Now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolator, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat. –1 Corinthians 5:11 (KJV)
Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. –Ephesians 5:11 (NIV)
17:30 – The Logical Fallacy of a False Dilemma is when a person presents only two options when there more options in existence. For example, only presenting the option of infant baptism to original sin instead of presenting the option of innocence of sin guilt based on the ignorance of children, and the option of unlimited atonement that clears the guilt of both the mentally handicapped and small children (Westminster Confession 10.3). But Finney ignores these other options it seems. And so, in a desire to possibly uphold infant baptism based on the learned behavior view, he downplays original sin to absolve the smallest infants, and to open the way for the repentance and faith of adults, leaving things in quite a vague state for all other children who don’t understand the nature of repentance and faith. It would be more Biblical and reasonable to assert:
1. Infants, children, teenagers, and adults are all born with an inbred sinful nature (Gen. 6:5; Ps. 51:5; Rom. 7:23).
2. Eternal damnation in the lake of fire is only revealed in Scripture as containing adults in the following categories: those too afraid to witness, unbelievers, mean people who always say mean things, pimps, fornicators, adulterers, homosexuals, thieves, extortioners, drunkards, sorcerers, idol worshipers (including the greedy), murderers, and liars (1 Cor. 6:9-10; Rev. 21:8; 22:15).
3. Infants, children, and the mentally handicapped are not going to be found in the list above. To be any of those things in that hell-deserving vice list, you would have to at least be a spiritually blind and heart-hardened teenage gang member.
4. Therefore, Wesley’s view on the subject is the most reasonable: the unlimited atonement of Jesus: his blood that was shed for the whole world (1 John 2:2; John 1:29; Isa. 53:6), must automatically apply to infants, children, and the mentally handicapped without the requirement of conscious repentance and faith. But every intelligible soul with a mind adult enough–the so-called age of accountability–every person adult enough to be included in the vice lists of 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, Revelation 21:8, and 22:15, is totally doomed if they do not make a conscious effort to avoid those vices, repent, and trust in the blood of Jesus Christ for forgiveness on a regular basis. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9, KJV). Most infants I’ve known about could never perform such a prayer; and probably most children wouldn’t know what such a prayer would really mean. Those that are mentally handicapped are probably unable to pray at all in most cases. So we have to conclude that conscious moral responsibility, in the form of prayers of repentance, faith in the blood, and obedience to the Bible, has to only apply to that same class of adults that could just as easily drop into hell through the vice list above-mentioned. –J.B.
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VII. OF ORIGINAL OR BIRTH SIN. (Articles of Religion)
Original sin standeth not in the following of Adam (as the Pelagians do vainly talk), but it is the corruption of the nature of every man, that naturally is engendered of the offspring of Adam, whereby man is very far gone from original righteousness, and of his own nature inclined to evil, and that continually.
Hurling through space the giant boulder glided Surrounded by Heaven’s angels The brimstone, the sulfur, smelled of rotten eggs Like the putrid stench of sewers
As it passed into the sky It caught on fire and broke apart And the flaming rocks fell down Into the center of the world, the Dead Sea
On the day that Lot fled out of Sodom It rained fire and brimstone from heaven And destroyed them all All of the people of Sodom and Gomorrah
The Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah Brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven And he overthrew those cities and all the plain And all the inhabitants of the cities
The smoke of the country went up As the smoke of a furnace rises God destroyed, and overthrew the cities of the plain As the smoke of a furnace, so their smoke ascended
Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities round about them Giving themselves over to fornication And going after strange flesh Suffered the vengeance of eternal fire
Carry your flags, march into that fictional cause and show off that medal Just don’t reach for that gun Reach for that gun Carry that banner, build that heart out of stone Don’t reach for that gun
You scaled the high horse and I felt the change I know the difference between you and me You scaled the high horse and I felt the change I know the difference between you and me You and me
You cleaned the outside of your chalice But it’s filled with robbery and self-indulgence Just like the rest of us
You wear that cross like a crown You wear that cross like a dagger You wear that cross like a crown You wear that cross like a dagger
Oh my God, take this sword from my mouth You scaled the high horse and I felt the change I know the difference between you and me
Come down from that tower Come down from that tower Come down from that tower Come down from that tower
Nothing will be the outcome Nothing will be the outcome Nothing will be the outcome Nothing will be the outcome Nothing will be the outcome Nothing is the outcome Nothing will be the outcome –Norma Jean, “Vipers, Snakes, and Actors”–
The people therefore, that stood by, and heard it, said that it thundered: others said, An angel spake to him. –John 12:29 (KJV)–
The voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled…the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder. –Exodus 19:16, 19 (KJV)–
3. Two inferences may be drawn from the whole: The First, let none ever presume to rest in any supposed testimony of the Spirit which is separate from the fruit of it. If the Spirit of God does really testify that we are the children of God, the immediate consequence will be the fruit of the Spirit, even “love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, fidelity, meekness, temperance.” And however this fruit may be clouded for a while, during the time of strong temptation, so that it does not appear to the tempted person, while Satan is sifting him as wheat; yet the substantial part of it remains, even under the thickest cloud. It is true, joy in the Holy Ghost may be withdrawn, during the hour of trial; yea, the soul may be “exceeding sorrowful,” while “the hour and power of darkness” continue; but even this is generally restored with increase, till we rejoice “with joy unspeakable and full of glory.”
4. The Second inference, is, let none rest in any supposed fruit of the Spirit without the witness. There may be foretastes of the Spirit without the witness. There may be foretastes of joy, of peace, of love, and those not delusive, but really from God, long before we have the witness in ourselves; before the Spirit of God witnesses with our spirits that we have “redemption in the blood of Jesus, even the forgiveness of sins.” Yea, there may be a degree of long-suffering, of gentleness, of fidelity, meekness, temperance, (not a shadow thereof, but a real degree, by the preventing grace of God,) before we “are accepted in the Beloved,” and, consequently, before we have a testimony of our acceptance: But it is by no means advisable to rest here; it is at the peril of our souls if we do. If we are wise, we shall be continually crying to God, until his Spirit cry in our heart, “Abba, Father!” This is the privilege of all the children of God, and without this we can never be assured that we are his children. Without this we cannot retain a steady peace, nor avoid perplexing doubts and fears. But when we have once received this Spirit of adoption, this “peace which passeth all understanding,” and which expels all painful doubt and fear, will “keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” And when this has brought forth its genuine fruit, all inward and outward holiness, it is undoubtedly the will of Him that calleth us, to give us always what he has once given; so that there is no need that we should ever more be deprived of either the testimony of God’s Spirit, or the testimony of our own, the consciousness of our walking in all righteousness and true holiness. –John Wesley, “The Witness of the Spirit, Part 2,” 5.3-4
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