Originally posted by rift:
Oh wow. How the heck do the words "every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood" not imply that man is inherently evil? In no way am I ignoring volition / free will. Man is living in sin because of his volition / free will. God gave us that free will. He can take it away at any time. We humans have chosen to live separated from him. God loves mankind enough to let us have our desired distance, no matter how much it hurts him.
Jesus reconciled man to God through His death and resurrection. Man's sin had separated him from God. Jesus' death and resurrection bridged the gap we created. Jesus became sin, taking our place. All we have to do is accept it (believe it) and the grace provided us through Jesus' death and resurrection.
On a tangent... Madman, you sound like you've thought a lot about this. Why?
The words "every inclination" is not the same as "inherent" and does not have the same meaning. Inclination is a tendency. Inherent is a built in characteristic.
I think you may be under the impression that all versions of Christianity believe the same canon or even read the same versions of the bible. They do not. The texts itself may even be slightly different.
Your version of Christianity has different interpretations of many things than Roman Catholics. Modern Catholics also do not take a literal interpretation of the bible. Especially much of the Old Testament.
Modern Catholics and many Protestants hold a somewhat skeptical view. People who are Evangelical or Pentecostal Christians hold more literal interpretations of the bible. Your interpretation of the nature of mankind is not only different than say Catholics, but also literal within that interpretation.
As I said before, Catholics do not believe that mankind is inherently evil. I also think many Protestants also do not believe in such an interpretation.
Your version and particular interpretation of the nature of mankind is not held by the majority of Christians in the world.
And , no... I have not thought about these types of things very much. The only time I ever have to think about such things is in discussions with evangelical or fundamentalist type Christians. They are usually the people who claim theirs is the only true version of Christianity and they are the only true Christians.
To your credit, you have refrained from making such claims, but many Evangelicals, Pentacostals, or whatever, do make such claims. That could also be one of the reasons they are not held in high regard by many among the populace, even other Christians.