Which is a good person to you?

[Zaac]

I like Isaiah's point of view in chapter 1, about ceasing to do evil and learning to do good. Since it is the voice of God talking, I'll take God's word that he wants us to do good.

Salida is on point. Yes God wants us to do good. But we are incapable of truly doing good works without the indwelling of the ONE WHO is good.

Absent the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, every "good deed" that man thinks he is doing is as filthy rags.

Isaiah 64:6
All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.

Unless it is done for the glory of Christ, and it can't be unless you have been saved by Him, then the deeds, no matter how great in man's eyes, ARE NOT GOOD.

 

[b&wpac4]

Salida is on point. Yes God wants us to do good. But we are incapable of truly doing good works without the indwelling of the ONE WHO is good.

Absent the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, every "good deed" that man thinks he is doing is as filthy rags.

Isaiah 64:6
All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.

Unless it is done for the glory of Christ, and it can't be unless you have been saved by Him, then the deeds, no matter how great in man's eyes, ARE NOT GOOD.

If the Bible were one verse long, and contained only that verse, I would agree with you. As it stands, there are plenty of other verses that seem to command doing good works, trying to do what is right, without the mention of Jesus or the Messiah.

 

[Yusuf Evans]

Which of the following is a good person to you?

A) A no religion man who does charity works and volunteer works all his life.

Is the man doing it solely out of the kindness of his heart, or is he an attention seeker and does it in order to be liked? If it is the latter, then he is no better than the murderer.

 

[Zaac]

If the Bible were one verse long, and contained only that verse, I would agree with you. As it stands, there are plenty of other verses that seem to command doing good works, trying to do what is right, without the mention of Jesus or the Messiah.

Then I got to tell you that you're confused about what the purpose of the Bible is. ALL of the Bible points directly to Jesus Christ and what HE did.

From Adam and Eve walking in the garden and exampling the relationship that the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus would get us back to.

To Jacob doing wrong and Joseph being sent into Egypt as a slave only to have all of God's people have to go to Egypt because of a famine and then have Moses to deliver them from bondage to go back and claim Israel so that the tribe of Judah is once again in Israel and the foretold Savior of the world could be born in Bethlehem as prophesied.

There is NOTHING in the Bible that does not point to the finished works of Jesus.

Everything that is exampled points to His life and what He did.

Good works are a byproduct of salvation via Jesus Christ.

The BIBLE PERIOD is about Jesus Christ. The truth exampled within examples the very character and Truth that He lived out. That's why we say that the written word embodies the very Truth of the LIVING WORD.

No one can do good works without the sin problem being dealt with first. And the sin problem demands that one be washed in the blood of Jesus.

 

[LittleNipper]

LUKE 18:9 ------ see also Matthew 19:17

New International Version (©1984)
"Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good--except God alone.
New American Standard Bible (©1995)
And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone.
International Standard Version (©2008)
Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good? Nobody is good except for God.
GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good except God.
King James Bible
And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? none is good, save one, that is, God.
American King James Version
And Jesus said to him, Why call you me good? none is good, save one, that is, God.
American Standard Version
And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? none is good, save one, even God.
Bible in Basic English
And Jesus said to him, Why do you say that I am good? No one is good, but only God.
Douay-Rheims Bible
And Jesus said to him: Why dost thou call me good? None is good but God alone.
Darby Bible Translation
But Jesus said to him, Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, God.
English Revised Version
And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? none is good, save one, even God.
Webster's Bible Translation
And Jesus said to him, Why callest thou me good? none is good, save one, that is God.
Weymouth New Testament
"Why do you call me good?" replied Jesus; "there is no one good but One, namely God. World English Bible
Jesus asked him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good, except one--God. Young's Literal Translation
And Jesus said to him, 'Why me dost thou call good? no one is good, except One -- God;

 

[b&wpac4]

Then I got to tell you that you're confused about what the purpose of the Bible is. ALL of the Bible points directly to Jesus Christ and what HE did.

From Adam and Eve walking in the garden and exampling the relationship that the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus would get us back to.

To Jacob doing wrong and Joseph being sent into Egypt as a slave only to have all of God's people have to go to Egypt because of a famine and then have Moses to deliver them from bondage to go back and claim Israel so that the tribe of Judah is once again in Israel and the foretold Savior of the world could be born in Bethlehem as prophesied.

There is NOTHING in the Bible that does not point to the finished works of Jesus.

Everything that is exampled points to His life and what He did.

Good works are a byproduct of salvation via Jesus Christ.

The BIBLE PERIOD is about Jesus Christ. The truth exampled within examples the very character and Truth that He lived out. That's why we say that the written word embodies the very Truth of the LIVING WORD.

