Answers these questions to see if you are a Good Person

[-Peacemaker-]

People in the Christian church should be confident in their righteousness as long as their righteousness doesn’t come from themselves. Maybe you can ask them where they get their confidence and righteousness from.

Absolutely correct. Let me put it a different way. I've met so many Christians that really believe they have their act together in that they believe they aren't broken. This attitude often leads to self-righteousness. I didn't think such attitudes existed outside of the church nearly as much as inside. That is until I started conversing with people outside the church on this subject. I'm continually amazed at how many people actually feel like they deserve Heaven/ being deemed righteous

 

[McBell]

The title of the thread gives it away

Ah, so you have merely made an assumption based upon the title of the thread, instead of waiting for him to actually present a definition....


Don't get me wrong, I strongly suspect you are right.
But until such time as he actually reveals his definitions, you are merely making assumptions.

 

[McBell]

I never thought I'd find people as confident of their own righteosness as those found in the Christian church....that is until I finally started talking about the subject with everybody else

Seems a bit stereotypical to think that Christians had some sort of monopoly on self righteousness...

 

[ImmortalFlame]

Have you ever lied?

Yes.

Have you ever stolen anything?

No.

Have you ever lusted after another person?

Yes.

Have you ever coveted something owned by another person?

No.

Have you ever used God’s name in vain?

Yes.

So, am I a good person?

 

[McBell]

Absolutely correct. Let me put it a different way. I've met so many Christians that really believe they have their act together in that they believe they aren't broken. This attitude often leads to self-righteousness. I didn't think such attitudes existed outside of the church nearly as much as inside. That is until I started conversing with people outside the church on this subject. I'm continually amazed at how many people actually feel like they deserve Heaven/ being deemed righteous

Seems to me that you are engaging in something called 'transference'.

I do not get from the posts that these people feel they deserve heaven/being deemed righteous.

In fact, i get from these people(meaning the ones who have posted in this thread) that occasional minor lapses do not make for a bad person.

It is most interesting how you so easily take it to mean they think they deserve heaven/being declared righteous.

 

[McBell]

I'll take issue with this. He condemned everyone who wasn't born again. He told the woman in John 8 who was caught in adultery to "go and sin no more", which means that she was sinning. In Matthew 23 he told the religious leaders that they were “whitewashed tombs”, meaning they looked good on the outside but were corrupt sinners in the inside. In Luke 19 Jesus met the tax collector Zacchaeus who after meeting Jesus went and repaid all those that he stole from, showing a change of heart and that he was a sinner.

please point out where Jesus "condemned" any of those in your example list.

Perhaps you should define "condemn"?

 

[-Peacemaker-]

Seems to me that you are engaging in something called 'transference'.

I do not get from the posts that these people feel they deserve heaven/being deemed righteous.

In fact, i get from these people(meaning the ones who have posted in this thread) that occasional minor lapses do not make for a bad person.

It is most interesting how you so easily take it to mean they think they deserve heaven/being declared righteous.

I would put things a little differently. Most people I've talked with judge themselves and their character by how well they treat their friends and family. As if people really deserve some gold star because they love their friends. Anybody can do that and most people do. I think it's in how we respond to our enemies that we begin to see our true character.

 

[McBell]

I would put things a little differently. Most people I've talked with judge themselves and their character by how well they treat their friends and family. As if people really deserve some gold star because they love their friends. Anybody can do that and most people do. I think it's in how we respond to our enemies that we begin to see our true character.

No, all you will see is how they treat their enemies.
Which could very well be the exact opposite as how they treat their friends.

I do wonder if you use this same technique when judging your deity...
Do you base your deities "true character" on how he treats his enemies?

 

[-Peacemaker-]

No, all you will see is how they treat their enemies.
Which could very well be the exact opposite as how they treat their friends.

I do wonder if you use this same technique when judging your deity...
Do you base your deities "true character" on how he treats his enemies?

I have no doubt that they angle that you're approaching this from is to call into question the character of the God of the OT. If Jesus represents the completion of the process begun by God in the OT to change the culture and morals of an ancient people from their brutal ways to the true standard then we should look to him as the moral compass. If we do that, we see someone who was flawless in how he dealt with those who hated him

 

[McBell]

I have no doubt that they angle that you're approaching this from is to call into question the character of the God of the OT. If Jesus represents the completion of the process begun by God in the OT to change the culture and morals of an ancient people from their brutal ways to the true standard then we should look to him as the moral compass. If we do that, we see someone who was flawless in how he dealt with those who hated him

An awful lot of words to merely answer with "no".

So if you refuse to use your proposed judgement technique with your deity, why should we consider your proposed judgement technique with humans?

 

[PolyHedral]

I've seen video of Ray Comfort playing this game before. He claims that if you've done something even once, then it defines you: if you've lied even once, then you're a liar; if you've stolen even once, then you're a thief.


So... have you ever wet the bed?

 

[Twig pentagram]

I Am not a "good person". I Am as I come and I come as I Am.

 

[Nakosis]

Have you ever lied?
Have you ever stolen anything?
Have you ever lusted after another person?
Have you ever coveted something owned by another person?
Have you ever used God’s name in vain?

See that's wrong. Evil in fact to judge people by questioning if they've ever made mistakes. These things are not necessarily what makes a person good or bad. However the inability to forgive and forget does in my book make a person, well someone I'd rather not be around.

My test for a good person...

Have you ever forgiven someone who's stolen from you?
Have you ever acknowledge beauty in your fellow human beings?
Have you ever given the shirt off your back to someone who needed it?
Have you ever help someone, just for the sake of helping with no thought of reward or acknowledgement?
Have you ever let someone else take credit for you accomplishment because the accomplishment itself was reward enough?

Hopefully if there is a God, he/she is not as self-centered and petty as some of these religious folks make God out to be.

 

[sojourner]

Pharisees assume that people are inherently bad and need guidance in order to do good.
Jesus assumes that people are inherently good and don't need guidance to do good.

 

[McBell]

Hopefully if there is a God, he/she is not as self-centered and petty as some of these religious folks make God out to be.

I doubt that god is as petty, self centered, egotistical, concerned with your sex life, and powerless as those who claim to be his advocates claim.

 

[-Peacemaker-]

Pharisees assume that people are inherently bad and need guidance in order to do good.
Jesus assumes that people are inherently good and don't need guidance to do good.

Mark 10:18 "Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good--except God alone.

 

[Me Myself]

Mark 10:18 "Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good--except God alone.

John 10:34 Jesus replied, "It is written in your own Scriptures that God said to certain leaders of the people, 'I say, you are gods!'

 

[Me Myself]

The questions just reveal that we have all acted badly.

We have acted with love compassion and kindness too.

All of us.

Which we do most and were our will is to do most is what makes us "good" or "bad" persons.

 

[Man of Faith]

John 10:34 Jesus replied, "It is written in your own Scriptures that God said to certain leaders of the people, 'I say, you are gods!'

Big G vs Little g. There are many little g's but only one big G.

 

[-Peacemaker-]

Big G vs Little g. There are many little g's but only one big G.

In fact many of the "little g's" aren't even people but inanimate objects such as wood and stone carvings.

Deuteronomy 4:23 "There you will worship man-made gods of wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or eat or smell."

Deuteronomy 32:17 "They sacrificed to demons, which are not God--gods they had not known, gods that recently appeared, gods your fathers did not fear."