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Are there Christians that have almost 0 talents?

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There was a parable where Christians had different numbers of talents.

Could someone have almost zero talents, like if they are severely disabled both mentally and physically?

Could it be possible that they do not do a lot of good works because they do not know they are supposed to do such and such in order to love God? Perhaps they do not read the Bible because they cannot read or have trouble understanding and or are not even aware that God would want them to read the Bible?

Also for those who cannot read, perhaps if they did not have someone else who is a good teacher teach tell them the truth in a simple enough way for them to understand and their were false teachers who mangled their conscience and they could not see that because they could not read and understand the Bible due to their disability perhaps they did not fully understand what God wants them to do to show love for God.

I am not saying that people are saved by doing good works.

But I think when someone is saved, that person will want to love God so usually works are a sign of salvation. (This might be an oversimplification of reality.)

But if someone has limited mental capacities and or physical capacities do you think that it is possible they could be saved without showing good works, especially if they were very confident they would/will go to heaven?

So could it be possible that someone has almost zero talents so they show almost zero talents as a sign of salvation? As opposed to someone else who has a lot of talents and you should look for more talents if you are to guess whether or not they are saved.
 
The "talents" in that parable were units of money. They were entrusted to the servants to invest for the master. Every believer is gifted by the Holy Spirit as He chooses. Some have multiple gifts, some may have only one, though not likely. God gives gifts for the benefit of His program not ours.
 
If you knew how much money a talent is.....

Well it is a lot, I doubt I even have one talent

But I think a lesson can be learned about using what God has given us, whether it be abilities, opportunity, money, time, friendships, authority, etc.
 
I meant to say are there some Christians who do not really seem to use their abilities because they do not have any or at least not many. Like say for instance if someone is mentally incapacitated maybe they have abilities they could use for God but they are not aware that they should be using these abilities because it is hard for them to reason and therefor they do not use them much, even though they are saved.

Like might it be ok to believe someone who is not really using their abilities is likely to be saved if they were mentally impaired, disabled, "special", and or not the brightest bunch on the bush, because they do not know they should do so. Where as someone who is extremely intelligent and proclaims to be saved should know better than to neglect using their abilities to help people and is less likely to be saved if they do not seem to use the abilities God has given them to love God and their neighbor in the way God wants them to. In neither case can you necessarily tell, but you can make an "educated guess," so long as you are aware that you could be wrong.

Some of my wording might be off on the earlier description

Do you think my idea I suggested is anywhere close to reality or way off mark? Explain why?
 
Gifts aren't intellectual abstractions, they are practical abilities. The few mentally handicapped Christians I know tend to excel at using their gifts more than others as they are generally less inhibited and have a simpler faith. Their gifts are not of the teaching variety, but they are gifted in areas of prayer and music.

And, gifts aren't a sign of Salvation, fruit of the spirit are. Everyone should show fruit of the spirit. I doubt there is anyone ungifted, but if they where it wouldn't be bad for them in any way, it just means their role doesn't need any special skilset.
 
Well do you think for example someone who has dementia or just is not very smart might behave a way that we would normally consider unsaved people to typically behave because they had trouble understanding things?

Do you think if such a person was very confident they were going to go to heaven but did not for instance know right from wrong very well nor even the need to learn it (due to their poor understanding), they perhaps might not do many things they should and do many things they should not and still be saved?

Could they for instance be so clueless they do not know suicide is wrong and think suicide is a short-cut to heaven and therefor good and still be saved? (I am not talking necessarily about someone who committed suicide so much as someone who thought it was OK.)

Could such a person just decide that breathing is too hard and choose to stop taking the effort to breath in a time of sickness and go to heaven if they died by suicide of omission as opposed to suicide of commission? Could it be possible that someone was saved and made that choice in ignorance because their mind was not working but they are still in heaven?

Could someone live in a house full of immorality and have no objection to the immorality and still be saved because they do not know better?

Could someone be willing to listen to the Bible but not desire to read it on their own often nor ask others to read it to them often because they have mental difficulties but still be saved?

Could someone not pray for people or witness to people because they do not know better or how to and still be saved because they have mental difficulties?

(Suicide is evil and should not be done except perhaps in the case of a greater good, like risking your life to save someone else's life, etc. which might not be suicide depending on how you define it.)

