I cross-posted this at my blog for preachers: http://www.MrAdventist.blogspot.com.
This past Sabbath I listened to a nice, pleasant preacher declare that people are miserable, self-destructive sinners. An almost direct quote: "No man has ever sat down, thought about sinning and said, 'That's stupid. I won't do it.'"
But of course, lot's of men have considered doing something evil then decided not to do it precisely because it was not only evil but it was also stupid.
People are capable of great evil.
People are also capable of great good.
If the second statement is false, the first one is also false. If people are incapable of doing good, if they are so utterly enslaved to evil that they cannot do good, then they are not responsible for doing evil. After all the same theology that teaches that people are unable to do good also teaches that this defect is something we were born with, not something we choose.
I think the common practice of Christian preachers to declaim the words of Romans 3 as the absolute literal truth while dismissing the words of Matthew 5-7 as hermeneutical hyperbole is both a distortion of the Bible and a tragic disservice to their Master and their audience.
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2 comments:
I think it is instructive to note that in Genesis, Man was created fundamentally "good". Evil is only a contamination that is removed by Christ. Even after the fall, God did not say that man was evil. He only said that man became like God "knowing good from evil". Knowing the difference between good and evil is the definition of wisdom. The rest of the Bible considers wisdom a virtue. Most of us would also consider, "becoming a partaker of the divine nature" to be a virtue as well. Yes, people do evil things, but I think if you look around you will see that most people are doing good most of the time. If we are honest with ourselves, we will see that even "evil" people do good most of the time.
@Antinyx. Well said. A further bit of evidence for resident goodness in humanity: in general we regard things like war, genocide, cruelty, deception, disloyalty as evil. The people involved may justify these things at the time. But in hindsight or from the perspective of those outside the immediate setting they are evil things. So the rape of Nanking, the fire bombing of Desden, the gassing of the Kurds and the abuse of prisoners at Abu Graib are condemned nearly universally, not just by Christians. To argue that all people possess sufficient moral awareness to damn them but not enough moral strength to do right is nonsense.
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