Jerry Walls wicked and profane question about God

Isn't Walls the dude Leighton Flowers invited to a Connect3:16 event that holds to purgatory?

 

From Dr. Walls:

Jerry: “Again, I’ve written about this in my books on hell. I believe God desires the salvation of all persons. I believe Christ died for all persons. They may not know about Christ. They may not know who he is, but he knows who they are, and they may not know that he died for them, but he did anyway. Many persons have not heard the gospel of Christ, but they’re still responding to whatever light, or understanding, or grace that they have, and so the point of the matter is this, I believe that God is drawing every single person to himself, using whatever resources are available in terms of light and revelation that they have. If persons are responding to the light that they have, I think they will ultimately come to see the truth in Christ.

This is a regurgitation of what Billy Graham told Robert Schuller back in either 1997 or 1998. The scriptures aren't enough for them. God will use whatever means, so Sola Scriptura just flew out the window.

 

And the jokes keep coming...


From Dr. Walls and his view of purgatory...

Indeed, all believers, regardless of tradition, who have experienced as joy the purging involved in drawing closer to Christ can view the concept of purgatory not only as a natural doctrinal development, but also as a gracious gift of love.

Leighton wouldn't want to rub elbows with mean ole Calvinists, but a Roman pope like Dr. Walls? Suuuuure!!

 

If I'm not mistaken...I believe what you have highlighted (bolded) is also spoken about by John MacArthur.

 

And if John MacArthur stated that, he is also wrong.

 

https://www.gty.org/library/sermons...ng-Big-Questions-About-the-Sovereignty-of-God

Thoughts?

 

I found this on the soteriology 101 site...they quoted MacArthur as saying this, so its not directly from him, but them posting what they say he said. I am not saying they're lying, just clarifying...

==Dr. John MacArthur, in his message covering Romans 2:11-16 (mp3 45-20b), gives a summary of those who did not have the written law and have not heard the gospel:
“Creation, conduct, conscience, contemplation, what they do, how they deal with the good and bad in their own life and how they deal with it in the lives of others indicates that they know the law of God as written in them.
Now, here is the most important thing I’ve said yet. The sum of it is this: If they live up to that much light, and they accept that much light, God will reveal to them the full light of Jesus Christ.
I believe that with all my heart. You see, that’s what it says in Acts 17, “He is not far from us if we would feel after Him.” You see? If they would just take what they have and accept that. John 7:17 – mark it down. “If any man wills to do My Father’s Will, he shall know of the teaching.” If the willing heart is there, he’ll know. ” – John MacArthur

Personally, I think Dr. MacArthur swung and missed here.

 

He gives a bit more detail here doesn't he. Hmmm...

Does he get it from Luke 8:18?
Pay attention, therefore, to how you listen. Whoever has will be given more, but whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has will be taken away from him."

 

That was a meaty read. I couldn't read it all. Where did MacArthur state it that ppl can be saved the same way Graham and Walls stated it?

 

I didn't quote him saying that...I just quoted him saying that God gives light and he gives more light to those who respond to the light--which is essentially what you had bolded.

 

If he has taken it from Luke 8:18, he has grossly misapplied it. Jesus had just told the parable of the seed and sower. So, it is to be taken in the context of the word being witnessed unto them, not ppl in remote areas gaining more and more knowledge about God via natural revelation.

 

Can you point that out to me? I didn't see it. But I could have missed it. Look, I am not trying to give Dr. MacArthur an out. If he stated this as truth, I think he swung and missed horribly, imo.

 

I quoted it in my post with the link...and it's similar to what you posted...he said...

You even can go back and say, “What about the pagans? What about the people who didn’t hear?” Well I’m convinced that Scripture says if you live up to the light you have, you know, God would bring more light. I just think that man is always made responsible for his rejection.

It's like 1/2 the way down in the article/radio script

 

https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/45-13/reasons-for-the-wrath-of-god-part-4

MacArthur kinda wavers here.

 

From the Article...

The sum of it is this, people: Creation, conduct, conscience, contemplation, what they do, how they deal with the good and bad in their own life and how they deal with it in the lives of others indicates that they know the law of God as written in them. Now, here is the most important thing I’ve said yet. The sum of it is this: If they live up to that much light, and they accept that much light, God will reveal to them the full light of Jesus Christ. I believe that with all my heart. You see, that’s what it says in Acts 17, “He is not far from us if we would feel after Him.” You see? If they would just take what they have and accept that. John 7:17 – mark it down. “If any man wills to do My Father’s Will, he shall know of the teaching.” If the willing heart is there, he’ll know.

