Tag: Human Nature

THE PERFECT WORLD

The political scene with its surrounding discourse, debate and accompanying scheming, charades, and false characterizations and representations provide a perfect arena for human nature to hone and to extrude one of its prime characteristics-one of the things it’s best at: blaming someone else…

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Life, for almost all of us, is tough, and then we die. As if life and death itself isn’t enough to deal with, we live in opposition to our Creator and we ignore his instructions for a good life and a happy world, and then when things go wrong as they would if we attempted to construct a table with a chainsaw, we look for someone else to blame and accuse.

We forget that we’re all prone to the same troubles, and we’re all limited in our abilities and knowledge. There is no perfect world; there is no utopia just waiting to be discovered by somebody who has all the right ideas and the right phrases and the best looks, and even if there were, there are plenty of others ready and willing to throw a wrench in the works, who have a different idea of how that perfect world should be achieved, and who don’t want to listen to your ideas.

We all tend to want to blame someone else for our problems and our failures. It was our dad’s fault, our mother’s fault, our boyfriend’s fault, our wife’s fault, our politicians’ fault, our ancestors’ faults. They weren’t generous enough, they didn’t try hard enough, they didn’t think of us enough, they didn’t make the right decisions, they weren’t educated enough, they weren’t good-looking enough, they didn’t…overlook our faults enough. We don’t consider that they themselves were struggling to get through life as best they could. But for them our world would be just as it should be -right?

Oh, but then, if the world were perfect, there would be nobody left to blame…but ourselves.

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GLOBAL CONSCIOUSNESS

Some people believe that there’s a “global consciousness”. Humanity, they think, is all coming together in one giant Mind of peace, love and harmony.

Well, if you want a glimpse of it, spend fifteen minutes within the swirling cesspool of human thought known as “Facebook”…

THE ROUGH ROAD TO UTOPIA

History consists of a long series of attempts to achieve what seemed to someone’s imagination and plans to be a “better world”, but which often involved revolution, war and mayhem…

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Mankind never actually succeeds in achieving perpetual happiness for anyone, let alone everyone. But with human nature being as it is, many people are certain that they can lead us to that magical and mythical utopia.

Twenty and twenty-first century radicalism as studied by the likes of President Obama and Hillary Clinton* aspires to something seductively labelled “fundamental change”, among other things. The radicalism of such groups as Antifa aims to achieve its ends in any way possible including violence if necessary, in order to eventually end up with the kind of world radicals desire. Millions of those flocking to Western shores with the aid of globalists and radicals seeking upheaval, and well-meaning but blinkered politicians, are bringing with them their own distinct and extreme idea of utopia which is in total opposition to the founding ideas of freedom they’re invading.

Those seeking fundamental change have no regard for traditional views of right or wrong, or any fixed notion of such things. In fact, they work to dismantle or destroy traditional views of right or wrong. Since we evolved out of the slime, most radical adherents believe, there is no God to answer to, or if there is, he/ she is such a cool dude that he wants us to do what we want to do anyway. We determine what’s right or wrong, in their minds. When I say “we” I mean those who agree with radical ideology get to choose. The rest of us-those who disagree-don’t deserve to choose, because we’re “bigoted”, “racist”, “ignorant”, “homophobic” and so on, ad-nauseam. Please don’t think I mean to say that only leftist radicals are guilty and the rest of us innocent: we all hold to some degree of faulty thinking.

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In that above series of accusations which we’ve all heard many times in recent months, and in other similar derogatory labels, are attempts to blame someone-anyone- for the fact that we as a nation, as a race and as individuals haven’t arrived at the desired place of bliss and wholeness. And even if we aren’t among those who stoop to such attacks in blind hypocrisy, we all indulge in the same blame game. Husbands blame wives, wives blame husbands, kids blame parents, parents blame kids, voters blame politicians, politicians blame each other…and so it goes on. Someone else is always to blame, and in the dark world of politics there’s always someone at or near the top to blame for our problems.

Every politician attempts to ride to glory on the promise of “change”. Why is the idea of change so appealing to so many people when it comes to election time? The nicest, most constructive answer, and the ultimate answer to that question is that we as humans, having strayed far from our Creator and his ways, are attempting to bring happiness and fulfillment to our lives without Him.

Have you ever taken a wrong turn in your car somewhere, and continuing on, you find that the road you’re on gets smaller, bumpier, more remote, and more distant from your destination? That’s where the human race is now. We’re all on roads which lead the wrong way: away from our God. I’m not talking about failing to be “religious”, I’m talking about failing to seek our Almighty, Holy God.

