This is a post in response to a comment that Hombreguapo made a few weeks back...
Hombre - good point, but think about to what extent America still struggles with race issues. It's not an open and shut case.
In cases where something very good and valuable occurs, like the civil rights movement, human nature's natural response is to do one or both of two things:
1. Suppress it.
2. Pervert it.
While great good has come from the civil rights movement, many still resist it and many more pervert it into an excuse for what is called "reverse racism." This is, of course, not to say that good hasn't come from the civil rights movement: it undoubtedly has produced good. But human nature has not changed.
Again, even pursuing tolerance can have some benefits, but in the long run, human beings are still inherently evil (Romans 3, Jeremiah 17:9). This is not to say that we are incapable of doing good: As beings that bear the image of God, the possibility to do good still exists.
But at the core of our beings, we are not good people. "If we say we have not sinned, we make Him out to be a liar," as I John chapter 1 tells us. And, on top of that, even our efforts to do good are inherently flawed. As Isaiah says, "all your righteous deeds are like filthy rags."
From the world's standpoint, our progress towards being a more "open" and "tolerant" and "enlightened" humanity ought to be our primary goal. But we aren't becoming more "open" or "tolerant" or "enlightened" as a whole. Instead, we're more closed minded, more intolerant, and more stupid than we realize.
Why is there more violent crime today than there was 30 years ago? Why more fear? More distrust between neighbors? More explicit sexual content available to more people in more ways than ever before? These are not the problems... just symptoms.
Jeremiah 17:9 says, "the heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure, who can understand it?"
So, with such a great lack of faith in human kind, where does that leave me? Cynicism? Not quite. I have absolutely no faith in humanity to improve itself and solve its own problems.
But that doesn't mean I have no hope.
I take great comfort in the promise of Romans 8:28 - "God causes all things to work together for the good of those who love Him who have been called according to His purpose."
As my old roommate Knarf and I once concluded, "evil is God's whipping boy." Horrible, evil things are done by mankind. But in the end, God takes those things and uses them ultimately for good in spite of the fact that they're evil.
Common Grace, as the theologians call it, facilitates good in society. Furthermore, the purpose of the Church is to be a salt and a light in the world and to be an influence for good... more specifically, to "love one another as [Christ] has loved us," encouraging and reminding us that "there is no greater love than this, that a man lays down his life for his friend."
The salvific grace of God acting upon our lives means that we, as believers, have a special duty to be light in a world so utterly devoured by and in love with darkness. It's a difficult fight, but we are drawn to it inexorably. We must obey His commands. Out of obligation or mercenary reward? Hell, no. Out of pure gratitude for what He has given us. He did, after all, die for us while we were still monsters. And he uses us for good in spite of the fact of our own abominable natures.
No, the progress we've made from a purely human standpoint hasn't been towards anything barely resembling a better, more tolerant society. Instead, by God's grace, good men and women have stood against the most monstrous aspects of what we are, and have done wonders to remind us of the inherent value of each and every human life. Is this progress? No. I think that's the wrong word for it. In such a situation, we're not marching towards something new and better. Instead, we're trying to gain back something we once had, but lost in the Garden. I think it's better to call such a thing "remembering" instead. That is, after all, what we seem to have trouble with the most when it comes to these things. Remembering the value of another human being... remembering to discern right from wrong in difficult situations... remembering to call your parents once a week to see how they're doing... remembering to love the Lord with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength... remembering to love your neighbor as yourself...