No one can do good works without the sin problem being dealt with first. And the sin problem demands that one be washed in the blood of Jesus.

I am not a Christian so I don't subscribe to that theory. I've been pushing apologetics a bit much lately, so I'm going to stop here and make sure to back off for a while.

 

[Zaac]

I am not a Christian so I don't subscribe to that theory. I've been pushing apologetics a bit much lately, so I'm going to stop here and make sure to back off for a while.

Might be a good idea.

Cause if you're not a Christian, you're not supposed to understand what God's written word does or why it all points to Christ.

 

[b&wpac4]

Cause if you're not a Christian, you're not supposed to understand what God's written word does or why it all points to Christ.

I hate that argument. It's so condescending and just makes it easy for you to say I'm wrong because I don't "understand". I could say that because you are a Christian, your vision is clouded by Jesus and you cannot understand the truth. See how silly that looks?

 

[LittleNipper]

I am not a Christian so I don't subscribe to that theory. I've been pushing apologetics a bit much lately, so I'm going to stop here and make sure to back off for a while.

Well, see what you've been missing..!

 

[LittleNipper]

I hate that argument. It's so condescending and just makes it easy for you to say I'm wrong because I don't "understand". I could say that because you are a Christian, your vision is clouded by Jesus and you cannot understand the truth. See how silly that looks?

When you read scripture, are you really trying to view it with the mind of GOD or a mind all your own?

 

[b&wpac4]

When you read scripture, are you really trying to view it with the mind of GOD or a mind all your own?

Done with this topic. I cannot discuss it any further.

 

[Zaac]

I hate that argument. It's so condescending and just makes it easy for you to say I'm wrong because I don't "understand". I could say that because you are a Christian, your vision is clouded by Jesus and you cannot understand the truth. See how silly that looks?

I know you do b'pac. But that's just the way it is. If you were to write a book, could anyone tell you better than YOU what YOU were attempting to say with YOUR words?

The same thing applies with GOD's word. HE is the author.
HE is the One Who directed men to write it down.
And HE knows what it means better than anyone else.

That's why, absent HIS DISCERNMENT, you cannot understand.
That's why, absent HIS DISCERNMENT, the unsaved will always see errors and contradictions.
That's why, absent HIS DISCERNMENT, you can't truly see everything in the Bible pointing to Christ.

1 Corinthians 2:14
The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.

 

[wanderingone]

The Second one: You arn't saved by good works but by grace. Read this to find out what good is: The Good Test Lets not fool ourselves into thinking you can earn God's approval. Its a lie of the devil.

The first one is not trying to be "saved" (nor do we really know how good their works are)

"good" person and "saved" aren't necessarily things that go hand in hand. The death bed salvation is generally questionable to me.. kind of a "oh heck let me say this little sinner's prayer in case it's really true" kind thing.. but you know that's just me.. I tend to believe we'd all be surprised by what really lurks in the hearts of most of our fellow mortals.

 

[Penumbra]

There is not enough information given to form a definite opinion. Given only the facts you've given, I'd go with person A.

Person A, based on what's given, most likely actually cares about people and desires to do good things without a perceived benefit. Assuming he doesn't go on killing sprees at night, the world is probably a better place because person A is around. To judge someone as "bad", when the world is better because of that person is illogical.

Person B, again based on what's given, seems to only care about the self. This person murdered, and now that he is dying, is turning to religion probably for selfish salvation purposes. He doesn't want bad things to happen to him based on the prevailing local religion's teachings. If he has a spark of conscience, he's probably also guilty and feels bad for what he's done, though it's convenient that he's guilty just as he dies. Going only on by what's given, the world is probably a worse place because he lived, and so I cannot judge him as good.

-Lyn

 

[Penumbra]

The first one is not trying to be "saved"

That's a big reason why I think person A is a better choice. He's not worrying about his self.

-Lyn

 

[Tarpshack]

Being Christian does not make someone good. A is the better person.

Just as being a good person does not make someone a Christian.

 

[LittleNipper]

Done with this topic. I cannot discuss it any further.

Your choice...

 

[Bro_Sam]

Which of the following is a good person to you?

A) A no religion man who does charity works and volunteer works all his life.

B) A murderer who decides to become a christian just before he dies.

Neither. Both are sinners.

 

[Andreusz]

I know you do b'pac. But that's just the way it is. If you were to write a book, could anyone tell you better than YOU what YOU were attempting to say with YOUR words?

.

Yes. They're called critics.

 

[quatona]

I know you do b'pac. But that's just the way it is. If you were to write a book, could anyone tell you better than YOU what YOU were attempting to say with YOUR words?

Aren´t you the guy who feels able to tell that people who say they don´t believe in your god concept actually mean to say they hate Jesus?