I am not saying that people are saved by doing a certain quantity of good works, but that good works can hint at someone's salvation and bad works at their lack of salvation. Although that has to do with the connection between their attitude toward God and their actions more than the actions themselves as I see it.

I have not been using the word "because" correctly on several of my questions (in this individual post) but I do not want to retype them and I think you know what I mean.
 
Tlaloc said:
Gifts aren't intellectual abstractions, they are practical abilities. The few mentally handicapped Christians I know tend to excel at using their gifts more than others as they are generally less inhibited and have a simpler faith. Their gifts are not of the teaching variety, but they are gifted in areas of prayer and music.

And, gifts aren't a sign of Salvation, fruit of the spirit are. Everyone should show fruit of the spirit. I doubt there is anyone ungifted, but if they where it wouldn't be bad for them in any way, it just means their role doesn't need any special skilset.
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That is a good point

But isn't the choice to use the gifts you have for loving God and loving your neighbor in the way God considers proper a sign of salvation.
 
Well do you think for example someone who has dementia or just is not very smart might behave a way that we would normally consider unsaved people to typically behave because they had trouble understanding things?
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Having dementia and not being smart are two very different things. The Gospel is simple, and doing good for others is pretty simple too, not being very bright doesn't hurt ones virtue. There isn't any case I can think of where being intellectuality slow made someone do bad things unless they where deliberately tricked. So, no to that.

Dimentia is a blanket term for a number of mental issues, that brings in questions of weather they are acting of their own volition and what is the nature of the illness and deeper issues of the nature of choice and will. I've had more experience than I want with various dimensional, but I can't give you too many definitive answers about it. That is a long discussion on its own.

Do you think if such a person was very confident they were going to go to heaven but did not for instance know right from wrong very well nor even the need to learn it (due to their poor understanding), they perhaps might not do many things they should and do many things they should not and still be saved?
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In the cases I know of with Christians that have clinically defined mental retardation they are quite interested in knowing right from wrong. In all the cases I know of of retardation, clinical and otherwise, they tend to be almost obsessive about knowing what they should and should not do because they have a hard enough time fitting in in the first place. In the case of someone not very intellectually inclined, such people also often like to know right from wrong, I may say they often oversimplify things, but really they tend to have that down better than the scholarly types. In cases of dimentias, I don't know, once again, thats a more complicated issue.

Could they for instance be so clueless they do not know suicide is wrong and think suicide is a short-cut to heaven and therefor good and still be saved? (I am not talking necessarily about someone who committed suicide so much as someone who thought it was OK.)
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Suicide is a more complicated issue than we normally give it credit for in Western culture. One normally wouldn't think of suicide as a shortcut to heaven unless lead by a very powerful (and corrupt) charismatic leader. Given the magnitude of the the decision all types of people (except perhaps the demented, mentioned above) would talk to someone else before taking such action.

Could such a person just decide that breathing is too hard and choose to stop taking the effort to breath in a time of sickness and go to heaven if they died by suicide of omission as opposed to suicide of commission? Could it be possible that someone was saved and made that choice in ignorance because their mind was not working but they are still in heaven?
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One cannot simply choose to stop breathing unless one is very nearly dead in the first place, and giving up ones last breath in times of sickness is not really equivalent to the willful suicide of the healthy. Even that I submit is not a cut and dried issue. As I am not Catholic (I don't even know any polygamous Catholics, though I know many mainstream ones) I do not see suicide as a one way ticket to hell one way or another.

Could someone live in a house full of immorality and have no objection to the immorality and still be saved because they do not know better?
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I would submit that most Christians live with some kind of immorality or overlook some kind of immorality. Unless someone has achieved perfection they have some immorality in their life. The Spirit would eventually draw them away from it, but it may take years (or they may die first).

Could someone be willing to listen to the Bible but not desire to read it on their own often nor ask others to read it to them often because they have mental difficulties but still be saved?
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Most Christians did not have a Bible, or anyone to read it in their language. Before the Cannon was formed no one had a Bible, not long before that very very few people had the TaNaKa. This is not a salvation issue.

