The Pagan Firefighter

[Hammster]

If a pagan firefighter runs into a burning building and saves a child, are his actions sinful?

 

[Tree of Life]

Hah! I don't think that this is a helpful way to frame the issue but I'll bite.

I have to vote yes because actions are never merely actions. Actions spring from beliefs and motivations. The mere action of saving the child is praiseworthy and good. But evaluated from an eternal perspective, the action is carried out by a sinner who is engaging in his own self-justification project and so even this courageous action is stained with sin and falls short of the glory of God.

In other words, if the firefighter puts forth this work on judgment day and says: "But God, I saved this child from the fire!" Then God can respond by saying: "Yes but you didn't do it out of love for me or for the child. Your action was ultimately self-motivated and I'm not impressed."

 

[Blade]

bite 2.. you being evil know how to give good gifts to your children....

 

[Aldebaran]

If a pagan firefighter runs into a burning building and saves a child, are his actions sinful?

Isaiah 64:6
"But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away."

My take on it is that the action is not sinful in itself, but is still a filthy rag when it comes to the righteousness of God apart from Jesus Christ.

 

[nanookadenord]

I voted, but will not respond other than to say I voted. As an EMT and was once a volunteer firefighter, this is a topic that I would be very passionate about and I would end up too upset by the ideas put forth.

 

[jacks]

Of course it isn't sinful.


Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets.

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

 

[redleghunter]

I voted "what is a pagan firefighter?" I thought pagans start fires and burn children alive.

Sorry if I am 'thinking too much' into this.

 

[Tree of Life]

To say that the courageous act is sinful is a little indelicate. This is not to say that it is equivalent to murder or, say, letting the child be burned alive. That would be both unbiblical and absurd. But it is to say that even this "righteous" act is like filthy rags compared to what God really requires of us. When we are at our very best, we still fall short of the righteous requirements of the law due to our sinful hearts.

 

[lsume]

If a pagan firefighter runs into a burning building and saves a child, are his actions sinful?

Please consider what happens when your wrong. I professed Christ from the time I ask Him to come into my life when I was around 20. That was about 45 years ago. I thought I was born again as well. I was not born again nor did I understand. When about 16 years later Christ came to me, I was awakened for the first conscious time in my life as I recall. From the moment I could see clearly, I was put through an intense series of Christian refinements. They continue today. One absolute fact that I now Truly know and that is The Bible is very Real and another is that The GodHead is very real. I believe that the world at large will get the chance to accept Christ before it’s all over.

 

[Hammster]

Please consider what happens when your wrong. I professed Christ from the time I ask Him to come into my life when I was around 20. That was about 45 years ago. I thought I was born again as well. I was not born again nor did I understand. When about 16 years later Christ came to me, I was awakened for the first conscious time in my life as I recall. From the moment I could see clearly, I was put through an intense series of Christian refinements. They continue today. One absolute fact that I now Truly know and that is The Bible is very Real and another is that The GodHead is very real. I believe that the world at large will get the chance to accept Christ before it’s all over.

That really doesn’t address the OP.

 

[bekkilyn]

Is the act of saving a child from a fire an act that separates a person from God? Or is it an act that might bring a person closer to God?

 

[Hammster]

Is the act of saving a child from a fire an act that separates a person from God? Or is it an act that might bring a person closer to God?

Neither.

 

[Ignatius the Kiwi]

Larping as a pagan in the modern era is a sin in my book.

 

[Hammster]

Larping as a pagan in the modern era is a sin in my book.

???

 

[Hazelelponi]

I voted no as the action judged on its own merits is not sinful.

It is not to any of us to attempt to pick apart the desires of a man's heart, that is God's domain.

I believe that people, those eternally separated from Him, get rewards for the good they do - I just believe that reward exists for them in this life rather than the next..

Proverbs 11:31
"If the righteous will be rewarded in the earth, How much more the wicked and the sinner!"

 

[Grip Docility]

If a pagan firefighter runs into a burning building and saves a child, are his actions sinful?

Luke 10:25-37 ; focus on Luke 10:36-37 ; John 13:34-35 ; Romans 2:14 ; John 3:8

1 John 4:7-21

No man Loves apart from God. No man does what is right but by the working of God.

We see God Work through foreigners in scripture.

Does this good work save the man? No

No works save a man but the work of Jesus Christ! Can we determine this man’s salvational fate?

18 Bible verses about God Knowing The Human Heart

In other words... perhaps this man is beginning to respond to the draw of God, perhaps not. Yet... who am I to say one way or another what God knows of that man?

Zechariah 13:6

What was the motive of this Pagan? Love? A promotion? Impressing the child’s mom to make a “call back”? Was he suicidal? I don’t know! Did that act Atone for his sins? Nope!

In and of itself, per the man’s own flesh... was this a righteous act? In a worldly sense, yes. In the eyes of God? Not to a saving degree for certain.

 

[Bible Highlighter]

The outward action of an unbelieving firefighter is not sinful, but the internal motivations of an unbelieving firefighter are sinful (even with the best and most loving intentions by a human standard could ever have alone because they are not done in faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and by allowing God to do the good work through them). Only God is good. God is love. No man can truly love apart from God. No man can truly do good apart from God. God is a believer's source of doing good. God is a believer's source of knowing how to truly love. Jesus said we can do nothing without Him. Believers reflect the love of God. They shine the light of God in their lives via by God living in them. If a believer does not have God or the Lord living on the inside of them, then they cannot love, and or do good because God is the true source of all that is loving and good.

Many say I believe in Works Salvation. Yes, that would be half true. I believe we are saved by God's grace + works of faith. But in the Sanctification Process: I believe it is God directed works done through me, and so they are not my own works that I am looking to take the credit for or to boast in (as Ephesians 2:9 suggests). The Lord Jesus gets all the praise and glory for any good works done through my life.

 

[Philip_B]

By her works she has shown us her faith - even if she has not recognised it for herself yet.

 

[lsume]

That really doesn’t address the OP.

I like “May I never seek in the creature what can be found only in the Creator.”. What I wrote stands. I’m not sure what OP is. What I wrote is True. If you seek, you will find. What you will find is Truth.

 

[zoidar]

Doing good is never sinful.