The following "Question" was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, and "Answered" by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed by Duncan Helwig of Moreno Valley, CA, from the tape, GC 1301-K, titled "Bible Questions and Answers Part 13."  A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE.  ©1980. All Rights Reserved.

Question

What is the status of a mentally retarded person, who has been mentally retarded from birth, or maybe made, what you would call a vegetable? Are they accountable to God for their sin? Why does God allow something like this?

Answer

Well, you have asked me a whole pile of questions. Why does God allow it? I don't know. You ask "Why?" questions and I am already stuck, because I don't know why. But I do know that God has his own purposes; for example in Exodus, chapter 4, "The Lord said unto him, Who hath made man's mouth?" Just listen to this, "Who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the Lord? In other words, the people who come into the world with some handicap are no less the creation of God. Now, what God's purposes are in those individual cases only God knows. Keep in mind, that I don't think it's God specific purpose in the creation of man, that man should be so made. But, I think that is the inevitability of the curse of sin which falls under his permissive will and I think in the case of a mentally retarded individual, a person who is a vegetable, or whatever--God alone is the judge and I would think it's only known to him just exactly what the situation is. I would say this though, that I believe personally, that if a child grows up handicapped mentally, retarded, or whatever, and that child dies, God is not going to punish a child eternally for a decision he couldn't make, and so I am convinced that there's no difference then the child previous to the age of accountability, and Jesus said, "suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not; for of such is the kingdom of heaven." David's infant son died, David said, "He cannot come to me, but I shall go to him, David had the confidence that his son was in the presence of God; and Jesus said that in effect. I believe God would treat those people who have an infantile mind, the same way he would treat an infant. So without a conscious rejection of Jesus Christ, without a conscious rejection of the revelation of God, in creation or whatever as Romans 1 says, without an overt rejection of those things, God is not going to hold a man accountable or a woman.

So I think in a case where you have retardation or you have a mental handicap, and the person is not responsible for his own behavior, that God would never hold him eternally accountable for something he could never make a decision about. So I think God treats them with great love and great care, and I think you see that just in the nature of God, God is too loving to be unnecessarily unkind, and too just to be unfair.

Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "MacArthur’s Questions and Answers" by:

Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
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