We had a living illustration of this in our church the last week, a man by the name of Augustus Marway. Some of you came on Wednesday night and heard his testimony. He is proof positive of this, and I have his testimony, and I’m just going to read a few excerpts from it. This man lived in a village involved in tribal wars. Never put a stitch of clothes on his body until he was 14. In a most aboriginal circumstance in Africa. And this is his own testimony.

I resented it whenever strangers passing through the village were invited to our house. At first Mother allowed me and my two brothers to eat with the guest, but I made a pig of myself, stuffing my mouth with handfuls of rice and grabbing another handful before I could even swallow what I had. Mother was ashamed of me. She wouldn’t let me eat with the guests after that. I would just sit and glare at the visitors, making them feel uncomfortable until they would invite me to the table.

From then on, Mother made me sit outside the house until the guests had finished eating. I don’t know what made me so incorrigible. In fact, the whole village asked the question, “What’s the matter with that son of Marway?” they would ask and my poor parents were at their wits’ end.

Even though I loved my mother dearly, I found myself doing terrible things. I can remember seeing her sitting on a bench outside the house and impulsively picking up a stick to throw at her legs. I missed her and struck a little child, hurting him badly.

At times like that, the villagers would join my parents in meting out a punishment. That time, they held me down on the ground by my legs and my arms while they poured a bowl of hot pepper soup down my nose. I nearly choked to death, and for hours afterward my nose burned.

There’s a new one for you, mom and dad. If Campbell’s only knew. Let me stop in this testimony for a moment. Why did that tribe of aboriginal people who never heard about the true God, who never heard of the gospel, never heard the name Jesus, why did they punish a young boy for throwing a stick and hurting a child? Why? Who told them that was wrong? Why did this young man feel guilty? He told us when he talked to our staff one day, he said, “My heart was broken every day because I loved my mother and I knew she was ashamed of me, but I couldn’t correct my behavior.” Why did he feel that way? Where did he get to feel that guilt? Where did that come from? And why was his mother ashamed of him? Who told her what the standard was?

He goes on: I couldn’t understand myself. After one of those episodes, I would go off into the forest and pound my head against a tree, crying, “What’s wrong with me? I should kill myself.” I hated being the white sheep of the family.

All depends on your perspective.

He says: But one day when I was about twelve years old, a boy returned to our village from the coast where he had been visiting his father. By the way, that was a long, long, long journey by foot. None of us younger ones had ever seen the ocean, so we crowded around him to hear all about it. It was as though he had been to the moon and back. Enjoying the acclaim, he kept us spellbound with his experiences as he recounted the strange things he saw. Among other things, he told us about how some people on the coast met together in a house on Sundays and they sang and stayed a long time.

He couldn’t figure out what they were doing, and finally his curiosity got the better of him, so he asked one of the villagers, “What do you do in there for such a long time?” They told him they were praying to God, the God who created everything, and they said they believed He heard their prayers.

I had never heard anything like this. A God who hears your prayers? It excited me. And I wanted to pray to God, too. I asked the boy to meet me on Sunday, since that’s the day they met in that house, and we would go someplace outside the village and he could tell me how to pray. But he wasn’t interested. Disappointed, I decided the next Sunday to try it by myself.

I went to a hut that my cousin was still building, and with no one around, I tried to pray for the first time. I had never heard anyone pray, but I decided I would just talk to this God like He was my father. I can’t explain what happened but it was an exciting experience. I wanted to know more about this God, but there was no one in our village who knew anything about Him. So for two years, I kept praying by myself on Sundays and hoping that someday someone would come along who could tell me about Him.

You see? Now, he lived up to the light he had, didn’t he? He followed that light.

https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/45-20B

(emphasis mine)

In the earlier Article, MacArthur said "men do not live up to the light they have", and now he says the opposite.

 

I saw it...finally. I think he's wrong here.

 

Though I am iffy on this, God works in ways we have no way in understanding. But, he didn't even know God existed before that other boy told him. And by him knowing he did wrong, that was proof of the Law being written upon his heart.

 

Sure--that's fine--I'm just saying that MacArthur seems to say Man can respond to light, and in doing so, more light will be given--even to the point of calling on Christ.