I was thinking of all the people busily engaged in constructing the nightmare world of tomorrow, all the politicians, the scientists, the university lecturers, the media people and so on. It's unlikely they think they are bad people and doing harm. Bad people never do. Hitler and Nero probably thought they were doing good, on some level at least. Have you not noticed that bad people usually think they are good but good people don't think that of themselves. They are always aware of ways in which they are not good.
Very true.
ReplyDeleteThis is a major theme in the Gospels. Jesus always preferred people who acknowledged their sins (tax collectors, publicans) - to those Pharisees who were shocked by the very idea that Jesus should accuse them of sin, when their behaviour (adherence to the Law) was so much better most people.
This is replicated among the kind of people you describe (perhaps this is especially common among women) who are absolutely appalled and outraged that anyone should accuse *them* of sin.
And when it comes to Christianity, the same people have this idea that Heaven is for 'good people', and that all 'good people' (such as themselves) *deserve* a place in Heaven (regardless of their beliefs) - As if there are *any* genuinely good people!
But where the modern Good People show their difference is in what they regard as good. About 50 years ago the Good People wanted to abolish sin - but now it is clear that this was just a stepping stone to the inversion regarding sin as good and vice versa.
So - modern self-styled Good People (of the type you mention) are those who are most actively and zealously encouraging/ compelling other people into sin. In that respect they are greatly inferior to the Pharisees.
Perhaps it comes down to a sense of truth. So few people today seem to have this. There's also the fact of love of something greater than yourself which ultimately must be God. So few now have this either.
ReplyDeleteIf you ask someone today, "Are you a good person?" almost all of them will answer in the affirmative.
ReplyDeleteAnd yet when someone called the Lord Jesus Christ "good master," He deflected the comment, asking, "Why do you call me good? Only God is good." Interesting.
Exactly. We have lost the idea that we are all basically sinners who can only find true goodness in God.
ReplyDeleteThe inversion is so clear now....embrace your sin like it's not a sin...Take no responsibility for your individual choices. As long as you are focussing on making other people happy, then you will become happy and then God will never need enter the equation.
ReplyDeleteKirstie, are you going to make me moderate comments before they go on the blog? I've tried to avoid that but you are going to force it on me if you go on like this. By all means comment but please stick to the point. I sympathise with your predicament but perhaps you ought to consider some sort of professional help. Do you have a church? Perhaps talk to a priest. There's no shame in that in an increasingly chaotic world. I wish you well, I really do, but I wish you had an edit function!
ReplyDeleteI left your first comment because it was a good one. Keep them like that.
ReplyDelete