Saturday, July 31, 2010

Sin: A Self-Assessment

"Sin is NOT something a person can empirically self-assess."

Sure it is. You can ask and answer the statements:

a) I have always lived up to my own moral code (whatever it is). T/F

b) I am always truthful, always kind, always faithful, always honest. (I have never been deceitful, never been mean, never been faithless, I have never cheated anyone. T/F

c) I have never acted in a selfish manner. T/F

d) There is no gap in me between what I "ought-to-be" and what I "am". T/F

e) I am a perfect moral being. T/F

f) I have never mistreated another human being in any way, by, e.g., being rude to them, ignoring them, looking down on them in my heart, having bad thoughts about them.

g) My thoughts towards others are unfailingly pure. E.g., I have never thought or said anything unkind either about or to the author of the Ball Bounces. T/F

The standard is perfection.

Score: 7 - you do not consider yourself a sinner.
         1-6 - you are a sinner.

The Bible declares,

A. "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God".  You can "test" this for yourself.

B. "The wages of sin (what sin gets you) is death". You can reason about this. Is it reasonable that sin based on a corrupt nature would disqualify you from eternal life in God's perfect, unblemished heaven?

C. "The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ."  This is where the jump of faith comes in. It's not a big leap. Either God has made a provision for you, or he has not. Either he loves you, or he does not. Either there is meaning and purpose to life, or there is not. Either there is hope, or there is not. Either the longings in your heart for life beyond the grave are satisfiable, or they are a cruel deposit of amoral, unfeeling evolution.

You decide.

Regain your humanity. Rebel against the atheist machine.™

10 comments:

Joe said...

I always find it more instructive to think of sin as a condition far more than an action. The action is a result of the condition. My action (sin) does not make me a sinner. My sin nature causes me to act in a sinful manner. My very nature comes short of the Glory of God. I see what is right and good and though I endeavour to do what is right and good sin springs forward. Oh wretch that I am who shall rescue me? By His great Mercy and through His Grace I am saved. Not of myself and beyond my ability He has accomplished that which I could never attain.

Unknown said...

So, to test morality you decided upon only true or false questions which if answered will depict only one side of the story when it is fully known that morality, consciousness and everything between is more complex than yes or no. You cannot use a test. Ray Comfort does this and it is a setup for a trap. Is that how you want to be looked at, a trapper? It is 100% dishonest.

BallBounces said...

Well, if the standard of perfection is perfection, then it's binary -- you is either perfect or you is ain't.

The wiggle-room is you could disagree with one or more of the questions.

I suppose you reject all of them.

BallBounces said...

You could look at how Christ taught the sermon on the mount, and then intensified the Law of Moses -- making clear that its precepts applied to the motives of the heart, as well as outward behavior.

BallBounces said...

Here's how James, the leader of the church at Jerusalem, puts it:

For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.

BallBounces said...

Here's how the apostle Paul put it:

"For all have sinned [i.e., missed the mark], and fall short of the glory of God".

BallBounces said...

Here's what the apostle John said, "If we say we have no sin, we err".

BallBounces said...

Here's what Jesus said, "no one is good but God alone".

BallBounces said...

"I always find it more instructive to think of sin as a condition far more than an action."

I agree.

BallBounces said...

Jonathan. I don't think I answered you the way I should have. It's not a "gotcha" quiz, because it is designed for your own personal use and personal assessment. It's to encourage us to think about who we are, whether we "fall short" of even our own expectations, etc.

I'm sorry you reacted the way you did to it; it was meant sincerely.

"... nothing intellectually compelling or challenging.. bald assertions coupled to superstition... woefully pathetic"