People are basically good, right?

[OldSchool2]

from First Things:

"People are basically good, right? It’s a truism drilled into us by any number of self-help books, magazines, talk-show hosts, and pop therapy. When, from time to time, people do terrible things to each other or themselves, we are assured that just the right combination of education, medication, and therapy could correct the ignorance, illness, or faulty social conditioning that led to the act. But do we really believe that to be true? Or do we recognize there is something more sinister at work in human nature?..."

https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2008/09/sin-cinema

"To be truly wicked, C. S. Lewis said, one must have at least one virtue to make one great. However counterintuitive that notion might seem to be at first glance, Hollywood again gives us multiple examples that demonstrate its truth. Think about Saruman as played by Christopher Lee in The Lord of the Rings ... So driven is he to rid Middle Earth of Sauron ... that he becomes consumed by it. Through his courage, insight, and determination, Saruman becomes at once Sauron’s ally and rival as he succumbs to the power the Ring. Lewis’ friend J. R. R. Tolkien has it right: Studying the enemy’s methods too much will, whatever the original noble motivation, reproduce him in us...."

 

[Willa]

People are basically selfish.  People use others for their own advantage and rarely seek the benefit of others.  The reason acts of heroism make the newspaper is because they are not commonplace.  

We become like what we focus on, according the psychiatrists.   So if we focus on Jessie James, or the person who abused us, we become like that person.  But if we focus on Christ we grow to be more like Him.  Praise God!

Heb 12b:1b-2 NKJV  let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, disposing the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

2 Cor., 3;18   But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.  

 

[missmuffet]

Being "good" is not going to get you to heaven.

[FresnoJoe]

Being "good" is not going to get you to heaven.

~

Amen~!

“There is no one righteous, not even one;

there is no one who understands;

there is no one who seeks God.

All have turned away,

they have together become worthless;

there is no one who does good,

not even one.”

“Their throats are open graves;

their tongues practice deceit.”

“The poison of vipers is on their lips.”

“Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.

“Their feet are swift to shed blood;

ruin and misery mark their ways,

and the way of peace they do not know.”

“There is no fear of God before their eyes.” Romans 3:10-18 (New International Version)

[missmuffet]

Yeshua is returning for a Perfect Bride. (i.e. obviously not the chruch people see every day all over the planet)

excerpts from a simple webpage below:

"And please don't tell me you believe that "There is none righteous, no not one" still applies today! That is a lie that we cannot stop sinning. You are not listening to the Word of God. "Stop sinning" 1 Cor 15:34, "Go and sin no more" Jesus said, "Stop sinning lest something worse come upon you." The Lord would never tell us to do something that was impossible, that would be unrighteous! "

"Jesus said, "Go and sin no more!" And Jesus also said, to his disciples, "BE PERFECT EVEN AS YOUR FATHER IN HEAVEN IS PERFECT." Now that's a heavy rap! Jesus could never command something that is impossible, because that would make him unrighteous. So therefore there must be some kind of "perfection" that God is commending us, even commanding us to aim for, even as Paul wrote by the Spirit, "Aim for perfection." Now we know that this cannot be some kind of absolute perfection, that will not come until Christ returns, and we are all perfected together. But the bible says that we must be "perfecting holiness out of reverence for God." 2 Cor 6:1 Jesus said that all things are possible to him who believes. He said, "So be it to you according to your faith." He also said, "Nothing shall be impossible to you". The bible teaches us that "God's grace is sufficient for us", so let us aim for the kind of completion, maturity and perfection that is possible with continuing in the faith and by the working of God's grace in us to will and to do according to His good pleasure. If we sin, then we should admit and confess it properly, to God (and to men when the Spirit leads), and get back up and overcome by God's grace."

http://www.churchofpensacola.com/teaching-about-righteousness-our-living-according-to-god-s-ways/

Yes Jeff Jesus is returning for His bride.We are not perfect here on earth but we sure will be once we get to heaven. 

[enoob57]

People are basically good, right?
Only if they are caring a gun

Edited August 20, 2015 by enoob57

[missmuffet]

People are basically good, right?
Only if they are caring a gun

[missmuffet]

Yeshua did not tell dead / sleeping/ people to be perfect or holy. He told His living on earth disciples,

just like Yahweh told the Israelites living on earth.

The choice to be holy , if it is resisted, is rebellion/ witchcraft/ selfishness against Yahweh and Yeshua.

His people on earth are holy, and becoming holy, and remaining holy, those who remain with Him.

As Yeshua told His disciples, if they trusted themselves to accomplish this, they already failed. Not possible.
but
if they trusted their Father in heaven to accomplish this, it is already done. And so it is.

That is good to trust God to change us and mold us into who He wants us to be.

[Tristen]

People are basically selfish.  People use others for their own advantage and rarely seek the benefit of others.  The reason acts of heroism make the newspaper is because they are not commonplace.  

We become like what we focus on, according the psychiatrists.   So if we focus on Jessie James, or the person who abused us, we become like that person.  But if we focus on Christ we grow to be more like Him.  Praise God!

Heb 12b:1b-2 NKJV  let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, disposing the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

2 Cor., 3;18   But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.  

 

Agreed. Any experience with young children will remind you that we have to learn to consider others. We are born selfish. We didn't know any better. Large scale lack of discipline is reflected in the self-centred, self-celebratory, self-important world we see today. Some even teach as moral philosophy to "look out for number one".

[thereselittleflower]

Yeshua is returning for a Perfect Bride. (i.e. obviously not the chruch people see every day all over the planet)

excerpts from a simple webpage below:

"And please don't tell me you believe that "There is none righteous, no not one" still applies today! That is a lie that we cannot stop sinning. You are not listening to the Word of God. "Stop sinning" 1 Cor 15:34, "Go and sin no more" Jesus said, "Stop sinning lest something worse come upon you." The Lord would never tell us to do something that was impossible, that would be unrighteous! "

"Jesus said, "Go and sin no more!" And Jesus also said, to his disciples, "BE PERFECT EVEN AS YOUR FATHER IN HEAVEN IS PERFECT." Now that's a heavy rap! Jesus could never command something that is impossible, because that would make him unrighteous. So therefore there must be some kind of "perfection" that God is commending us, even commanding us to aim for, even as Paul wrote by the Spirit, "Aim for perfection." Now we know that this cannot be some kind of absolute perfection, that will not come until Christ returns, and we are all perfected together. But the bible says that we must be "perfecting holiness out of reverence for God." 2 Cor 6:1 Jesus said that all things are possible to him who believes. He said, "So be it to you according to your faith." He also said, "Nothing shall be impossible to you". The bible teaches us that "God's grace is sufficient for us", so let us aim for the kind of completion, maturity and perfection that is possible with continuing in the faith and by the working of God's grace in us to will and to do according to His good pleasure. If we sin, then we should admit and confess it properly, to God (and to men when the Spirit leads), and get back up and overcome by God's grace."

http://www.churchofpensacola.com/teaching-about-righteousness-our-living-according-to-god-s-ways/

Yes Jeff Jesus is returning for His bride.We are not perfect here on earth but we sure will be once we get to heaven. 

So how does that work exactly?

 

We can be as imperfect as we like on earth and then Jesus will snap his fingers and make us suddenly perfect in heaven?