This is why I can't sleep!
After another night of seemingly restless sleep, I awoke this morning to record these thoughts that looped through my mind the entire duration of my slumber (if you could even call it that). They were faceless conversations playing over and over in my mind. Here are some of the questions and answers given. The ideas seem to run together progressively, so read the post in it's entirety.
What is good?
Before defining good, I would first clarify what the opposite of good is. One may say bad or evil, but bad will do. Many people cannot believe in a good God because of all the bad stuff in the world, but the only reason why we notice any of the bad is because of all of the good!
Man is generally good.
One may assume that man is for the most part good with the occasional Hitler or Osama Bin Laden every few generations.
One may indicate that the moral structure of humanity is based upon the instinctive preservation of self. For example I have heard it stated that the ten commandments are just rules as a result of our most basic human instincts. "Thou shalt not kill" merely reflects our instinct of survival, "Thou shalt not steal" merely depicts the hard work that goes into obtaining foods and material possessions and protection thereof, and "Thou shalt not have any other gods before me" simply protects the image of god that has been created to govern these rules. My reply to this is simply, if these commandments were a culmination of inevitable instinct given to better humanity by reflecting the good of man, why is it then that virtually noone abides by them...?
The overall "goodness" of man does not hold up! The fundamental error here is if man, knowing the consequences of an action, was concerned with the benefit of himself and humanity, he would avoid negative reprocussions. So as a result the instinctive nature of man, being generally good, would prompt the man into making good choices! Not so... One example of this error is smoking. If a man knows the consequences of smoking why does his generally good nature allow him to sit back and slowly kill himself...? This philosophy can be applied to various aspects of life... However, the Bible tells a story that no man in his glory would wish to write. The message is that MAN IS HOPELESS! He was created good, chose bad, and in doing so rejected God and now has no idea how to take care of himself. Man is not generally good...
The God of the Bible is contradictory.
Some might say that the Old Testament God is a sort of Jekyll and Hyde in comparison to the New Testament God. The idea is that in the Old Testament He was a God of judgment, righteous indignation, death, slaughter, conquest, and wrath as opposed to the New Testament's God of grace, mercy, and salvation. This idealogy can be overcome with the incredibly complex mechanic of... Reading...
The book of Jonah is a good example of grace amongst many in the OT. God tells Jonah to preach repentance to the people of Ninevah because destruction was iminent for their wickedness. Jonah absolutely hated the people of Ninevah and so instead of going there he hops on a boat in the opposite direction. Upon his travel a storm slams the boat and Jonah is tossed overboard to appease God and is swallowed by a fish, he spends three days reflecting and is vomitted back up onto land to go back to Ninevah to preach repentence. Jonah figured he would go and preach and they would not turn from their sin and be utterly destroyed, satisfying his desire. Instead the people of Ninevah heed his warning and undergo a great revival! Instead of feeling joy for Ninevah, Jonah sets up alone and cries out to God for vengence and cries like a baby because of the grace that God has displayed to the Ninevites. This is the same God of mercy we see in the NT, and the same state of man we see throughout history. Without God's grace man has no hope of accomplishing any good for himself, because man as a whole, is totally depraved.
BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE!
In the New Testament God is very much a God of judgment. One instance is when in the book of Acts, Ananais and Saphira claim to sell all of their possessions and give it to the church, when in reality they held back a share for themselves. When Ananias brings forth the money and offers it as "all he had" to the apostles he is caught in a lie and smitten by God on the spot and is taken out and buried... When his wife returns she too is asked whether or not all that was given was given without holding back, to which she too lies and drops dead. Both instances illustrate man's evil nature and God's grace. First God gave them the chance to be truthful, but they ignored his grace and through their "generally bad" hearts chose to lie and received the judgment.
Another instance of judgment in the NT is REVELATION! If you are not aware, this is the final culmination of God's wrath upon humanity. It consists of Him completely descimating the human race who has ignored his call to repentance. In this account, man is given much chance to repent and still to be saved, but instead they choose to curse his name even at the revelation of himself. I won't go any further, as I did not plan on giving a survey of the book of Revelation, but clearly judgment is PARAMOUNT in the NT. Anyone who uses the schizophrenic God argument is simply misinformed and speaking out of an incorrect pressupposition of scripture and needs to first be thoroughly rebuked, and second, handed a copy of God's word.
What is truth?
The idea that truth is relative to one's worldview is respective. However truth dictates itself by it's own meaning. If there is truth, then truth must not be relative, but must be absolute indicating that by it's own truth all else is falsehood. Relativists believe that truth is relative to the context of one's worldview. Relative truth is the existence of truth in a subjective matter, but truth cannot conform itself to becoming an objective reality. This conforms generally to a Universalist theology and fuels the fires of religious pluralism (which is an idealogy of subjective truth being objectified by various worldviews)... My question then would be "What is the final authority that dictates their source of truth?" Their answer should be the philosophy just given, but when truth is relative and there is no absolute then I ask, "How do you know that is true?" In and of itself, relativism is self refuting, but convincing to one who has no foundational truth. As Michael Ramsden once said, "When you don't know where you're going... Any road will do."
