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Richard Tallach · #**162** (**permalink**) 07-02-2009, 10:18 AM

That's a whole other topic. We don't know which infants are going to Hell unless we are talking about those infants whose spiritual state we can assess before they die. Those infants who do go to Hell - a lesser Hell than some - will go because of Adam's sin (and any sins/sinful attitude of their own if they have any). God chooses the reprobate, but it is them who are to blame for their punishment. If it was God who was to blame for their punishment rather than them, they could take some comfort in that.

I'm open to persuasion on this topic as divines like Dabney, Shedd, Kuyper, Berkhof and Van Til have defended the doctrine of common grace, while others like Hermann Hoeksema have disagreed.

I'll read Rev. Winzer's article and other material, and study the Scriptures more closely. At present, I agree with Berkhof when he says,

Another objection to the doctrine of common grace is that it presupposes a certain favourable disposition in God even to reprobate sinners, while we have no right to assuime such a disposition in God. This stricture takes its starting point in the eternal counsel of God, in His election and reprobation. Along the lines of His election God reveals His love, grace, mercy, and long-suffering, leading to salvation; and in the historical realisation of His reprobation He gives expression only to His aversion, disfavour, hatred and wrath, leading to destruction. But this looks like a rationalistic oversimplification of the inner-life of God, which does not take account of His self-revelation.

Where - for instance - are God's good gifts ever called gifts of God's hatred - to anyone, elect or reprobate? If they are gifts of God's loving-kindness, that is more heaping coals of fire on the heads of those who abuse everything good, than if they were motivated by God's hatred pure and simple. It is because they (and even the elect to some extent) abuse gifts of God's goodness (and not hate) that the sin is so abominable and deserves greater damnation.