{"id":51497,"date":"2022-08-10T14:59:56","date_gmt":"2022-08-10T19:59:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=51497"},"modified":"2022-08-10T14:59:56","modified_gmt":"2022-08-10T19:59:56","slug":"was-the-formerly-blind-man-correct-in-john-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-the-formerly-blind-man-correct-in-john-9\/","title":{"rendered":"Was the formerly blind man correct in John 9?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t

Question:<\/h2>\n

Hello,<\/p>\n

How are you? Well, I hope. I have a question and this was the only way I knew how to contact you.<\/p>\n

I was in a discussion earlier today with a man on the topic of the sinner’s prayer. I quoted John 9:31 to the man and his response was “that blind man who was healed wasn’t inspired.” Then I went further and said to him, “No, but the man who wrote it, John, was.” Then he came back with Satan’s lies are quoted in the Bible, such as when he deceived Eve.” I know they are totally different instances and circumstances. We continued the discussion and I quoted other scripture, but how do you go about dealing with a man’s questions in a simpler way?<\/p>\n

Thank you.<\/p>\n\t

Answer:<\/h2>\n

Nothing in the account of formerly bind man in John 9 indicates that he was being inspired by God, even though the man clearly saw more about the workings of God than the Jewish leaders of his time. However, who said you had to be inspired in order to be right?<\/p>\n

First, see\u00a0Does God hear the prayers of those who are not yet saved?<\/a> A distinction needs to be made between someone who sins occasionally but is trying to be righteous versus someone who makes no attempt to be righteous.<\/p>\n

Second, realize that the man’s statement in John 9:31 is a good summary of what God taught in the Old Testament:<\/p>\n

“There they cry out, but He does not answer because of the pride of evil men. Surely God will not listen to an empty cry, nor will the Almighty regard it<\/em>” (Job 35:12-13).<\/p>\n

“They cried for help, but there was none to save, even to the LORD, but He did not answer them<\/em>” (Psalms 18:41).<\/p>\n

“The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous and His ears are open to their cry. The face of the LORD is against evildoers, to cut off the memory of them from the earth. The righteous cry, and the LORD hears and delivers them out of all their troubles<\/em>” (Psalms 34:15-17).<\/p>\n

“If I regard wickedness in my heart, the Lord will not hear<\/em>” (Psalms 66:18).<\/p>\n

“The LORD is far from the wicked, but He hears the prayer of the righteous<\/em>” (Proverbs 15:29).<\/p>\n

“He who turns away his ear from listening to the law, even his prayer is an abomination<\/em>” (Proverbs 28:9).<\/p>\n

“So when you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; Yes, even though you multiply prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood<\/em>” (Isaiah 1:15).<\/p>\n

“Then they will cry out to the LORD, but He will not answer them. Instead, He will hide His face from them at that time Because they have practiced evil deeds<\/em>” (Micah 3:4).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The man’s words were not a quote from the Old Testament, but they are an accurate summary of what God said.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Question: Hello, How are you? Well, I hope. I have a question and this was the only way I knew how to contact you. I was in a discussion earlier today with a man on the topic of the sinner’s prayer. I quoted John 9:31 to the man and his response was “that blind man…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[1510],"class_list":["post-51497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-prayers"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":27716,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/jesus-the-light-of-the-world\/","url_meta":{"origin":51497,"position":0},"title":"Jesus, the Light of the World","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 17, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"by Matthew W. Bassford In writing his gospel, the apostle John often likes to group Jesus' \"I am\" statements with events that define that characteristic. \"I am the bread of life,\" follows the feeding of the 5000, \"I am the resurrection and the life,\" precedes the raising of Lazarus, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10954,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-there-any-significance-to-being-40-years-old-in-the-bible\/","url_meta":{"origin":51497,"position":1},"title":"Is there any significance to being 40 years old in the Bible","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 5, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Do you happen to know if there is any significance to the age of 40 in New Testament times?\u00a0 We noticed on at least two separate occasions that the remark \"he is over 40\" is used.\u00a0 Once when Jesus healed the blind man and when the lame man was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25041,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-was-hamans-face-covered\/","url_meta":{"origin":51497,"position":2},"title":"Why was Haman’s face covered?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 27, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In Esther 7:8 it reads, \"As the word went out of king's mouth, they covered Haman's face.\"\u00a0 Does this mean that his face was covered because he laying on her bed and was much too close to Esther, or that he was now marked for death?\u00a0 Was\u00a0the covering of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15168,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/doesnt-colossians-212-clearly-show-that-baptism-is-a-work-of-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":51497,"position":3},"title":"Doesn’t Colossians 2:12 clearly show that baptism is a work of God?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 25, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Doesn't the following verse very plainly show that baptism is not a work of man, but rendering obedience to God's will? \"buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead\" (Colossians 2:12).\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":62911,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/lacking-compassion\/","url_meta":{"origin":51497,"position":4},"title":"Lacking Compassion","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 23, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Compassion is the deep awareness of the suffering of another and the desire to relieve the suffering. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Jesus illustrated compassion \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a01.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Matthew 14:14 - it was compassion that led Jesus to heal the sick \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a02.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Matthew 20:30-34 - the healing of two blind men \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a03.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Mark 1:40-41 - Jesus\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sermon"","block_context":{"text":"Sermon","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/sermon\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":91943,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/grace-and-baptism\/","url_meta":{"origin":51497,"position":5},"title":"Grace and Baptism","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 7, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by David Gibson To say that baptism is essential to salvation does not at all contradict the truth that we are saved by grace. We can never earn our salvation. Baptism is a condition of salvation. It is likely that others have made the following points, but they need to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51497\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}