I am tired of reform theology. Yes, it’s true, but theology, true theology, saves no one. It’s my own fault by even reading these old theologians. Dr. R. C. Sproul Sr. says everything that happens, even our sins is the will of God. Horse pucky! We are warned not to lay a charge to God’s elect but it is OK to lay a charge on God Himself? (Romans 8:33) Pleeeze.
I am also told by these men (mostly men) that there is not one good thing in Man. What about the image of God which entered Man when the Lord breathed upon him at the creation (Genesis 2:7) turning clay into something worth saving? And while we are at it, why would God bother saving something without redemptive qualities? Another false notion. As a fellow theologian I can testify we do have a tendency to go too far.
The Mess we’re in
Yes, Man is a mess, Ronald Reagan said the definition of the status quo is “the mess we are in” and for sure we are in a mess. We start out in the mess when we are born. But I have noticed we do not have any choices. I arrived here many years ago; I have no memory of asking to be born, maybe so. I started out in heaven and I am now here. This is the world I was born into with the problems inherent in me and in the world. Someday I will return to eternity. I have a pre-history and a post-history.
Tough. We deal with life as it has been handed to us. And that is our challenge and our potential glory, to find God and His Promises to us in it where we are. I am not French or Chinese, which would be fine. But I am an American and I have obligations to my country and my countrymen. I also have plans from God for how my life is to be conducted as a reflection of that “Imago Dei” and a goal.
Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.
Now about Adam and Eve. Were they depraved? No. They made a giant mistake but they were created bearing the glory of God. When they sinned that glory departed; they knew it experientially because they hid and made clothing for themselves since they’d lost their covering.
Mankind eventually became totally depraved so God destroyed them all at the Flood, save eight. It is prophesied that Man will again become totally depraved but now, not yet, no.
Neither are we. Yes, babies are sinners. Just watch them fight with a sibling over a toy. Adamic man is there, but in their innocence they remind us that their love and their ability to accept everyone and everything without rancor is the basic goodness in man. Calling man totally depraved is calling God a liar. Yes, it happens a lot.
God gave us a measure of faith Romans 12:3 For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. I suppose the reformists would say, being consistent, that is evil too.
The Chinese are right – ying and yang, pictured as about half. I can’t gauge that. Maybe it is three quarters versus one quarter. But no matter. There is basic goodness in human kind. And that is what God works in us and with us. It is the ground of possibility in us.
Secular humanism would have us believe that we are born without fault and the wicked, nasty world makes us evil and produces evil societies. More horse pucky! Man is born flawed and he has, from that point, only a way up.
Look up and live! (Numbers 21:8)
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©CorneliaScottCree.com. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission, from this blog’s author and/or owner, is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to CorneliaScottCree.com. Thank you for cooperating in the effort to give glory to God.