Sin and evil and the hard-a** nature of Christianity

Reading through some books I was thinking of the very stark difference between Christianity and other teachings. The stark difference is sin and evil. Christianity comes off as *hard-ass mean* compared to the new age and similar stuff. And it's because of the doctrine of sin and evil. The reality of sin and evil as Christianity forces us to confront it.

And think about it: we're not innocent pussy cats wandering around this planet. We're all venomous snakes. We all have poison in us. OK, we say, but I've never beaten somebody to death, or kicked an unconscious person in the head, or cut somebody's head off, or raped a child, or raped an adult, or killed a village, men, women, and children, or thrown fire on someone, or lied about someone so that they were put in prison, or what have you, BUT, I have *that poison* in me. Just because I don't - or haven't yet - struck with my fangs doesn't mean I don't have that poison in me. That poison is *sin.* As for evil: it is my *nature* to strike with my fangs.

(By the way, the fact that all those evil things listed above are actually done every day on this planet by similar human beings to ourselves is witness to the sin and evil constitutionally a part of our fallen being. Our state after the fall.)

And I can no more get that poison out of me than a leopard can change its spots. Nor can I change my nature. Only God can work such change in me through regeneration.

This is hard to see and hard to accept and hard to remember. We are not harmless puppies. We live in a world of hallucinogenic sin and evil. Kaleidoscopic sin and evil. The softer teachings - new age, whatever - are actually dramatically evil in their pretending people are inherently good.

Yet still, continually, we have to come to see and accept that we are *children of wrath*, living, prior to regeneration by the word and the Spirit, with one foot and half a leg in eternal hellfire. A deserved hellfire. "But we were created like this!" we say. No, we were created good. Adam was created good. Then he fell. "But we didn't fall!" Yet we would have, just like Adam, and the giveaway is prior to regeneration we willingly and happily side with our fallen nature. So our fall, due to being under the federal head of Adam, is just the exposing in ourselves of what was exposed in Adam by his act. [I notice that I engaged in some sketchy theology in this paragraph. Better to say we fell in Adam simply because Adam was our federal head, our King, and whether we would have done the same or not is immaterial. We certainly didn't show much remorse, instantly or throughout the ages, as his fallen progeny. We find ourselves in the medium of good and evil despite ourselves, and either recognize God is sovereign over His creation (Potter > clay) and over providence and grace, or we rage against that which gave us life to begin with. Once regenerated we then at some point need to see the evil in and around us as a means of escape, by being awake and loving our enemies. Or practicing the two great commandments of Christ in the real time everyday traffic of life.]

"So we're in really bad straits." That's why what Jesus did is called good news.

BONUS: So why did God make all this His *Plan*? The Bible says it is so that we can see the justice and mercy of God in the whole process, and in that to accept that God, our Creator, is above us, and is, in fact, as a Potter is to clay.

Now, speculation alert: we might also speculate that it is the only way God can create beings that will have consciousness, real will, and real understanding without having to be given those things by fiat. I.e. the only way God can create actual real beings who are not robotic. Real beings also who love Him without it being robotic love. We had to fall from the level we were created at so that we could experience good and evil. So that we could *know the difference* which is like an ignition inside us that makes a spark of possibility for us to be real in our understanding and being. And there had to be a real consequence for the fall, namely eternal hellfire or it wouldn't all be effective. Then in the process of being drawn back upward, most aspects of the Plan monergistic (like regeneration, justification, and definitive sanctification), but some synergistic (like progressive sanctification) we attain a level higher than where we were created at (glorification eventually, which is an eschatological act of God).

The evil angels are in a different state. They did something that was akin to committing the unforgivable sin. They are also part of the overall Plan of God, the role they play; but also a stark reminder, and something that must be accepted: that God is sovereign in creation, providence, *and grace.*