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NASB | Acts 4:12 "And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved." |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Acts 4:12 "And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among people by which we must be saved [for God has provided the world no alternative for salvation]." |
Subject: Child may go to hell |
Bible Note: Dear John, Very well written, sir. We have another instance in Scripture in addition to the one you cited from 2 Samuel 12:23. The clear prenatal salvation of John the Baptist as evidenced in Luke 1:41. The persuasive weakness of these passages, however, is that neither is truly didactic, but both are statements couched within narratives. (Granted, from a certain perspective, the 2 Samuel verse might be argued to be didactic.) Consequently, they may give rise to interesting speculation, but they would, at best, give only a tenuous foundation for sound Biblical doctrine. That is why I didn't mention them in my post to Ron. But I did want to comment on your assertion that "this is not a position that seems to have been arrived at after a great deal of study and thought." A cursory study of Christian history will reveal that the belief mentioned by the preacher in Ron's post was held by men like Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Knox, John Owen, Thomas Cranmer, Matthew Henry, Jonathan Edwards, Robert Lewis Dabney, A. A. Hodge, J. Gresham Machen, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, and Francis Schafer. Modern proponents of this position -- if I properly understand it -- would include Doctors J. I. Packer, R. C. Sproul, Rod Rosenbladt, John Frame, and D. James Kennedy. (It is a doctrine that is held by Lutherans, Presbyterians, and Anglicans -- to name a few.) As an historic Baptist I do not fully share the covenantal position of my Reformed brethren. However, the amount of "study and thought" on Biblical matters by those mentioned in the previous paragraph is truly staggering -- and they are only the ones that came immediately to my mind as I wrote this post! We may not embrace their position on this issue, but we do exceedingly err in suggesting that such men, renowned for their scholarship and faith, had not arrived at their positions without a very great deal of careful deliberation! :-) In Him, Doc |