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Everyones a Theologian

In Blog, Common Questions, Theology on
February 14, 2023

Are Humans Good by Nature?

Are most human beings inherently good? Most people would say yes. Of course, there are evil people out there: dictators, terrorists, rapists and serial killers. There is no doubt that these kinds of people are sinners, and very few, if any, would argue that they are “good” in any sense of the word. However, they would likely argue that the majority of humans are good by nature, and while we all have our shares of failures and foibles, most of us do not reach this level of evil in our lifetimes.

According to The State of Theology survey done by Ligonier Ministries in 2022, seventy percent of Americans believe that everyone is born innocent in the eyes of God, and sixty-six percent agree with the statement, “Everyone sins a little, but most people are good by nature.” Perhaps these are not surprising numbers when we consider our secular culture and its atrophied sense of what sin is. However, the survey also shows that professing Evangelicals share these beliefs. Sixty-six percent of Evangelicals agree that humans are born innocent in God’s eyes, and fifty-seven percent believe that most humans are good by nature.[1]

Like with everything else, Christians ought to root their beliefs and understandings of the world in the infallible truths of Scripture. What is the Bible’s take on this question? Are humans good by nature? To answer this, we must go back to the beginning.

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In Attributes of God, Blog, Theology on
October 25, 2021

He is Wise

The philosopher Aristotle once said, “Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.”[1] Our self-absorbed, truth-is-relative culture loves sayings like this! We love taking personality type quizzes and learning more about our Enneagram numbers. We think by knowing more about ourselves we’ll be able to better understand ourselves, take care of ourselves, and make better decisions for ourselves. While there’s nothing inherently wrong with personality quizzes, they do have us focusing solely on ourselves to become better people, and the Bible completely disagrees with this-

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.” Proverbs 9:10, ESV

Wisdom does not begin with us! Wisdom begins with God. Why? Because He is wise-

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In Blog, Common Questions, Theology on
September 13, 2021

What is God’s Will for My Life?

Discerning the will of God is something I think every Christian has attempted to do at one point or another. It’s definitely something I’ve prayed for and longed for and tried to figure out. I’ve often asked that God would reveal His will to me about different decisions or situations, but most of the time I never get a clear, solid answer. Honestly, I sometimes wish I could be like Gideon and put out a fleece to get some answers from God (please, do not do this the next time you need to make a decision).

God’s will can be a tricky thing to understand. We’re told that nothing happens outside of God’s will. But does that mean it’s God will for a family member to be diagnosed with cancer? Is it God’s will for a friend to get in a serious car accident? Is it God’s will for a child to tragically die at a young age? And how are we to understand His will well enough to make decisions that won’t fall outside of it?

All these questions stem from a misunderstanding of God’s will. There are actually three aspects of the will of God: His sovereign will, His moral will, and His personal will.

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In Attributes of God, Blog, Theology on
August 2, 2021

He is Righteous

Nobody likes a self-righteous person. Nobody likes those people who always think they’re better than everybody else. Nobody likes those people who always try to one-up others. But, if you think about it, you’ve probably acted in a self-righteous way at some point in your life. There’s probably been a time when you’ve believed you were better, smarter, or stronger compared to someone else, whether you verbalized that thought or not. There’s likely been an instance where you did something to one-up another person. We don’t like self-righteous people (and the self-righteous side of ourselves!) because we know that nobody is altogether righteous and nobody is really more righteous than somebody else. Everybody sins! There’s only one Person who truly is more righteous than anybody else, but He never puts us down because of it-

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In Attributes of God, Blog, Theology on
August 24, 2020

He is Holy

“Holy Priceless Collection of Etruscan Snoods, Batman!” 

This is just one of the hundreds of odd “holy” exclamations made by Robin (Burt Ward) on the 1960s Batman TV series.[1] Though we may not exclaim phrases quite so random as this one, people in our culture do exclaim other “holy” phrases when they are surprised, astonished, or in disbelief such as Holy CowHoly MoleyHoly GuacamoleHoly MackerelHoly Smokes, and other less savory exclamations. The word “holy” is also used in an exclamation in the Bible-

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