Stan: My comments were intended to ILLUMINATE your beliefs and faith.
your worldview and fundamental beliefs are very different from my own.
Thus, I was quite surprised to read your statement that you consider
yourself to be a Christian.
So there are a few possibilities among which 1) Your conclusion about my
worldview being very different from your worldview is incorrect 2) my
interpretation of being a Christian is incorrect.
Stan: The Christian faith is based on revelation from God, a revelation
which is in part propositional in nature. It involves the affirmation of
specific
truths and the denial of specific falsehoods. As Keith pointed out in his
followup post to you, the very concept of "salvation" which is at the
center of Christian faith and practice presupposes that there is something
we need to be saved from. And not just something...but the very specific
guilt we have as a result of our rebellion and disobedience against God.
So perhaps man is basically good and his interactions with society result
in him being disobedient to god ?
Stan: So your response to Keith, that you need to be saved "from
yourself", is at best incomplete. It fails to come to grips with the
revealed truth that
man apart from Jesus Christ is *dead* in sin and needs to have a
fundamentally
new life implanted in order to be acceptable and accepted by God.
So it was incomplete. But what do you expect from a one-liner ?
Stan: Your answers, such as they are, leave me confused. I am still
hoping for some clarification. I have now told you why I, and many
others throughout the ages, believe that man is essentially sinful and
unable to enjoy a relationship with God apart from Jesus Christ.
And my assumption is that man is basically good and that his interactions
with society lead to 'evil'. So perhaps the two beliefs are not that
different in the end ?
Stan: Just what is the basis for your belief that man is basically "good"?
The word good to me implies a moral nature that is the very opposite of
what the Bible describes as "the sinful nature".
Is the glass half full or half empty ?
Regards
Pim