "Behold, I will open your graves and cause you to come up
out of your graves, My people; and I will bring you into the land of
Israel. Then you will know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your
graves and caused you to come up out of your graves, My people. And I
will put My Spirit within you, and you will come to life, and I will place you
on your own land.”’"
These unsaved Israelites were no more saved
than ignorant Buddhists, Hindus, animists, pagans, and Muslims.
This would include all the great famous human monsters and tyrants of world
history, including Stalin, Mao, Hitler, Pol Pot, Idi Amin, Mussolini, Dahmer,
Manson, Bundy, etc. Indeed, most Israelites didn't have the Holy
Spirit, which conditionally gives salvation by its presence (Eph. 4:30;
1:13-14), which only became much more generally available on Pentecost in 31
A.D. after Jesus’ resurrection and later ascension to heaven (John 16:7; Acts
1:4-5; 2:2-4). But when they were resurrected, they weren't tossed into
hell, but were placed in the Holy Land! Notice that they were resurrected
to have physical bodies of flesh (verses 7-10), not bodies composed of spirit,
like angels have (Hebrews 1:7) and already saved Christians will receive when
Jesus returns (I Cor. 15:42-53).
God will
not condemn any who are ignorant during their first lifetimes on earth,
but only the willfully knowing wicked who refuse to repent even after their
resurrection (Daniel 12:2). After all, if God commands all men
everywhere to repent (Acts 17:30), He has to make His will theoretically
possible to fulfill. Likewise, the Lord (II Peter 3:9) “is patient
toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to
repentance.” Paul also told Timothy that God “desires all men to be
saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (I Timothy
2:4). So doesn’t God want to save everyone? Will God
condemn to an eternity of torture in hell fire those who never heard Jesus'
name or who never heard the Gospel preached? Would God hurl billions of ignorant
Chinese and East Indian peasants to burn in hell for endless trillions of years
for a mere mayfly lifetime of sins without an opportunity to escape their dire
fates? Would God so fail so colossally to grant them a practical way
to gain repentance (Acts 11:18) so they possibly could be saved? Is
it fair for God to condemn those who never had a chance to begin with?
Can the traditional view justify God's justice to humanity (i.e.,
construct a convincing theodicy)? Is a brief life of (say) 20, 40, or 70
years of moderate sin fairly punished by trillions and trillions of years of
burning torture? And that's merely for starters, the barest preface to a
never-ending story of agony. Will God maintain and supervise this a
plague spot in His universe for all eternity with evil angels and men suffering
for their sins? Or will God totally clean out His universe (see Acts
3:21) in order to restore the conditions that existed before Lucifer (a/k/a
Satan) rebelled and Adam and Eve ate of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of
Good and Evil? Wouldn’t God ultimately want EVERY living creature
still remaining in the created universe (cf. Rev. 5:13) to bless Him and to
worship Him?
As indicated by Matt. 12:41-42 (compare 11:21-24), most people
aren't judged yet during this lifetime. The pagan inhabitants of
Nineveh aren't yet burning eternally in hell. If the immortal soul
doctrine is true, then the judgment has to occur at
death. Otherwise, the dead are being held in an unconsciousness
state instead. How else could presumably unsaved people during their
lifetimes, such as the men of Nineveh who heard Jonah and the Queen of Sheba
who visited Solomon, condemn Jews who rejected Jesus as their Messiah when He
visited their villages and towns? It would be most curious for God to
resurrect these people who (most likely) never had the Holy Spirit, which is a
requirement for salvation (Romans 8:9-11; II Cor. 5:5), and let them condemn
others before tossing them all into hell.
Notice that Israel still has a chance at salvation despite
having rejected their Messiah to date, according to Paul: "And thus
all Israel will be saved" (Rom. 11:26; cf. verses 7, 26). If this
generalization wasn't true, how could Paul write it? Could (say) 90% of
Israel be lost to hell despite he believed they all would be saved?
Although we know some won't be saved, such as Judas Iscariot, it has to
be that almost all of them will be, despite they often worshipped false gods
using idols during their physical lifetimes.
We shouldn’t mistakenly assume that when the dead are “judged”
that has to mean "sentencing" rather than “probation.” Nor
should we equate "sentencing" with "judgment."
