The core message of the New Testament

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Website owner:  James Miller

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The Bible teaches that we have all sinned and do occasionally sin.

I John 1:8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves,

and the truth is not in us. {9} If we confess our sins, he is

faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us

from all unrighteousness. {10} If we say that we have not sinned,

we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

The Bible mentions some incidents of upright, god fearing men sinning. I think of David and Peter, for example. However, sinning and then realizing you have sinned and being remorseful about it is one thing. A person of integrity can sin and then understand he has sinned and realize there is really no way he can undo what he has done — and feel guilt, shame and remorse. However, sinning without remorse, shame or repentance is something else. That is moral corruption. Repeated sinning, habits of sin, lead to sin without remorse. And that is moral corruption.

The evil implanted in man by nature spreads so imperceptibly, when the habit of wrong-doing is unchecked, that he himself can set no limit to his shamelessness. Cicero

See On conscience, sensuality and shame

After I got out of college and started making my way in the real world I started realizing bit by bit just how very corrupt and shameless this world that I live in is. I was a serious, god fearing country boy raised in church and I definitely grew up very innocent. Up through high school and college I was very highly focused on mathematics and technical studies, wasn’t someone who socialized or ran around with other teenagers, and had no idea at all just how bad this world actually is. From boyhood it has always been my policy to assume the best of another person unless proven otherwise. Growing up I always felt that most people were like myself — basically good people. I knew the Bible says the world is bad but that is not like seeing it with my own eyes. So, in my younger years, I had no idea of how promiscuous so many people are. Little by little, I started seeing things and hearing things through my mother that changed my outlook. I heard about scandals involving my relatives. And about scandals in the church I had attended as a boy. The church scandals were shocking. Terrible scandals involving preachers, preacher’s wives, deacons, etc. I started slowly getting the sense that fornication and adultery were pretty much universal in the entire western world. That almost everyone did it. Later during the Clinton scandals in the White house, people who went to church and were supposed to be Christians told me “that kind of thing is not important”. Well, that kind of thing is very, very important. The Bible is absolutely clear about that.

1 Cor 6:9-10 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not

inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither

fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals,

nor sodomites, {10} nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards,

nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.

The people who think it is not important are people who, for their own personal reasons, want to think it is not important. It is about people believing what they want to believe.

The western world is very corrupt. The proof of that is the shockingly high incidence of illegitimate births in almost all of the countries of the western world. See Moral breakdown of the West revealed in the statistics on rates of child illegitimacy. With these kinds of statistics you know how promiscuous the societies are.

Well, I wish to make the following point: There won’t be any morally corrupt people in heaven. Heaven is just not the kind of place where you will find morally corrupt people. They wouldn’t fit in and there won’t be any. But they will fit in very well in hell. That is just their kind of place.

The Bible teaches that mankind is at odds with God and headed for hell. But it also has another very important message. It teaches that men should repent of their sins and turn to God. John the Baptist came preaching that men should repent and turn to God. See John the Baptist preached a fire-and-brimstone message. Jesus came preaching that very same message.

Mat 4:17 From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

That is the core message of the New Testament.

There is hope for sinful man. There is salvation for those who will repent, turn to God, and follow the way Christianity and the Bible teaches. Most people would probably just scornfully laugh at that. But they would be very well advised to take that message seriously.

I note that one cannot repent of sin unless he acknowledges sin to be sin. If one does not acknowledge fornication, adultery, lying or other things that the Bible tells us is sin to be sin he cannot repent. To repent he must first understand he is a sinner.

11 Feb 2022