We should probably define "Godly Repentance". I wholeheartedly agree that I could never see God walking away from someone who really understood what they're sin had caused and was sincerely sorrowful for their own culpability in their sin and how it hurt others. God equally cares for all.
For sure.
I wouldn't reject such at all. I actually like this answer because I believe you're possibly right. I would qualify this with "God looks on the heart". There are many in this life that have Godly intentions but have no idea how to accomplish them. I rightfully recognize that in my own personal life. There have been times I caused harm to others that I didn't realize I was causing at the time. When I realized it, It horrified me in the facts of my own culpability.
Agreed. God looks at the heart and there will be no one without a
genuinely repentant heart that is fully on God’s side and following Him who makes it into heaven.
This is where you kinda lose me. Just how does punishment such as this actually change the mind and make someone culpable in understanding what true repentance is?
It is "torture". We know that someone being "tortured" will do anything to get out of that torment. It doesn't actually change the heart....
Example,
Rev 20:8 And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.
No matter how you "slice" this in the context of the fulfillment of prophecy. You have the scenario where those gathered for the battle were just "going along" with the "rule" of the King. That is what many people do. They "go along" because they realize they have no power to resist. That isn't repentance. That isn't knowing and agreeing with God.
As I alluded to God will not be fooled, no doubt about it, we are in full agreement there.
I know several people, some quite close, for whom going through a sort of hell on earth brought them to the light. Are those people disqualified? Of course not, but I guess you could say “they should have turned before all the difficulty.” Yes it would have been better if they had. The reality is most people do have their faith formed in some way by great loss or difficulty. Thomas the disciple even comes to mind. Would it have been better had he believed before seeing the scars. Well, yeah, but that certainly doesn’t disqualify him for believing after seeing. Do you agree?
I do believe in a general age of accountability relative to culpability "beginning to be established in any person's life at a relatively early age. However, I prefer to deal with the issue from the perspective of being "innocent". "Innocence" is a complicated "thing". Even Jesus spoke of how David broke the law in eating the bread only meant for the priest and was innocent. It is more than an age. Innocence is a complicated construct of intent and knowledge. Mankind is destroyed because of their lack of knowledge. People just don't understand. Part of that understanding is OUR job. We are meant to remove any barrier to understanding in the very minimum aspects of embracing Jesus Christ for salvation. I've said this before here. I have a very low threshold for salvation. It is more about intent and the pureness of that intent in the heart that matters to me. I think the Scriptures teach this. I defer to God for those who meet that "threshold". I can't know it myself. However, I believe that many people don't know God because.... GOD expects us to win the hearts of others to Him. We are the reasons why there are so few anymore that seem to be "saved".
The scenario you mentioned about the kid......
I see so much culpability in the "human systems" we live within in your scenario. That "bus" is a human creation. If there wasn't for that bus, it wouldn't have happened. The quarter wouldn't exist if it were not for "human government" desiring to own all interaction between the human race to the point that their "coinage" has so much meaning. It actually doesn't. That "love not" the "things in the world" is so wrapped up in such things. People should not be blaming God. We should be blaming ourselves for almost everything bad that we like to lay at the feet of God. I would have to include the culpability of the entire human race throughout all ages in any context of culpability for everlasting torment.
A difficult scenario I'd like to propose. Not prejudging here. Talk through this with me....What responsibility would God have in the following scenario....
God had to give someone over to a reprobate mind because multiple generations within that person's lineage continually produced genuinely evil descendents. Over and over again. In contrast to, faith produces faith (faith to faith) .. evil produces evil. Faith is so very often multi-generational but so is unbelief. Jesus continually references how the Pharisees were the product of their fathers and ultimately they were the descendents of their lying father. Satan.
Should we equate the descendents of Satan with the same punishment as Satan? Just within the context of the character of God as displayed against Satan himself, would everlasting torment be outside the character of God?
Let me know your thoughts.
At least for the purposes of this discussion I’d like to "leave Satan out of it" if you will.
I think most of what you say in this section ironically reinforces my point. Kids born into a truly Christian family have an
extreme advantage with regard to developing saving faith in this lifetime. I think based on the “facts on the ground” that we see in this world, there really is no other possible option that would withstand any definition of love or fairness than that death not be the end of any chance to be saved. (if the postmillennialists are right, maybe one day that won't be the case, but we certainly aren't there yet)
You say “isn’t it unfair that people after death would still get to develop faith?” I'd answer "is it fair that we get to be saved in this life?" We imagine it would be too obvious after death. Maybe, maybe not. What actually is hell? It’s mentioned astonishingly few times in the bible (very little in the NT and almost never in the OT). All we really have are metaphors (fire, outer darkness, etc).
The truth is we don’t know what the unsaved really will experience there, but nowhere in the bible does it say people don’t have chances beyond death. Given that we serve a God of love (key word “of”) I think the default should be that he would seldom if ever create humans in such a way that they are capable of forever rejecting him. I suspect that most of the unsaved, if they were put in the same circumstances as you and I, would have faith before death.