As Christians our final authority is the Bible. It is the compilation of divine revalations of God before men over millenia. It gives fine credentials toward being foundational truth as it gives an account of; Creation, The issue of sin in man, the relationship between God and Man, God's redemptive plan, God's prophetic fulfillment in Christ, Salvation, God's righteous judgment and fulfillment of the ages. The idea that over the centuries man has tailored these stories to coincide with his centraliation of religion is absurd. Man wouldn't write an account of his own sinfulness, let alone his own destruction, but of the "overall goodness" of man, and that he alone may work out his own salvation (which we see in other worldviews). The message of the Bible is that we are all sinners and that we have all fallen short of the glory of God. What God has given us we have tainted and that the world as a whole is in desperate need of salvation. The truth found in the word of God is found through it's own ability to correspond with itself. The Bible isn't a story that one man wrote, it is a compilation of historical accounts that were handed down as sacred texts through generations until being fully canonized in the fourth century. It is the most reliable and accurate ancient text available on the face of the Earth. There are more ancient manuscripts of the Bible then any other text that has ever found it's way through history, and when tested to itself it retains 99.9% accuracy from todays modern translations to the ancient manuscripts dating back almost 2,000 years! These are credentials for truth. However, these are only archaelogical truths.... Theologically speaking, the Bible is in no way contradictory, it conveys the same concept as it's overall theme, God's Personal relationship with man, Man's turning from God, God's redemptive plan, God's reconciliation of man to himself. This isn't even going into all of the fulfilled prophecies through scripture! These truths have yet to be overturned.
The idea of relativism does not correspond with the biblical narrative of truth. As God has definied his redemptive plan by the revelation of his word. Jesus himself stated that "I am the way, the truth, and the life, noone comes to father except through me." (John 14:6) Jesus was not stating relative truth. He gave an example of absolute truth. That He is the truth and the only way to God. It was concerning these truths that so many Christians are willing to lay their lives to the slaughter. Over centuries and ongoing persecution, this truth remains worthy of persecution and willingness to die.
As a whole, because skeptics have yet to explain away the Bible and it's credentials toward truth, they have decided to attack the very defntion of "truth" altogether. The Bible touches on this subject as well, The apostle Paul writes in Romans 1;
"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.
Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.
And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them."
(Does this sound like the overall general goodness of man) Make your own assumption...
What is good?
Before defining good, I would first clarify what the opposite of good is. One may say bad or evil, but bad will do. Many people cannot believe in a good God because of all the bad stuff in the world, but the only reason why we notice any of the bad is because of all of the good!
Man is generally good.
One may assume that man is for the most part good with the occasional Hitler or Osama Bin Laden every few generations.
One may indicate that the moral structure of humanity is based upon the instinctive preservation of self. For example I have heard it stated that the ten commandments are just rules as a result of our most basic human instincts. "Thou shalt not kill" merely reflects our instinct of survival, "Thou shalt not steal" merely depicts the hard work that goes into obtaining foods and material possessions and protection thereof, and "Thou shalt not have any other gods before me" simply protects the image of god that has been created to govern these rules. My reply to this is simply, if these commandments were a culmination of inevitable instinct given to better humanity by reflecting the good of man, why is it then that virtually noone abides by them...?
The overall "goodness" of man does not hold up! The fundamental error here is if man, knowing the consequences of an action, was concerned with the benefit of himself and humanity, he would avoid negative reprocussions. So as a result the instinctive nature of man, being generally good, would prompt the man into making good choices! Not so... One example of this error is smoking. If a man knows the consequences of smoking why does his generally good nature allow him to sit back and slowly kill himself...? This philosophy can be applied to various aspects of life... However, the Bible tells a story that no man in his glory would wish to write. The message is that MAN IS HOPELESS! He was created good, chose bad, and in doing so rejected God and now has no idea how to take care of himself. Man is not generally good...
The God of the Bible is contradictory.
Some might say that the Old Testament God is a sort of Jekyll and Hyde in comparison to the New Testament God. The idea is that in the Old Testament He was a God of judgment, righteous indignation, death, slaughter, conquest, and wrath as opposed to the New Testament's God of grace, mercy, and salvation. This idealogy can be overcome with the incredibly complex mechanic of... Reading...