Someone who is judged or being judged need not at that moment be
condemned and sentenced to a particular punishment. A person can have a
period of judging before a final outcome is determined. For
example, Peter says "it is time for judgment to begin with the household
of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those who
do not obey the gospel of God?" (I Pet. 4:17). Since
Christians during this lifetime aren’t yet sentenced, "judgment" here
simply can't mean only "sentencing." So we should be wary
of assuming this automatically for other texts, such as Hebrews 9:27, but see
what the context indicates or what other parts of the Bible teach
But now, let’s look at these issues more broadly. Are
we humans naturally immortal? Will we live forever, whether it be in
heaven or hell? Do the dead even go to heaven or hell right at
death? Or rather, is immortality conditional upon continued faith in
and obedience to God? What does the Bible teach about where the dead
go after they die? When the Bible's text is carefully examined, without
reading preconceived ideas or interpretations into it, it reveals that the
dead presently aren't alive in heaven or hell, but they remain unconscious
until the day they are resurrected. Ecclesiastes 9:5-6, 10 clearly teach
that the dead aren't conscious: "For the living know that they will die:
But the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them
is forgotten. Also their love, their hatred and their envy have now
perished; Nevermore will they have a share is anything done under the sun. . .
. Whatever your had finds to do, do it with your might: For there is no
work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are
going." Therefore, nobody goes to heaven or hell at death, but each
person lies unconscious in the common grave of humanity until his or her
resurrection, excepting for those few Christians translated or “born again”
(John 3:5-8) at the first resurrection when Jesus returns (I Cor. 15:45-55; I
Thess. 4:14-17).
The Bible
Teaches The Doctrine of Conditional Immortality
The
technical name for this doctrine is "conditional
immortality." People only have eternal
life conditionally upon obeying and having faith in God and
Jesus as their Savior. According to this teaching, the soul doesn’t
separate from the body's continued life. The “soul” requires for its
continued existence a “body” (the physical, biological organism) and a “spirit”
(the life force animating the flesh that God breathed into Adam when creating
him, Genesis 2:7). Similarly, a light bulb needs both a functioning filament
within a glass (its “body”) and electricity flowing through it (its “spirit”)
to give light from being a functioning whole, i.e., like a
“soul.” So when the body dies, and the spirit/life force
leaves, the soul dies or ceases to exist. Notice Ezekiel 18:4 and 20.
Both say, "The soul that sins shall die." Now, after
seeing such a text, should we devise/invent a definition for "death"
for the "soul" that doesn't refer to its ceasing to be conscious? The
"separation from God" interpretation of such texts is a (suddenly
invented) definition for "death" that's been read into them because
people have assumed the truth of the traditional teaching about the immortality
of the soul. So people only have eternal life conditional upon
obeying God, and that the unsaved will have no consciousness until their
resurrection.
If the
word translated "soul," "nephesh" in
Hebrew, is examined generally by how it is used elsewhere in the Old
Testament, it can't refer to an immortal soul that separates from the body
and has continued consciousness. This word does appear in Eze.
18:4. But it also refers to a dead body in Num. 9:6-10 several times
and to animals in Genesis 1:21, 24. So when the body dies, nothing
conscious leaves the body and goes to heaven or hell then. The
"soul" then ceases to exist until the resurrection, when the spirit
of man is reunited with the physical body God has just made by resurrecting it.
But this “spirit in man” (I Cor. 2:11; Job 32:8) isn't conscious
when separate from the body. It records the personality and character of
the person who died, but it can’t think when not connected to the body.
Notice, by the way, how we have a "spirit," a "soul,"
and a "body." An advocate of the immortal/eternal soul doctrine
really should choose between "spirit" and "soul," and not
inadvertently assert humans have two immortal parts!
