The debate
My pastor and I have this little debate going, that basically boils down to the question, is man ultimately good or ultimately evil? My pastor cites verses like, “He saw that every inclination of the human heart was wicked all the time,” and, “All have sinned and fallen short,” and that the best of our righteousness is as rags or as thorns. And I cite verses like, “All men know the truth,” (“...but have suppressed it in their hearts in wickedness,” my pastor would add), and “the Word is not far from any of you--it’s on your very lips,” and, “he put eternity in the heart of man,” and, “I will draw all men to myself,” and all the ‘all’ passages: All mankind; whosoever will; that all be saved and none should perish, etc.
The other day, I made this point: You go to Wal-Mart, you’re walking the aisles, and, for the most part, you know you’re not in any danger. You can trust your neighbors to be courteous and respectful toward you, to look out for your kids, to help you find what you’re looking for, or to help you with as much as they’re able. At the very least, you expect they can empathize with your needs or your circumstances. He said (and I’m paraphrasing), “No doubt. We live in a civilized society. But that doesn’t mean your kids are completely safe.” He cited recent incidents of unspeakable violence. I said, yeah, but those are exceptions which prove the rule. The rule is the Golden Rule. We’ve all pretty much accepted that we’re to love our neighbors as ourselves.
I asked him, like, do you think our neighbors can do the Golden Rule without even understanding it? or understanding where it came from? Like, we’re all out here basically living what James called Christ’s Royal Law, the law of love. Isn’t that proof enough that his Kingdom is here, just like he said? The Kingdom is here, and now; he didn’t say that the Kingdom would be there and then, not like we make it. Not like this thing that wasn’t consummated at his triumphant resurrection, or his beautiful incarnation, which is the pivot-point of all mankind’s histories. We literally set our calendar to Christ. You’re telling me the average joe, who uses a Gregorian calendar, and who goes about his day basically looking out for his neighbors, is not living according to Christ’s one command?
Pastor said, that’s a lot, but yeah. They may be living the Royal Law, but they’re living their version of it, a version which is twisted and perverted. “Do unto others as you would have them do to you,” but they don’t understand what love is. They can’t know what they really want, how they really want others to do unto them, or whatever. They can’t see clearly. I’m butchering his argument but I think you get the gist.
To be sure, he’s not in the Total Depravity camp, not fully. He is Baptist, which makes him an inheritor of calvinism, but he takes issue with calvinism as outlined on flower pedals. His idea of ‘total depravity’ is more ‘total’ in span than in depth. It’s pervasive depravity. That is, man’s fallen nature touches every aspect of his person in one way or another. But it’s not ‘total’ like, total inability to do right. At the same time, he says that mankind can’t see clearly. So in my mind, that seems to me to be a contradiction.
I contradict myself though, because I believe the average man is basically good, but, at the same time, God is going to punish wicked men. And we’re all responsible for our actions. If we’re basically good, but we’ll be made to smart for our foolishness, that seems to my pastor to be a contradiction.
I love my pastor very much, and I mention all of this only as a little thought-exercise. Blog content. The truest answer is, it’s somewhere in the middle, but we need guys on one side saying, “It’s all good,” and guys on the other side saying, “Be afraid, be very afraid!” And the yin and the yang balance one another out, and there’s a bit of the other in me and vice versa. The surest thing we can know is that the heart of a man is deep, deep waters--as the Proverbs say--but that it’s in God’s hands, and he turns the heart of man wherever he wishes.
Complicated stuff worth debating with the person you trust for spiritual counsel.