For follow-up discussion and general commentary on the topic. Comments are sorted chronologically.
Stephen Farr
No one will be without excuse, as God's word states that all will be able to see Christ through the glory of His creation, with reference to people who are able to think clearly.
Gayle Erwin
G. D. Erwin-
Since Jesus requires us to be as a child to enter the kingdom and since children are what Jesus said made up the kingdom, and since children have a special representative before The Father, and since out of the mouths of babes worship is perfected, perhaps this informs us of how loved and protected and accepted children and the mentally challenged (often called "eternal children") are to God.
Walt Pryor
All answers above are good.
Would like to add a thought though. God can love and hate, perfectly, at the same moment.
Most, the great majority of children will be saved. But we cannot deny God's sovereignty, even in this choice.
Not all children are good, not all children are innocent. Just the great majority of children are.
Also, the age of the child is very important.
Thank you.
Mary De Bonte
Did David go to heaven? Maybe he wasn't mentally ill. But he struggled often with deep depression. That is a mental illness. Mental handicap is a different story. Especially one to the point that one that can't understand the Gospel and make a decision.
Danny Hickman
I haven't found "make a decision" about whether you "accept Jesus" anywhere in the scriptures.
No saved person "made a decision" about whether he/she wants to live in eternity with God. God chose whom He would save before the foundation of the world. (Eph 1:4) It couldn't be any plainer said. We're believing Jesus for salvation because we were chosen to believe. The people who never come to the knowledge of the truth were simply NOT CHOSEN!!
We were predestined for salvation before the world was formed.
God doesn't look on sin because He doesn't have to. Why would God witness the ugliness of our sin when He already knows what we're going to do?
There are none who are righteous, not one (Rom 3:10) Why did Paul tell us this? "Making a decision " can't make us righteous. We're told this so we can know just how blessed we are TO BE CHOSEN!! Not how blessed we are that we "MADE THE RIGHT DECISION," or "accepted the offer of Jesus as our Savior."
These are statements of raw pride in self, perpetuated by pastors and church leaders. Saved people have NOTHING to be proud about. I've made some good decisions in my life, along with some terrible ones. I'm ashamed of the bad ones. I'm proud of the ones that make me look like I know what life is all about.
I married Faye in 1974. We're still together and I'm proud about it. It was a "good decision." The relationship with Jesus WAS NOT MY DECISION, it was His before the foundation of the world!!! Mt 25:34 (Rev 13:8) (Lk 11:50).
Danny Hickman
The church would be so much more inviting if it told the message of the gospel the way the bible records it. All of the letters to the church in the scriptures tell the people just how undeserving EVERYBODY is of God's grace. We're told we play no part whatsoever in the saving of our souls. That just doesn't seem to fly with many of us. We seem to want some credit for getting saved. We're not as thankful as we should be, is what I think this attitude reveals. God doesn't excuse sin because we're sorry. God doesn't forgive us of our sin because we ask Him to. These are misunderstandings about what the bible is telling us about Jesus' death in our stead. So we imagine that if a person can't mentally digest what his/her sin has done to them, and don't know to "accept Jesus," then God has to make some kind of special arrangement for them and their disability. He did. Jesus' death on the cross..
I think it's because of the "hell fire eternal suffering" that has been preached, instead of the truth that "the wages of sin is death" (Rom 6:23), not eternal suffering. Death for a person who has only known life IS ETERNAL SUFFERING.
Eternal life is devalued when it is compared to eternal torture in a fiery furnace instead of being compared to its opponent, death for eternity. It isn't given its proper crown.
God doesn't save everybody, only a remnant, but He doesn't torture anyone because they weren't chosen for eternal life. Mentally ill or not. Young or old, or aborted....
Danny Hickman
Unbelievers are simply unenlightened, regardless of why. Whether they believe there is no such thing as eternal life, or they think it can be had some way other than by the atoning death of Christ, it matters not. Unenlightened equals not born again.
I was raised by a pastor father and mother, taught the gospel of Jesus Christ, baptized at nine years old, the whole shebang.. It sounded like a way to raise children to do right, but the "afterlife" was hokey. I didn't believe it. Didn't believe Jesus was resurrected and would return someday. Didn't believe the Holy Spirit dwells in people.
I wasn't mentally challenged, I was an unbeliever. I was quiet about it. Wrong about it too.. Christianity was like any other religion to me. It was used to teach right from wrong.
The saved were chosen and predestined before the world was established (Eph 1:4,5,11).That includes a person who once didn't believe the truth that was taught to him. It was settled in eternity, but not in time.
You don't have to understand but you must be born again. How does that happen? "The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but don't know where it comes from and where it's going; so (the same) is everyone who is born of the Spirit." (Jn 3:8.
This was said to Nicodemus, the equivalent of today's graduate of Dallas Seminary. It made no sense to him. That's because he hadn't been born again of the Spirit of God.
Can the wind blow on the mentally challenged? If not, why not?