The Dead Aren’t
Conscious, but “Sleep” in the Grave
Since
people only have eternal life conditionally upon having faith in and
obeying God, the unsaved won’t have consciousness until their resurrection
either. Jesus said Lazarus was asleep before resurrecting him (John
11:11-13; cf. Job 14:12). Paul said that if the resurrection didn't
happen, the saved dead were lost, which means they couldn't have been conscious
souls living in heaven then: "For if the dead do not rise, then
Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile;
you are still in your sins! Then also those who have fallen asleep in
Christ have perished" (I Cor. 15:16-18). Job said that fathers
who die don't know whether their sons are honored or become insignificant
(Job 14:20). So dead parents supposedly saved and living in
heaven wouldn't know what their offspring on earth are doing. David
said in Ps. 6:5: "For there is no mention of Thee in death; in Sheol
who will give Thee thanks?" (See also Isaiah 38:18-19 for
similar thoughts). So could the saved dead (in heaven or elsewhere)
even possibly not be praising God? It would be
absurd! The rhetorical question in Ps. 88:10’s second line implies
the departed spirits aren’t praising God. Psalm 115:17 says
flatly: “The dead do not praise the Lord.” In Psalm
146:4, it says we shouldn't trust in mortal man because, "His spirit
departs, he returns to the earth; In that very day his thoughts
perish." Although the word translated "thoughts" here can
be translated more narrowly as "plans," the
Christian writer Uriah Smith has said that the Hebrew word here
refers to "the act of the mind in the process of thinking and
reasoning." If so, the dead can't be conscious according to this
text either. Therefore, if the saved dead, of whom Paul spoke here,
aren't resurrected, then they are unsaved and aren't restored to consciousness.
The Doctrines of
the Immortality of the Soul and the Resurrection Aren’t Compatible
The
doctrines of the immortality of the soul and of the resurrection simply aren't
compatible (especially as taught in I Cor. 15). After all, if the
immortal soul is perfectly happy to live in heaven, why reunite it with the
material body? And if the wicked entered hell right after they died and
are presently suffering eternal punishing, why pull them out of hell and
reunite them with their physical bodies? Would they be thrown right back
into hell again after being judged again? Could God have made a
mistake the first time around after they died? Does He review His
previous decision for error after the millennium ends? What
balderdash! Why reencumber spirit bodies (see I Cor. 15:42-45) with gross
material flesh again after they have possibly lived in heaven or hell for
thousands of years? According to Rev. 20:13, "death
and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one
of them according to their deeds." The Great White Throne
Judgment of Rev. 20:11-15 implies those who died before Jesus’ return and came
up in the second resurrection are all judged at the same time, not piecemeal
down through the generations as they died. Paul wrote that if the resurrection
didn't happen, the saved dead were lost, which means they couldn't have been
conscious souls living in heaven then: "For if the dead do not rise,
then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is
futile; you are still in your sins! Then also those who have fallen
asleep in Christ have perished" (I Cor. 15:16-18). If someone
is "perished" without a personal resurrection, then he or she isn't
alive consciously while dead before it occurs. Paul uses
"sleep" here to refer to the state of the dead (as in verse 20
also). So if the saved dead, of whom he's speaking here, aren't
resurrected, then they are actually unsaved and aren't restored to
consciousness. The resurrection wouldn't be regarded as such a crucial
doctrine if we were still conscious after death.
If
indeed the dead are fully conscious, the Bible’s analogy between death and
sleep makes no sense. To say only the "body" sleeps, not the
whole “person,” in order to explain this away runs again into the problem of
the resurrection: If we stay conscious continuously after death
automatically when we would go to heaven or hell at death, why have a
resurrection at all? Also, if this "spirit/soul" is the
real part of the person, and the body superfluous matter to staying conscious,
isn’t it rather deceiving to call the state of the dead "sleep"?
It's hardly "sleep" to suffer conscious misery in hell as the
flames supposedly torture the wicked terribly. The doctrines of the
immortality of the soul and of the resurrection are simply incompatible,
although many will illogically labor mightily to square this circle.
The Righteous
Dead Aren’t in Heaven Now
When
the dead enter the great collective grave of mankind, "sheol" in
Hebrew, and "hades" in Greek, they aren't conscious of
anything. They aren't in heaven, hell, limbo, or purgatory. When
Jesus said this (John 3:13), no man had gone to heaven (i.e., where God's
throne is, the third heaven): "No one has ascended to heaven but He
who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in
heaven." Even after Christ's resurrection, King David, the man
after God's own heart, hadn't ascended to heaven according to Peter (Acts 2:29,
34): "Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch
David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. .
