As a believer, I know I'm as evil as they come.

Absolutely. Only God through His Son could have revealed that.

Understanding the evil within ones self is actually a pretty old concept that I'm pretty sure predates Christianity..... Also carl yun talk about it as "the shadow" alot apparently

The way I see it, I start out with compassion towards others unless the situation demands otherwise.. Time then separates the wheat from the chaff.

No one has judged here.

You are falling for a common fallacy of not understanding and misuse of scripture.

You would have that to say that a Christian should not tell a child not to play in traffic as that would be judgemental that the child is doing wrong when it is not being judgemental. Rather it is saying none of us can condemn as that is reserved solely to God. So all are welcome to the grace of God. We are instead to proclaim the gospel and call out wrongdoing.

I was thinking the same thing there ADC. And with that I am out of this thread.

Good idea. I'm out too.

Discernment is not judgement. I discern that lack of a moral compass is untrustworthy.

What makes you so evil? I am a believer and I am not evil. If you are truly evil then you shouldn’t be admitted into the pearly gates. Actually, I wouldn’t want to be around evil people.

A wise old man told me long ago……”Don't argue about religion or politics. You’re not changing anyones mind about those two subjects”.

I really don’t see the purpose of such topics.

I can answer that, just read some of our posts. There are obvious times some are thinking of taking another's life, needing it or not, we debate. That makes us no different than the abortion doctor in the eyes of God.

JS, I know I'm one of the no one is righteous, no not ones.

Blessings,
Mark

HT hit the nail on the head. Martin Luther, the Father of the Reformation, noticed that he couldn't go an hour without sinning and yet there he was in a monastery type setting studying God day in and day out to be a priest.... so back to the confessional he'd go. Time after time after time. Each time he found himself sinning.
His study mates actually viewed Martin as being lazy and trying to get out of daily chores because of all the countless times he went to confess. The priests even began to be irritated at this young man admitting so many sins.
One time, Martin wrote, he had just finished confessing, and as he walked out of the confessional..... a woman walked by him...... back to the confessional he went.
It great reading! Real life stuff.

Then slowly as Luther read through (according to his writings) Roman 1:17 again and again and again;
"For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “BUT THE RIGHTEOUS man SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.”

And he read through Paul's letter to the Romans 3:24 again and again and again:
"being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus;"

Luther came to realize it's only God who can even be righteous and that it's by God's grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone that we can be viewed to God as righteous.
God alone judges the good and the bad although we as people have our own definitions we like to use. God gave the first people (Adam and Eve) a conscious and we're all descended from them so we all have a conscious to so we realize most times what's proper and what's not.

The Reformation is another miracle of God's workings and we thank God for men like Martin Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, and Bucer who took on the corruption of powerful men in the church at that time.

Blessings,
Mark

I catch a Sam Harris podcast every once in a while. I'll also listen to a Brett Weinstein (the other guy referenced with the counter-view) podcast from time to time. I don't listen to either hoping we agree on anything and very often we don't.

Regardless, both are very intelligent and thought provoking--way smarter than the OP or some idiot internet author at the Blaze looking for clicks.

As for "believers" vs atheist, there are plenty of rotten people on this earth. A lot of them quote scripture and claim to be Christian--including the dude on here shopping for other like-minded dudes to share his foxhole.

There is very likely a similar percentage of rotten atheists.

Agreed BC.
I enjoy listening to topic discussions such as Richard Dawkins and John Lennox who both hail and teach/taught at Oxford in England.
There are MANY MANY intelligent people who sit on both sides of the theological fence.
Here's a well known example.



I'm of the theological camp that we're all atheists or agnostics or whatever we call ourselves until God says we're not, because we're all coveters at heart.... so it's best to be an example of the Light as best we can with everyone.

Blessings,
Mark

Thanks Mark. I clicked on the video--dang, it's long. I'll listen it on my drive home from work tonight.