On Sunday, December 30, 2018 at 4:58:21 PM UTC-5, Chris M. Thomasson wrote:
> On 12/30/2018 1:41 PM, Rick C. Hodgin wrote:
> > On Sunday, December 30, 2018 at 4:16:55 PM UTC-5, Chris M. Thomasson wrote:
> >> On 12/30/2018 10:00 AM, Jorgen Grahn wrote:
> >>>> “You won’t burn in hell. But be nice anyway.” Ricky Gervais
> >>
> >> Yeah. If people choose to live a good life, everything would be much better.
> >
> > There is no way for men and women to live a "good life" without
> > having a foundation which teaches them what good is, and why it
> > is good compared alongside other things.
>
> I humbly disagree with that statement. A baby starts to learn whats bad
> if somebody steals their candy, perhaps the crime was committed by
> another close by baby? The victim should start crying, and get really
> .. . They will start to learn that the act of taking the candy
> away was really bad, aka, stealing.
That view of what's right and wrong is based on selfishness at
that age. It's based on "I want that" and "You're keeping me
from that." It's not based on reason. It's based on internal
drives and desires, and these are focused on selfishness.
That same baby could later on become a career thief, and would
be perfectly fine with that type of lifestyle, could potentially
even be a nice person in real, giving to charity, being active in
a church, doing all kinds of seemingly desirable things based on
the periodic thievery that individual is involved in. People who
only knew that individual tangentially could say how kind and lov-
ing they are.
Not everyone who does sinful things is horrible. In fact, most
people who do sinful things are relatively nice people. They
help their kids, families, friends, co-workers, etc..
NONE OF THAT MATTERS in and of itself. Hell is going to be filled
with moral, upright, even religious people, right alongside the
axe murderers, prostitutes, adulterers, drunkards, and the like.
Heaven is going to be filled with the same kind of people ... that
repented, recognized their sin as sin, asked forgiveness, and were
saved.
> > In addition, the world's view of what is good is different from
> > God's view.
>
> Good is good. God and the world can agree on a lot of things. Is
> stealing bad? Yes. It seems like some basic sins are coded in our minds
> as being bad already.
There are communities within the world where people do not view
stealing as bad. A group of thieves working together would go
out of their way to help one another out. They would have a
skewed perspective of a conscience or what's right and wrong.
They would not consider turning on their fellow thieves, turning
them in, turning against their actions, even though God would
advise all of them to cease thieving and repent immediately.
The conscience can be skewed and meets the needs of the flesh-
focused life and living.
It is God's Holy Spirit who pours out CONVICTION upon a soul,
not upon the flesh, but upon the inside. And it is there where
the true nature of what is right and wrong stems from.
> > The Bible teaches people the difference. It's why I teach you
> > to go to the Bible and read for yourself what God has in mind
> > for us to be and do, rather than what Ricky Gervais believes
> > we should do. God has it right. Ricky Gervais has it incom-
> > plete and misleading.
>
> Little kids just know the difference between right and wrong, and a lot
> of them have never read the Bible. Now, there are some crazy people out
> there that claim to not know the difference between right and wrong.
> They are usually confined to the nut house.
You don't have to teach a 2-yr old to lie. "Did you eat that last
piece of cake, Billy?" "No, mommy" all the while his lips and mouth
are covered with chocolate.
Kids constantly push boundaries. If you let them get away with
wicked things, they will pursue them and push the boundaries out
even further.
There really is an enemy spirit at work against all flesh in this
world, Chris. You are a victim of it. Your flippant casual use
of profanity here and there, of dipping in to worldliness here
and there... you are double-minded, which means you are worldly-
minded. It's how nearly every is world-wide. It requires the
strict and formal ongoing pursuit of God to overcome it and pre-
vent that natural flesh-focused nature from rising up in our
lives and overwhelming our interests, goals and purposes.
God seeks those who will pursue Him in SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH. They
are the ones who are saved. The rest are just going through the
motions of living out this physical life, with soul as black as
pitch, and their spirit dead from before birth.
I can't stress it enough. We need Jesus Christ to guide us.
Without Him, we have NO HOPE WHATSOEVER. None. We are totally
destroyed without Christ in our corner.
--
Rick C. Hodgin