The book of Jonah is a good example of grace amongst many in the OT. God tells Jonah to preach repentance to the people of Ninevah because destruction was iminent for their wickedness. Jonah absolutely hated the people of Ninevah and so instead of going there he hops on a boat in the opposite direction. Upon his travel a storm slams the boat and Jonah is tossed overboard to appease God and is swallowed by a fish, he spends three days reflecting and is vomitted back up onto land to go back to Ninevah to preach repentence. Jonah figured he would go and preach and they would not turn from their sin and be utterly destroyed, satisfying his desire. Instead the people of Ninevah heed his warning and undergo a great revival! Instead of feeling joy for Ninevah, Jonah sets up alone and cries out to God for vengence and cries like a baby because of the grace that God has displayed to the Ninevites. This is the same God of mercy we see in the NT, and the same state of man we see throughout history. Without God's grace man has no hope of accomplishing any good for himself, because man as a whole, is totally depraved.
BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE!
In the New Testament God is very much a God of judgment. One instance is when in the book of Acts, Ananais and Saphira claim to sell all of their possessions and give it to the church, when in reality they held back a share for themselves. When Ananias brings forth the money and offers it as "all he had" to the apostles he is caught in a lie and smitten by God on the spot and is taken out and buried... When his wife returns she too is asked whether or not all that was given was given without holding back, to which she too lies and drops dead. Both instances illustrate man's evil nature and God's grace. First God gave them the chance to be truthful, but they ignored his grace and through their "generally bad" hearts chose to lie and received the judgment.
Another instance of judgment in the NT is REVELATION! If you are not aware, this is the final culmination of God's wrath upon humanity. It consists of Him completely descimating the human race who has ignored his call to repentance. In this account, man is given much chance to repent and still to be saved, but instead they choose to curse his name even at the revelation of himself. I won't go any further, as I did not plan on giving a survey of the book of Revelation, but clearly judgment is PARAMOUNT in the NT. Anyone who uses the schizophrenic God argument is simply misinformed and speaking out of an incorrect pressupposition of scripture and needs to first be thoroughly rebuked, and second, handed a copy of God's word.
What is truth?
The idea that truth is relative to one's worldview is respective. However truth dictates itself by it's own meaning. If there is truth, then truth must not be relative, but must be absolute indicating that by it's own truth all else is falsehood. Relativists believe that truth is relative to the context of one's worldview. Relative truth is the existence of truth in a subjective matter, but truth cannot conform itself to becoming an objective reality. This conforms generally to a Universalist theology and fuels the fires of religious pluralism (which is an idealogy of subjective truth being objectified by various worldviews)... My question then would be "What is the final authority that dictates their source of truth?" Their answer should be the philosophy just given, but when truth is relative and there is no absolute then I ask, "How do you know that is true?" In and of itself, relativism is self refuting, but convincing to one who has no foundational truth. As Michael Ramsden once said, "When you don't know where you're going... Any road will do."
As Christians our final authority is the Bible. It is the compilation of divine revalations of God before men over millenia. It gives fine credentials toward being foundational truth as it gives an account of; Creation, The issue of sin in man, the relationship between God and Man, God's redemptive plan, God's prophetic fulfillment in Christ, Salvation, God's righteous judgment and fulfillment of the ages. The idea that over the centuries man has tailored these stories to coincide with his centraliation of religion is absurd. Man wouldn't write an account of his own sinfulness, let alone his own destruction, but of the "overall goodness" of man, and that he alone may work out his own salvation (which we see in other worldviews). The message of the Bible is that we are all sinners and that we have all fallen short of the glory of God. What God has given us we have tainted and that the world as a whole is in desperate need of salvation. The truth found in the word of God is found through it's own ability to correspond with itself. The Bible isn't a story that one man wrote, it is a compilation of historical accounts that were handed down as sacred texts through generations until being fully canonized in the fourth century. It is the most reliable and accurate ancient text available on the face of the Earth. There are more ancient manuscripts of the Bible then any other text that has ever found it's way through history, and when tested to itself it retains 99.9% accuracy from todays modern translations to the ancient manuscripts dating back almost 2,000 years! These are credentials for truth. However, these are only archaelogical truths.... Theologically speaking, the Bible is in no way contradictory, it conveys the same concept as it's overall theme, God's Personal relationship with man, Man's turning from God, God's redemptive plan, God's reconciliation of man to himself. This isn't even going into all of the fulfilled prophecies through scripture! These truths have yet to be overturned.
The idea of relativism does not correspond with the biblical narrative of truth. As God has definied his redemptive plan by the revelation of his word. Jesus himself stated that "I am the way, the truth, and the life, noone comes to father except through me." (John 14:6) Jesus was not stating relative truth. He gave an example of absolute truth. That He is the truth and the only way to God. It was concerning these truths that so many Christians are willing to lay their lives to the slaughter. Over centuries and ongoing persecution, this truth remains worthy of persecution and willingness to die.
As a whole, because skeptics have yet to explain away the Bible and it's credentials toward truth, they have decided to attack the very defntion of "truth" altogether. The Bible touches on this subject as well, The apostle Paul writes in Romans 1;
"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.
Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.
And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them."
(Does this sound like the overall general goodness of man) Make your own assumption...
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