For many people the contrary route is the chosen and preferred route. People are intentionally heading away from God, because they’re certain they’ll be better off. But  the road gets rougher, and narrower, and dirtier. It begins to wind around some tricky ledges and over some rocky passes, further into the uncertain and uncharted wilds, while the sky gets darker and darker. At the end of the road is…the end of the road.

“There is no peace,” says the LORD, “for the wicked.” (Isaiah 48:22 ESV).

‘Peace, peace,’ they say, when there is no peace (Jeremiah 6:14).

But the wicked are like the tossing sea, which cannot rest, whose waves cast up mire and mud (Isaiah 57:20 NIV).

* BARACK OBAMA’S RULES FOR REVOLUTION: THE ALINSKY MODEL by David Horowitz.

 

WHY DO WE SUFFER? Part 3: HUMAN NATURE

Perhaps I should re-name this series “How to be Hugely Successful and Have a Fun-Filled Life”, or “How to Impress All Your New Boyfriends”: I think my view count would soar. Apologies to those who’ve responded to the “How to Be Hugely Successful” tag. But then, avoiding trouble can lead to success, can it not?

It seems we all want our problems to go away, but we don’t want to know where they come from or how to stop them…

Bury-your-Head-in-the-sandI wrote last time that in order for God to give mankind free will as he did, he also had to give us the ongoing opportunity to make wrong choices. How we choose to act or speak in any situation leads to consequences-good or bad, and if we want to identify the cause of a huge amount of suffering in our world, all we have to do is look at our neighbors, or look in the mirror. Yes, human nature is a major cause of suffering.

 

Many times over I’ve heard people blame God for bad situations in their lives which were actually caused by other people. I must confess I’ve done it myself until I came to my senses. We’d like to think that a loving God would intervene and immediately deal with “those” people who cause us problems. But as I explained last time, God is in no mind to “drive” bodies and minds, neither is he inclined to come to our rescue when we’ve ignored and trashed him continuously. Like it or not “those” people have free-will, just as we do, and unfortunately humans sometimes hurt each other with that free will.

12769843-two-skeletons-who-are-fighting-as-they-decayHere I’ll introduce a very unfashionable and politically incorrect word into the mix: ‘sin’. ‘Sin’ is a Biblical word for any actions, thoughts or attitudes which are in opposition to God’s perfect ways and his prescription for our mutual happiness. All wrongdoing is “sin”, and the Bible says we’ve all sinned. It’s in our nature-whether we like it or not-to do things which are going to bring harm to ourselves or to others, directly or indirectly.

WE HARM OURSELVES

We humans invite or accept trouble into our own lives in a multitude of ways. For example, if we eat unhealthy food and fail to be active for years, we can suffer chronic health problems. We get too-easily involved in bad relationships with people who soon mistreat us and bring out the worst in us. We overwork and cause problems in our families, or we live in laziness leading to poverty and wasted time. We fail to forgive ourselves and others. We fall for deceptive and false philosophies. We fail to think truthfully about ourselves and develop a multitude of mental hang-ups which spill out into the world we inhabit.

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WE HURT EACH OTHER

When people fail in such ways as I’ve described above others can also be adversely affected. War is the result of the crooked will of man falling into greed or anger or some warped ideology, and then acting against his brother. It’s not an accident, it’s not a disease, and it’s not caused by God: it’s violence inflicted by man upon man. We’re all aware of war, murders, riots, robberies, embezzlement, oppression, rape, kidnapping, sex trafficking and terrorism. Most of us aren’t in the habit of perpetrating such things on others, but according to the Bible, we who aren’t guilty of murder or robbery shouldn’t feel smug or self-righteous, because we can all at times be guilty of things which may be destructive in varying degrees. In fact, the Bible states that:

“All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God…There is none righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:10, 23 NIV).

In relation to God’s perfection, and from his point of view, we’re all “those” people. If we had to tip the imaginary scales of judgment which measure good-deeds against bad-deeds in order to gain a perfect God’s acceptance, we’d all be in some serious trouble…

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Hatred, snobbery, judgmental attitudes, infidelity, arrogance, manipulation, sarcasm, indifference, selfishness, deceit, vengeance, greed, envy: they all cause pain and suffering, and they all come from fallen human nature: our human nature. We even cause suffering by failing to do things. For example, we can fail to love or to show appreciation or mercy.

Cheerful stuff, eh? Well actually there is some good news. The Bible is a “how to” manual: it tells us how to avoid a lot of pain and trouble caused by human nature, how to be good to our fellow man, and how to please God. It also tells us that Jesus Christ came to provide forgiveness for us, and to deliver us from our sinful nature. Please see my  post “What is the gospel of Jesus Christ?”:

https://nickyfisher.com/2013/08/13/what-is-the-gospel-of-jesus-christ-2/

 

 

BEAUTIFUL CITY: WHERE IS IT?

