| | HUMAN NATURE: GOOD OR EVIL?
I want to know your thoughts: This is the question of the day. Is our (humans) nature good, evil or maybe neutral? I would love to read your thoughts on this subject. But when you give your thoughts, please give me reasons for your thoughts. Are your thoughts based on some personal experience, higher authority, some authoritative piece of wisdom or something else? In other words, I would love to read the pieces of wisdom or personal experience that shapes your belief. (Feel free to blog about this on your own xanga or myspace site and direct them to this site if you like. I'm trying to get back to blogging, but there is more energy for me in blogging when more people are involved. Right or wrong that is the way it works for me at this point. I'd love to get a variety of different opinions on this topic if possible. Of Course NO ONE'S OPINION WILL BE DEGRADED ON MY BLOG. In other words, opinions may be disagreed with, but people must not be degraded.)
My Thoughts: Of Course for those of you who do not know, I am a Christ Follower. I believe that Jesus is the One and only Son of God, who also came in the form of a man to save us from our sins. That is a very loaded statement of which is open for questions or discussion from anyone, as well. But to be short, I believe that humans tend to do the wrong thing. That means that if God is the author of good, then humans tend to drift from Him.
Some of you may ask, "Why do you believe in such a thing?" I believe this because of a collected wisdom beyond my own wisdom (the Bible). In other words, it seems as though the scriptures, which I believe to be God's word through many wise, but yet flawed authors, builds this very truth: Humans seem to do the wrong thing. My own experience and history itself also seems to confirm what the scriptures say as well. Now you must know that I do not believe that humans are utterly evil without the capacity for good. I do think that we have a tremendous capacity for goodness. We were made in the image of God (however broken and faded that may become). So there is potential for goodness that can be found in history, the scriptures and experience, as well. However, I just believe that we, on our own accord, tend to drift from what is right to what is wrong.
Is the Bible God's Word? This is a very important question that must be answered for many people. There is much evidence for the understanding that it is God's Word. One piece of evidence that shines above many others are the prophecies about Christ and his work of salvation, written 300, 700 (especially Isaiah), even 1000 years before Christ's appearance on the earth. Even the most radical liberal Old Testament scholars date the latest prophecies about Christ as being written at least 150 years before Christ. There are also several pieces of scholarship that write off such prophecies and even Christ's historical existence, as well. But that is another discussion for another time. I have done much study on this with as much of an open mind as I can muster (being a person who has experienced Jesus' literal presence). Yet I find the sceptical scholarship wanting, even by scientific standards. At this point try to imagine with me if you don't already believe, that the Bible is indeed at the least an attempt of God trying to communicate wisdom to man. Or at least appreciate the fact that there are no other texts that have been found to be as ancient or as accurate as what we have in the collection of the Bible.
Scriptural Evidence of human evil tendencies:
Romans 3:9-11 "What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; as it is written,'There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands there is none who seeks for God; All have turned aside together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one.'"
Romans 3:23 "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
Isaiah 64:6"For all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; and all of us wither like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind take us away
Scriptural Evidence of human potential to do good:
Proverbs 2:20 "Thus you will walk in the ways of good men and keep to the paths of the righteous"
Psalm 11:7 "For the Lord is righteous, he loves justice; upright men will see his face."
Isaiah 57:1-2 "The righteous persih, and no one ponders it in his heart; devout men are taken away and no one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil. Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest as they lie in death."
Matthew 6:1 Be careful not to odyour acts of righteousness before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.
Is God's word contradictory here? No, one has to understand what makes a person righteous with all that is said in the scriptures about humans tending to lean towards evil. A man is considered righteous when He trusts in the living God of the universe, who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It is not his/her good deeds that make them righteous. It is their humility before God and trust in Him that allows God to bestow righteousness upon someone. Righteousness could only be given to people when the stain of sin is wiped away. Why is this important? Because sin is contagious and destructive. One sin even of relatively minor proportions tends to snow ball and ultimately destroy many peoples lives, hopes and dreams.
The simplest lie would be a great example. Lies tend to start small and ultimately destroy trust, relationships, etc... If God has prepared a wonderful place for everyone, how can he allow people with the stain of sin to enter this place. He can not. Or else the beauty of it all would be lost and corrupted as we often see happen in this world. So He had to wipe away sin because of justice. Justice is what someone deserves and it carries over into eternity. Justice is actually a good thing. It preserves what is pure, holy and good. An example would be, that if someone kills (theoretically) then they should be killed according to justice. This helps to preserve what is left of goodness and innocense with those who don't kill. Someone may do many good things, but if that person is a killer also then he/she is a carrier of the disease of killing. It doesn't go away without justice being done. It is a natural law of God in the context of freewill. Therefore, someone has to pay for that sin as a law of justice, whoes ultimate goal is to preserve peace. Jesus paid the price for all who freely accepted the payment (God almost always works in the context of freewill).
Therefore, a righteous man is one who trusts in the living God of the universe, who is also Jesus. And his righteousness is given to him/her and not earned (Ephesians 2:8-9). God also imparts the tendency to do what is right in the man who trusts in Him. This is done through the power of the Holy Spirit. Hence, not only is that man/woman with faith in a position of righteousness before God, but also starts to lean toward doing the right thing as a result of the Holy Spirit given to him/her.
More to come on historical and experiential evidence that the natural man tends to do evil...
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| | Posted 2/20/2007 5:55 PM - 82 Views - 14 eProps - 13 comments
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