From: Dave <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
After reading vss 15ff......., I just don't see why you think these apply. When vs 18 says /all/, it is referring to/ ungodliness/ and /unrighteousness/. That is distinctly different from *those *who are ungodly or unrighteous. As vs 16 infers, salvation is for those believers of the gospel of Christ. Until the apostles were given the commission to take the gospel message to the world, there were a lot of folks who were not privy to the gospel. Even after the apostles were instructed to spread the gospel, it could not have been spread to everybody.....even unto this day.
David,
Paul appears to be dividing people into two groups in these passages...those who have heard the gospel (v16,17), and those to whom the evidence of God comes to them not through the gospel but 1) is manifest in them (v19), and 2) through His creation (v20).
Those who have heard the gospel are without excuse precisely because they have heard the gospel and have the opportunity to respond to it.
Those who have not heard the gospel have an opportunity to respond because of the 2 reasons Paul states.
So, all are without excuse. It is not necessary that one has heard the gospel to face the judgement, or to be redeemed, for that matter. It appears that ALL have had the opportunity to know and worship God, either through the gospel, or for Paul's stated reasons.
One might argue that since Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and that no one comes to the Father except by Him, one must hear the gospel and accept it to be redeemed. That apparently is not so. Jesus is the means by which the path to the Father was established. There is no other path. However, it is because he established that path that those who have not heard the gospel, yet acknowledged and worshipped God because of the two reasons Paul states, that they can be redeemed.
I suspect that at some point after a person who has not heard the gospel dies, he or she will become aware of Christ and His role in redemption. But, their decision with respect to what was made manifest in them and what they could see through God's creation will determine their fate, not their post-mortem knowledge of Jesus.
Perry
---------- "Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer every man." (Colossians 4:6) http://www.InnGlory.org
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