. . For David did not ascend into the heavens." In the same
passage, Peter cited David in the Old Testament to prove the Messiah Himself
wouldn’t ascend to heaven before His resurrection, but His soul would stay
briefly in the grave while He was dead (v. 27): “For You will not
leave my soul in Hades, nor will You allow Your Holy One to see
corruption.” So when the dead enter the great collective grave of
mankind, sheol in Hebrew, hades in Greek, they aren't conscious of
anything. They aren't in heaven, hell, or purgatory. So when
will Christians experience what’s described in I John 3:2?:
"Beloved, we are God's children now; it does not yet appear what we shall
be, but we know that when he [Jesus] appears we shall be like him, for we
shall see him as he is." Notice that this text refers to Jesus'
second coming, not to the present. We wouldn't see Jesus right after we
die nor, surprisingly enough, do saved Christians go right to
heaven!
After
all, what do the meek inherit? (Matt. 5:5) They inherit the earth,
not heaven! Similarly, doesn’t God the Father come down to a new
earth in the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:1-3)? So I John 3:2 discusses
what happens when Christians will be resurrected (I Cor. 15:51-54) and rise to
meet Jesus in the clouds/sky of the earth (I Thess. 4:16-17). That’s
not an exotic, faraway, “spiritual” location: That’s where airplanes
fly everyday! Instead of remaining a immortal/eternal soul/spirit,
our bodies will be transformed by a resurrection (or translation, if we're
alive when Jesus comes) that will give us eternal life (I Cor.
15:48-54). There’s no other way we can be saved, meaning, be
preserved to live for all eternity. After all, Jesus comes to the earth
(Zechariah 14:3-4) from where He prepared a place (i.e., positions in the
kingdom of God, cf. Luke 19:11-27; Matt. 25:14-30) for us so "that [when
on earth] where I am you may be also" (John 14:3).
Will the Wicked
Be Eternally Tortured?
Are
the wicked to be eternally tortured? Do the unrepentant disobedient
have eternal life also? After all, if each person has an undying,
immortal soul or spirit, it has to live forever in the place of punishment if
it won’t live forever in the place of reward. The Bible teaches that
"the soul who sins shall die" (Ezekiel 18:4, 20). If that
soul “dies,” does it actually continue to “live”? The last book of
the Old Testament teaches the wicked will be destroyed to nothingness, that
they will be ashes underneath the feet of the righteous (Malachi 4:1,
3): “’For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace; and all
the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff; and the day that is coming will
set them ablaze,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘so that it will leave them neither
root nor branch.’ . . . And you will tread down the wicked, for they shall be
ashes under the soles of your feet on the day which I am preparing,’ says the
Lord of hosts.” Now if the wicked will be like burnt up like waste
from grain that will leave nothing behind (“neither root nor branch”), will
they still have an intact consciousness? If they will be,
not just “be like,” but “be ashes” that the righteous will literally walk over,
will those “ashes” still be feeling their painful misery? Let’s turn
now to the New Testament. Jesus warned his listeners (Matt.
10:28): “Do not fear those who kill the body, but are unable to kill
the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in
hell.” Are we going to read a creative definition into the word
“destroy” here in order to prop up preconceived theology? If the
word “destroy” means to ruin something such that it can no longer function, do
we assume a “soul” can be “destroyed” yet still function with
consciousness? Uriah Smith pointed to the implied analogy made in
Christ’s statement that undermines a non-literal meaning for the word
“destroy”: “Whatever killing does to the body, destroying does to
the soul.” Consider Paul’s well known statement (Romans
6:23): "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is
eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Do we assume that the
opposite of “eternal life” is “death,” meaning, “eternal life in hell”?
Did Paul intend a complicated, metaphorical meaning here, such as
"separation from God”? If a conventional, literal definition of
"death" is upheld here or in other similar texts, that is, “cessation
of consciousness,” the inevitable conclusion is that the wicked are punished by
“death,” not “endless life in hell,” but a state of non-functioning
consciousness. Eternal punishment (Matt. 25:46) shouldn’t be
confused with eternal punishing, since a death that never ends is a
punishment that lasts forever.
So although
even the ignorant still get condemned for the sins they commit, the unsaved can
be saved after they die after their minds and bodies are resurrected and healed
physically, psychologically, and mentally.
Eric Snow
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Why does God Allow Evil? Click
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Allow Evil 0908.htm
May Christians work on Saturdays?
Click here: /doctrinalhtml/Protestant
Rhetoric vs Sabbath Refuted.htm
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Click here: /doctrinalhtml/Here and
Hereafter.htm
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Click here: /doctrinalhtml/Is There an
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Is the United States the Beast?
Click here: /doctrinalhtml/Are We the Beast
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