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I once was involved as a musician in a professional tour of a popular rock musical. It was based on gospel parables, complete with performers representing Jesus and his disciples. The Jesus of the musical was a hippy-like guru with a band of admirers. He wasn’t the Son of God, and he didn’t die for our sins.

One of the songs was called “Beautiful City”. It had a terrific melody, and it was one of those easy-to-sing-along-with songs which makes you feel warm and fuzzy all over.  What I didn’t notice or realize at the time, being a non-believer-and I suspect most of the audience was unaware of it- was that rather than being a Christian song it was really a strong dose of humanistic ideology, being surreptitiously poured into our sub-conscious without any threat of question or analysis, since most people are totally unaware of Biblical theology on such subjects.

In the early 5th century AD Augustine, a famous Church “Father” wrote a book of Christian philosophy which when translated from Latin is titled, “The City of God Against the Pagans”, or simply “The City of God”. The book played no small part in shaping Western civilization.  The Church, argued Augustine, should be concerned with the Heavenly city promised in Bible scriptures, and not with earthly politics or earthly pleasures. He saw all of history as a conflict between what he called the City of Man and the City of God, a conflict destined to end in victory for the latter.

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What “Jesus” was singing so lustily about in that 20th century musical was an earthly city. It was most likely intended to be a direct contradiction of Augustine’s philosophy:

“We can build

 A beautiful city

 Yes we can

 Oh yes we can

 We can build

 A beautiful city

 Call it out

 And call it the city of man”

Of course, the writers of the musical must have read the gospel accounts in order to use the parables of Jesus to make their fortune. But they must also have intentionally ignored numerous passages of scripture, such as this one, where Jesus said:

“My kingdom is not of this world…” (John 18:36).

My purpose here is not to offer an incredibly late critique of the musical or of the song, but to express amazement that people even now – especially now – are thinking that they can build a beautiful city, a wonderful humanistic society, without God. They are working very hard on it. Some of them will send me angry, critical comments upon reading this post. There are millions of people who desperately want to rid the world of God and of gods, and they think that by so doing they will create a happy society of citizens, free of mental illnesses (caused by religion, they say) and prejudices. Everyone will be jumping for joy, hugging each other, and rolling in prosperity. This was the claim of Marx and all who fell for his lies. They thought that by eliminating God, and if necessary, all those who wanted to believe in God, everyone who survived the purge would be too happy and prosperous for words.  History shows abundant evidence of the fallacy of that notion. See my series “War, Religion and Atheism” for some documentation.

Since prayer was outlawed in schools in the US, and since atheism has become the state-sanctioned religion (along with Islam), and since abortion has become the new contraception, we find that more people now die of suicide than by car accidents, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (1). To my mind, just the road deaths alone prevent our society from being any kind of Utopia (over 32,000 in the US alone in 2011- note 2). Ask any of the family members or survivors how they feel about it.

Currently, 2.2 million people are locked up in the US alone (3).

If you begin to consider the multitude of societal, medical and personal problems we have you can find yourself becoming fearful and depressed. There is no real answer without the intervention of our Creator: why would we want there to be no Savior? Why do we not seek God but instead welcome the insistence of the “experts” that there is nothing but death to look forward to? Why should we want to be without hope?

Read what the Bible has to say about the City of Man and its determination to live without God:

“Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain?

The Kings of the earth take their stand

And the rulers gather together against the Lord and his Anointed One.

‘Let us break their chains, they say, and throw off their fetters’.

The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them…” (Psalm 2: 1-4).

Whereas humanism believes human nature to be basically good, and only needs the right conditions to bring out its goodness and produce a perfect world, the Bible’s view is totally opposite:

“There is no one righteous, no not even one…” (Romans 3:10).

In the sight of God, human nature is far from good, and that applies to  all of us. We need His nature within us to be what we should be: we need to be “born again”. Not only that, but left to ourselves, there can be nothing but trouble for humanity:

“But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God-having a form of godliness but denying its power” (2 Timothy 3:1-5).

Ultimately, only the return of our Creator to the earth is going to stop mankind from totally destroying itself:

“…then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now-and never to be equaled again. If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect, those days will be shortened” (Matthew 24:21-22).

It’s right (and godly) for all of us to make the world we live in as pleasant as we can for each other. But the only “beautiful city” will be the one built by God, for his creation (Revelation chapter 21) in which God himself will be the only ruler. So don’t expect your politicians, philosophers or scientists to make one.

1 http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/03/health/suicide-rate-rises-sharply-in-us.html?_r=0

2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_motor_vehicle_deaths_in_U.S._by_year

3 http://www.sentencingproject.org/template/page.cfm?id=107