Haase_UZ_x007E_DTh (2).pdf - South African Theological Seminary

killed massively in the name of good, for man is never wise enough to control what he
creates, much less to see beyond the immediacy of what he does today. Humans continue
to justify the slow, wholesale destruction of our planet in the name of progress, bringing
us ever closer to the brink of extinction.
What drives this ongoing quest Where is the innate ‘goodness’ of mankind Why do
we keep ‘modernising’ and ‘industrialising,’ all the while knowing we are killing
ourselves and our posterity in the process Why, if man is innately good, are there more
wars, and more bloodshed today than ever before in human history Are we not supposed
to be getting better If mankind is innately good, as the humanists still claim, where is
the proof When will mankind ‘turn things around,’ and via ‘progress,’ make life better
for all, as always promised The writer of the book of James answers all these questions:
Where do wars and fights come from among
you Do they not come from your desires for
pleasure that war in your members You lust
and do not have. You murder and covet and
cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you
do not have because you do not ask. You ask
and do not receive, because you ask amiss,
that you may spend it on your pleasures.
Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not
Know that friendship with the world is enmity
with God Whoever therefore wants to be a
friend of the world makes himself an enemy
of God. Or do you think that the Scripture
says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us
yearns jealously” But He gives more grace.
Therefore He says: “God resists the proud,
but gives grace to the humble” (Jam. 4:1-6).
The Bible is honest enough to tell us that man is corrupt from birth (cf., Psa. 51:5).
Humanity is not innately good, but evil -- driven by selfishness, and rebellion (cf., Psa.
52; 140). “Truly the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil; madness is in their hearts
while they live, and after that they go to the dead” (Ecc. 9:3b). Humans sometimes do
good things, but only because of the outpouring of God’s grace upon all flesh (Mat.
5:45b, c). Humanity does not like this truth, for in it, God is exalted, not man. God is
patient and merciful with all flesh, but not forever. “The Lord is not slack concerning His
promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any
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University of Zululand, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa