Welcome back to Critical Thinking Aloud. It’s been a while since our last teaching but a lot has happened over the past month and a half.
I want to start with a quick update and then we are going to break bad and come off of our foundational What is the Bible Series for this teaching.
Since we last met my family has grown by one beautiful member. On the tenth of May our little guy Caleb final decided to come into the world 10 days past his due date. We are so thankful for all of you out there that prayed for a healthy birth and continue to pray for the safely and blessings over our family.
If you would like to join our news letter to see this little guy please sign up by clicking here.
A bit of a different direction
Ecclesiastes
I have been listening to the book of Ecclesiastes on the Street Lights Audio Bible over the past few weeks and have been loving it!
While Ecclesiastes is generally a pessimistic book declaring all to be vain, it is sprinkled with great tidbits of wisdom on how best to enjoy life. For example:
“So I commend the enjoyment of life, because there is nothing better for a person under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany them in their toil all the days of the life God has given them under the sun.”
Ecclesiastes 8:15
Amen to that teacher!
There is something that really caught my attention while I have been listening to this amazing book which I wanted to share as a way to get back into the grove of teaching here on Critical Thinking Aloud.
In Ecclesiastes chapter seven it says this
“Indeed, there is no one on earth who is righteous,
Ecclesiastes 7:20
no one who does what is right and never sins.”
We would conclude that this statement is true but it got me thinking of another verse in the Bible
“Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness”
Genesis 15:6
Contradiction?
How can this be? How can these two seemingly diametric statements be reconciled into a coherent thought which isn’t contradictory?
After some reflection I believe the answer is quite simple and covers several of our favorite topics that we talk about regularly here on Critical Thinking Aloud.
So Lets Critically Think Aloud together!
If there is “no one who his righteous” and yet Abraham is “counted as righteous” then the logical critical conclusion would be there most be two “righteousness’” which are being described here.
We ascribe to the truth that no one does what is right and never sins as described by the teacher in Ecclesiastes. That is no one apart from the God is righteous. Check the Biblical record and this truth is easily proven. This is what theologians describe as Total Depravity.
Total Depravity or Total Inability?
Here on Critical Thinking Aloud we stand on the firm belief that the Biblical definition of this theological concept is misconstrued by many well intending christians mislead by their own theological traditions. Total depravity has been taken out of its biblical context and misapplied with a faulty definition based on the claims of theologians of centuries past.
In the end, christian sects such as the calvinist, other wise known as the Reformed community teach “no one who does what is right and never sins” (total depravity) to mean every one is guilty from conception of sin that they never committed but that which they inherited (total inability).
This may seem to be only a slight and unimportant point to harp on but as we have said in the past it has profound implications on ones theology which in turns directly affects ones worldview.
See the Teacher in Ecclesiastes is addressing a moral condition that we cannot attain due to our proclivity for sin. He is not teaching the Reformed concept of inherited sin which now destines all to hell from conception apart from God choosing one to believe.
“no one who does what is right and never sins” isn’t an eternal decree God made before the foundation of the earth, giving Him the right to send all whom he rejects to the pit of Hell, but is a statement on the moral condition of all those who by there own desires fall into the temptation and sin.
How do we know this? Because the Bible Tells us so!
Biblical Definition
“When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14 but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. 15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.”
James 1:13-15
Did you catch that?
What would be the point of James wasting his breath if God has made all humans to be sinners in the womb, not by their own sinful actions, as stated above, to which they are held accountable, but by his eternal predestined decree as the Calvinists say?
I am sorry but line of thinking is sick and a gross abuse of Biblical text.
Total Depravity as defined by Calvinistic Theology is bunk.
On the other hand Biblical theology’s description of Total Depravity as James describes takes the blame off of God for the sinful desires of Humans and places back on their actions which they will be held accountable for.
Look at how James describes this process. “No one should say…, nor does he tempt anyone…, but each person…, by their own evil desires…”
James could not have been any more clear while describing where the origin of our sin originates. This is bad new for the Calvinists because James places the responsibility on our own actions, not Gods eternal decree.
In other words the Teachers’ wisdom in Ecclesiastes is proved true in the fact that no one is righteous. Why? because all have chose to sin with their own desires, not because they were created that way.
What about Abraham?
Abraham is a perfect example of all this and the key to understanding how one can obtain righteousness despite the fact we have all sinned.
Abraham was asked to leave the place where he grew up and currently lived with his relatives. We may have never thought of it in this way before, but leaving the place where your family lived was a big deal in the Ancient Near Eastern culture.
Unlike the west today where we have grown used to living far from our relatives, in the Ancient Near East, community, was the bedrock of ones culture.
Grandparents lived with the family until they died. After death they must be remembered (usually by the use of an inheritance left to those still alive, or continual worship of their god) to insure that their gods would grant access to eternal life to the surviving family members. Check out these post of a more in depth study on this concept by clicking here and here.
Abraham leaving His country was way more then a just packing up of his belonging to relocate to another place. It was a complete and utter abandonment of his identity.
Where he lived, what he would become, his earthly inheritance (income), his passage to heaven, these are all tied to Abrahams leaving his country for another land.
God wanted Abraham to trust in Him for these things, not what was culturally accepted, and in return God would bless the whole world through Him. And this is exactly what Abraham did.
Sinner but Counted as Righteous
Like the rest of us, Abraham was a big fat sinner. He live with idol worshipers and probably was one himself (based on cultural rituals which families would worship not only state gods, but also household ones as well). This was not important to God for He knows that humans cannot save themselves and cannot apart from Him become righteous.
God asked Abraham to trust Him despiteAbraham’s sin.
This is amazing and answers our question of how no one can be righteous morally but can be counted as righteous by trusting in God!
This is the Gospel.
The Gospel
Everyone has chosen to sin and has fallen short of moral perfection. Not even one person, just as the teacher states in Ecclesiastes 7:20. That doesn’t not mean that one cannot chose to place there trust in God to be made right as Abraham did.
This is what we like to refer to as believing loyalty. You chose to sin and will be held accountable by God for your actions. In the same way you can trust in His provision to be counted as righteous. How? By trusting in Jesus.
Abraham placed His trust in God and continued to trust in God all the days of his life. In the same way we must place our trust in Jesus who is God. If you have done this and continue to trust in God all the days of your life, you will be saved. If you have done this in the past but do not now, you will not be saved.
Like Abraham we are not morally perfect and are in need of God counting us as righteous. This happens by placing your trust in Jesus who has paid the price of our sins.
We hope that if there is anyone out there who sees this and hasn’t done this yet, you will do so now. Please get a hold of us if this has inspired you to place your believing loyalty in Jesus.
I know this is a different than our What is the Bible series and I am looking forward to getting back into that material but I have been really encouraged lately by the wisdom of Ecclesiastes 7:20 and the comfort that Genesis 15:6 brings.
We hope that this short teaching has encourage you all as well.
Peace and Blessings
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