Do you believe that is uniformly true of every person who is completely and utterly ignorant of the person and work of Jesus Christ?
The long (though not complete) version just for you...
(Get ready. This is a pretty tough section. This meat has been dried in the sun, which makes for pretty hard chewing. Bet by the time you are finished you'll be wondering if you've been dried in the sun too!)
It seems to be a fact of life that only some people get to hear the gospel of the truth about YHWH. Indeed, it would probably be accepted as a true fact in any courtroom, that the greater part of mankind has lived and died without possessing any knowledge of YHWH at all. This seems to be an irrefutable historical fact, but this fact seems to be contradicted by such Scriptures as
Psalm 9:17, Isaiah 40:21, John 3:18, and
Romans 1:18-32 (all of which are dealt with in this category) simply because
these Scriptures lead us to believe that everyone knows or has known about YHWH and HIS intention to judge every one who does not have faith / believe in HIM.
Now if this interpretation is correct (and it is), then we are left with
the questions of how and when did each person hear the plain truth about YHWH, and why does the vast majority of mankind appear ignorant of this revealed truth? I believe that pre-conception theology offers a better solution to these questions and this paradox than any other does.
Psalms 9:17 The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget GOD. NASV
The wicked shall return to Sheol, even all the nations who forget GOD.
Kiel - Delitzsch Commentary(#22):
Yea, back to Hades must the wicked return, all the heathen, that forget GOD.
We looked at the first part of this verse earlier on under GOING BACK. There we concluded that for the wicked to go back to Sheol, they had to have left it at some time. Now in the second part of the verse, we can also see that these same returnees have forgotten GOD. (The KJV
“and” is not in the Hebrew text. That is why it is italicised in many KJV Bibles.)
Now to my mind it is possible to look on the forgetting of GOD in only one way, that being that it means the rejection and putting away of YHWH's self-attesting witness and HIS prophecy - warning of eternal judgement, which to have put away, they must have previously received.
Now the thing we have to determine is exactly when they received it, and so far as this apology is concerned, the question boils down to whether this revelation is received in this life or whether it is received before this life.
Now I do not believe that it is necessary to go into all the short comings of all the in-life theories right now because in this case, all I have to do is appeal to the first part of this verse on account of the fact that it clearly supports pre-conception theology in that it speaks of their
return to Sheol, the KJV's insistence on translating the word
shuv as opposite to its ordinary meaning notwithstanding.
Therefore may I suggest that since the first part of this verse clearly can imply our pre-conception existence, that constitutes a fairly strong witness that the time when David believed that the wicked received the revelation of YHWH and HIS judgement was also previous to this life.
I
saiah 40:21 Have ye not known? Have ye not heard? Hath it not been told you from the beginning? Have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth?
First of all, from the context (you could read it) we can determine that what they have known, heard about, been told and understood is
the truth that YHWH is the almighty sovereign GOD (
Isaiah 40:10). That is what they have received.
Second, Isaiah asks his audience (that is ye) these questions in a way that demands an affirmative answer. In other words, Isaiah is saying: Ye have known, ye have heard, ye were told at the beginning (and perhaps since then),
ye have understood since the foundations of the Earth, that YHWH is the sovereign GOD. Isaiah is not asking questions. He is giving answers.
Next, we should try to determine the time when they received this witness. Once again, so far as this apology is concerned, this question boils down to whether they received it during this life or pre-earth life. I do not think that I am very far off the mark when I say that the words, if taken straight forwardly, seem to say that this knowledge was received at the time of the foundation of the Earth, which to my mind is definitely prior to conception for everyone, at least since Adam and Eve. Isaiah's answer is an exact match to pre-conception theology, simple and straightforward.
John 3:16 For GOD so loved the world, that HE gave HIS only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For GOD sent not HIS Son into the world to condemn the world: but that the world through Him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on Him is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of GOD. 19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world. And men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
The proper understanding of these verses depends, first of all, upon the meaning ascribed to the word
“world”. May I submit that this word means Adam and all his children? I think that this is in accord with the Greek, as Mr. Vine(#23) states: (the Greek word)
“Kosmos is used to denote, by metonymy, the human race, mankind.”
And does GOD love just some of mankind, that is, only the ones living since Jesus came that have heard the gospel? No, HE loves the BC ones too. (Believe it!) Therefore the “world” must include everyone since Adam.
Secondly, proper understanding depends upon the meaning we ascribe to the words
“condemned already." I believe that we must consider the condemnation as being already present before they heard the gospel in this life, which means that they would be under condemnation even before Jesus incarnated.
In other words, Jesus' incarnation did not result in the condemnation of unbelieving men, they were condemned already, that is, they loved the darkness before He came. He came to save them from the condemnation they were under.
