More progress in discussing progress
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...
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...
posted by Raoul The Destroyer at 3:46 PM
5 Comments:
Okay - I don't know if my comment from a couple of weeks caused this post to come fourth or not, but wow! I have to say I cannot argue scripture becasue I believe in what it says too. But at the same time what are laws doing or saying? For example, all these laws that people are trying to make to ban homosexual marraiges and rights. To me this is out of fear of a very homophobic society and mainly the right wing politics that are trying to legalize values. Listen carefully, I am not saying one way or the other about if I think homosexuality is right or wrong or if we should honor their rights. I am just saying that these kind of laws are not goiong to stop people from being gay or lesbian. It is like teaching teenagers about abstinancy and not teaching anything about how to have safe sex. If we tell them not to do it, then surely they won't right? WRONG! I am not saying that these two examples show what is right about human nature because they don't. I am just stating what I feel to be true and they need to be addressed. Yes, I agree that progress in terms of what the world thinks is usually not great. But how is Christianity perceived by a lot of people right now? That We are ignorant and conservative extremists. IF you don't have Jesus, oh no, which is TRUE! But I think that Christians should stand up for what we believe, but are we really doing that the best right now? I would say no, we can't just pass laws and rules onto society without also tackling the heart of the issues. A Christian cannot simply say that a gay man just simply needs to stop living in sin and come to the Lord. We need to stop this whole mess about pointing out these big sins and blaming the person for it! Come on, we are all sinners. It is hypocritical to say your sin is worst then mine because you are gay, but I am a 40 year old man who has been divorced twice. There is a lot more to issues that go deep to the heart that we don't always see. So instead of trying to say as Christians that progress is bad, we simply need to love people. In the least nonjudgemental way and if that says not to ban gay marraige because its a constitutional right, so be it. I just think so many times that Christians are very close-minded and have plenty of biases.
Sorry this comment is so long. It doesn't have to be posted. . .
I think you are saying the same thing that I was trying to say at the end of the post.
Well, almost.
I agree that Christians aren't perceived very kindly in society right now. However, I don't think that has much to do with the important things, i.e. the Gospel. Mostly, we're perceived as ignorant for reasons that really don't have a lot do to with the true substance of our faith.
More than anything, I think that society DOES need to have a better grasp of the depravity of human nature. Otherwise, it will be very difficult for people to really understand the nature of the love of God concerning His sacrifice for our sins and what that sacrifice saved us from.
More specifically, Christ's sacrifice saved us from the Wrath of God. Not ourselves. Not just our sin. But God's wrath.
Now, I'm not saying we need to start spitting fire at people who aren't Christians (and those who know me know very well that I despise such evangelism). However, when we do present the Gospel, we most certainly ought NOT to water it down, otherwise the "Good News" seems less like "Good News" and more like "News that might give you the warm fuzzies for a minute but won't really have an impact on the way you live your life."
That is why I am emphasizing the role of the church so much as being a salt and a light.
Remember, "progress" isn't a march towards a better society. In the depths of his heart, "progress" for mankind is another step further away from God. The more we're aware of our own hostility towards the Lord, the more we'll be able to be honest with Him, with ourselves, and with other people.
In the end, I think we're getting at the same point, the importance of "loving your neighbor as yourself." I think we're just coming at it from different angles.
Remember: I took Jeremiah 17:9 and Romans 3 very seriously when I read them... they are providing a very large theoretical substructure for the arguments I'm making.
Oh, and good comment, by the way! :)
Scoville... you going to weigh in? ;)
Now, I'm not saying we need to start spitting fire at people who aren't Christians (and those who know me know very well that I despise such evangelism). However, when we do present the Gospel, we most certainly ought NOT to water it down, otherwise the "Good News" seems less like "Good News" and more like "News that might give you the warm fuzzies for a minute but won't really have an impact on the way you live your life."
I really liked this point. And yes I agree we are getting at the same point just from different ways. I know you take those verses very seriously. . .I never doubted that!
Hey, bro,
You know that you and I have seriously divergent opinions theologically in a lot of areas, but I just wanted to say this: I liked that post. Good stuff.
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