Could someone not pray for people or witness to people because they do not know better or how to and still be saved because they have mental difficulties?
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You don't even need to speak to pray. Anyone with their faculties in any sense can pray. You're talking about being dead or nearly dead here. As for witnessing, not everyone is an evangelist, it takes a certain knack to witness effectively, most Christians should try it, but there are other roles in the Body of Christ.

But isn't the choice to use the gifts you have for loving God and loving your neighbor in the way God considers proper a sign of salvation.
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The choice to do what you can with what you have to love God and your neighbor is a sign of salvation. If you have a particular gift you must use it, but lacking that gift is not a knock against anyone.
 
Tlaloc said:
Could someone not pray for people or witness to people because they do not know better or how to and still be saved because they have mental difficulties?
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You don't even need to speak to pray. Anyone with their faculties in any sense can pray. You're talking about being dead or nearly dead here. As for witnessing, not everyone is an evangelist, it takes a certain knack to witness effectively, most Christians should try it, but there are other roles in the Body of Christ.
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I am talking about someone who did not pray for people at least not in any visible way for the most part (not that they never prayed), years before they were dead, but they might have had limited mental capacities years before they were dead. And they were capable of speech years before they died but their speech sometimes might have suggested limited understanding, they were not observed talking much to evaluate their speech. But that might have been an education gap not a limited capacity.
 
Tlaloc said:
The choice to do what you can with what you have to love God and your neighbor is a sign of salvation. If you have a particular gift you must use it, but lacking that gift is not a knock against anyone.
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I am not saying that to put anyone down, but perhaps that because they lacked the gift perhaps, that is why they did not exercise it. And maybe if someone was not very gifted that could explain why....

Like if someone had 1 million talents and invested 0.0000000000000001 talents they would be less likely to be saved (by human guessing)
then someone who had 0.01 talents and invested 0.001 talents.

Not that salvation is by works.
 
Tlaloc said:
In the cases I know of with Christians that have clinically defined mental retardation they are quite interested in knowing right from wrong. In all the cases I know of of retardation, clinical and otherwise, they tend to be almost obsessive about knowing what they should and should not do because they have a hard enough time fitting in in the first place. In the case of someone not very intellectually inclined, such people also often like to know right from wrong, I may say they often oversimplify things, but really they tend to have that down better than the scholarly types. In cases of dimentias, I don't know, once again, thats a more complicated issue.
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What if they were in a house and attended Churches with 100% unbelievers (not counting them) which later became 80% unbelievers, so when they asked right from wrong they were given wrong answers and became morally confused, such that their sense of morality was greater at birth than in old age. What if everyone encouraged them that suicide by omission would be a good way out except for one person who regrettably said nothing to the dying person until the dying person could not speak or wake up because the person against suicide was afraid. So in these matters they were not as able to know right from wrong as easily as others, especially with the limited mental capacity put into consideration.

Do you think in such a case this could explain a lack of a sign of moral discernment + certain actions based on that discernment.

And such a person still could be saved.
 
Like if someone had 1 million talents and invested 0.0000000000000001 talents they would be less likely to be saved (by human guessing)
then someone who had 0.01 talents and invested 0.001 talents.
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I certainly say the .01 is the better person, and I would be more likely to assume the .01 is saved. I agree with this.

they were given wrong answers and became morally confused, such that their sense of morality was greater at birth than in old age.
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I expect this happens woefully often don't you?

What if everyone encouraged them that suicide by omission would be a good way out except for one person who regrettably said nothing to the dying person until the dying person could not speak or wake up because the person against suicide was afraid.
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Typically for something to be considered suicide there has to be an active role in ones own death. Discontinuing efforts to save someones life cannot really be considered suicide as far as I can tell. In the same way dieing to save someone else is not suicide.

Christ both had the power to save his own life and did not take it and choose to die for someone else, so neither of those actions can be wrong in and of themselves. Many martyrs refused to save themselves from their deaths even when they could have escaped. Refusing to save oneself (from hostility or disease) and willfully killing oneself are two entirely different things.

I'm not sure if that helps, but I to go into more detail we'd have to take some time to lay down exactly what you mean by certain terms and on what do you base calling them wrong.

Anyway, such a person could certainly be saved.

God bless you, and I'm glad if I've helped and I hope to be able to help more.
 
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