[ASIDE: According to these definitions, I believe that we can read the verse like this: For GOD so loved Adam and his children that HE gave HIS unique Son, that whosoever of them should come to believe in Him, should not perish but have everlasting life. For GOD sent
not HIS Son unto Adam and his children to condemn them, but that they, through faith in Him, might be saved. Adam and those like him, that have returned to the Shepherd of their souls and now have a belief in Him that will continue forever, are no longer under condemnation, but those who still do not profess such a belief in Him, are still under condemnation that results from not believing in the previously revealed Name of the unique Son of GOD.]
Now in verse
18 John says that the reason for the condemnation that was present before He incarnated was unbelief in the Name of the only begotten Son of GOD, that is, unbelief in the person of Jesus and all that He stands for. Now in regard to this unbelief, something we have to establish is
why they do not believe? What is the nature of their faithlessness?
For instance,
should we read the verse, “those that believeth not on account of their ignorance in that they have never heard about the Son, are condemned already because they have omitted believing in the Name of the only begotten Son of GOD?”
Or,
should we read the verse, “they that have refused to believe are condemned already because they have refused to believe in the Name of the only begotten Son?”
Now, the first interpretation seems to give an explanation for the condemnation of all those who have never heard about Jesus in this life, that is,
their sin is a sin of omission. They have failed to do that which is expected of them and necessary for their salvation. This seems somewhat reasonable but, to believe that some people perish for lack of the knowledge of salvation, one must first deny either the sovereignty of GOD or the infiniteness of HIS love.
Their condemnation on account of their ignorance means that if He loves them and is trying to get the message of HIS Son to them, HE is failing in what HE is attempting to do. Or it means that if HE is able to get HIS message to them, HE does not love them enough to send it.
Therefore, it seems that this idea of their condemnation on account of their ignorant omission of faith is untenable with the revealed attributes of GOD, and we should not interpret Scripture in a way that denies the character of GOD should we?
Well, since the first interpretation is untenable with the attributes of GOD, then we are left with only the second, that is, that the entire unbelieving world is condemned because they have
refused to believe in the Name or Person of the Son of GOD.
Now this conclusion regarding the nature of their unbelief leads us to another conclusion, that is:
that for there to be a refusal to believe in His Name, there must have been a prior revelation of His Name. In other words, for there to be a rebellion, there must first be a known authority (revealed God) to rebel against.
Now, two things show that there was such a self-attesting revelation given to all men.
First, it is shown by what John says in
3:19, that the Light has been shown to the world (that is, to Adam and his children) but some men preferred darkness to Him, that is, disbelief to belief, disobedience to obedience. The men he is talking about all refused to believe in the Son. Their sin was not a sin of omission. They had received the self-attesting revelation of the Light, that is, of the Son.
Second, that every unbelieving man in history is included in this rebellious group, that is, that the revelation is universal, is proven by
John 1:9 the true Light, which lighteth every man.
From this verse, we can see that every person on Earth has received or seen the Light, that is, Jesus, even those who lived before He came and the gospel was proclaimed.
Now, having established these facts of the universal revelation of His Name and the rebellion of all unbelieving men, we are faced with the question as to when each and every person received the revelation of the Name of the only begotten Son of GOD? Once again so far as this apology is concerned, this question boils down to whether this revelation was received before life began or whether it was received during this life.
I believe that there are two things that bear witness that this revelation is received before this life begins (and is subsequently forgotten).
The first is the complete absence, before He incarnated, of any unscriptural testimony regarding the name of YHWH's Son. I think that if every BC person received the revelation of His Name
in this life, someone would have written
it down, or at least remembered it and talked about it to someone else. In other words, I think that the truth about Him would have been fairly well known before He came.
Secondly, I think that John also gives us a fairly strong indication that this revelation was given before life began in
John 1:9 That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
If every man comes
into the world, then every man must exist before he comes into the world. Therefore, I believe that these two things bear witness that the revelation of the name of YHWH's Son that is given to every person, was given before life began.
Well, as you no doubt noticed, this is a fairly drawn out argument. Therefore perhaps a short summary would be of some profit.
First, we saw that the entire unbelieving world was condemned already, that is, even before He came.
Second, we saw that the unbelievers are under condemnation for faithlessness in His Name.
Third, we saw that the sin of omission is untenable with the revealed attributes of GOD and that
John 1:9 bears witness that the entire world has received the revelation of His Name.
For these reasons we concluded that the unbelievers' sin was a sin of rebellion rather than a sin of omission, which universal rebellion necessitates a previous universal revelation of His Name. This is probably mentioned in Colossians 1:23 as the verb
proclaimed is
a finished past act...even though it has not yet been fulfilled on earth.
Finally, in regard to the time of the universal revelation of His Name, we felt first, that the lack of knowledge regarding His name in all of history prior to His incarnation hints strongly at a pre-life revelation and forgetfulness was due to sin as per
Romans 1:18 to the end, and second, that
John 1:9, which says that every man comes into the world, being that it can imply every man's pre-conception existence, also hints strongly at a pre-life revelation of the name of YHWH's Son.
