While these mythologies come from a proof-texting and out of contexting of scripture, all these false teachings can be shot down with just a single passage of scripture.
Jesus teaches the parable of the sower, and this is one of the few we have recorded his explanation of it in detail to his disciples. Look at the explanation in Luke 8:11-15.
This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. 12Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. 13Those on the rock are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away. 14The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life's worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. 15But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.
Whether your theology holds here the "word of God" is Jesus, or the written or spoken word of the good news, it still holds. Those with a noble and good heart receive it.
Psalm 139 tells us that we are in the womb we are wonderfully made. By God. In other words, if there wasn't a basic goodness to us then that would have been the way God made us in the womb. So if there is nothing good about us, before we hear the word of God, then that would be the way God made us? That would mean that God made evil.
But no, God doesn't make evil, he makes free will. God wanted community, wanted love from others, so he created others. But love and community from others without the freewill to choose otherwise is hollow, so he created freewill. It was a freewill creation that betrayed him and led 1/3 of the angel armies in rebellion, and freewilled creations that betrayed him in the Garden. Evil was the consequence of the freewill.
So as freewilled creatures, even before we hear the word, we have the choice of picking between good and evil. Typically, we pick some of both, and most of us from the evil table pick things that "aren't that bad". This I don't deny. But there are a number of honorable men among atheists even. There are a lot of legalists, who try to follow a law rather than rely on the grace of God, who do a lot of good in this world.
I think if this were not true, this world would have become a living hell a long time ago.
And yes, there's a difference between us being righteous before God and us doing some good. I do not deny that, and I'm not saying we can win God's favor through our attempts at being good. But as God's creation, as God's beloved, as people knit in the womb by God, we have a freewill to choose. This is true even of those who've never heard the word. We are not evil, yet neither are we righteous without God.
But with God, we can be considered fully good and righteous:
But the Scriptures speak often of good works and do not hesitate to apply such terms as "good," "blameless," and even "worthy" to mortals:
He [Barnabas] was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith (Acts 11:24).
Both of them [Zechariah and Elizabeth] were upright in the sight of God, observing all the Lord's commandments and regulations blamelessly (Luke 1:6).
Now there was a man named Joseph, a member of the Council, a good and upright man (Luke 23:50).
You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous and blameless we were among you who believed (1Thess. 2:10).
But those who are considered worthy of taking part in that age and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage (Luke 20:35).
Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy (Rev. 3:4).
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1 comment:
This is put so well. A friend of ours forwarded this post to us because he said it reminded him of my husbands philosophy. (He talks this way all the time.) We did some research and found that way, way back in church history, those who believed the spirit was transmitted to the unborn child by his parents held what was called the view of "traducianism". Those (like us) who believed that G-d individually created each and every unborn child Himself, (without sin), held what was called the view of "creationism", which has a couple of different forms. We have read that Jesus never would have been taught nor would He have taught the concept of a child being born with "original sin"...same with Jews, and Messianic believers today (at least all of those we have questioned personally regarding the matter hold to creationism.)
That said, it was refreshing to read your words.
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