“Are People Basically Good?” by R.C. Sproul

Often unspoken and unrecognized, there is one belief that clearly divides progressives from conservatives, divides various branches of Christianity, divides believers from non-believers, and that is the fundamental nature of people. Are people basically good, or are people basically sinful? This leads to a rabbit hole (or holes) of additional questions, but perhaps it’s better to consider the fundamental question first.

That’s what R.C. Sproul does in Are People Basically Good?

Until his death in December of 2017, Sproul led Ligonier Ministries, based in Sanford, Florida. He wrote numerous books, articles, sermons, and speeches on Christianity, church history, theology, Calvinism, Reformed theology, and related topics. The Crucial Questions series includes some 30 topics which are free as eBooks, and this volume is a part of the series.

Sproul’s answer reflects his Christian faith, but he doesn’t slam the reader’s head with it. Instead, he uses the lens of Scripture first to consider what it means that man (and woman) “is made in the image of God.” Importantly, being made in the image doesn’t mean we are God but are subordinate to God. The phrase, he says, also separates mankind from all other living creatures. That separation doesn’t mean domination, but it does mean a position of responsibility, authority, and privilege. 

R.C. Sproul

But what every human being must come to understand, Sproul writes, is the holiness of God and the sinfulness of man. And sin, he says, goes to the very core of our being. We are made in the image of God, but we are broken from the beginning. And only one thing can heal that brokenness. 

It’s not a popular belief system today, and the culture at large certainly rejects it. But that doesn’t make it untrue (even if it does make it inconvenient). 

Are People Basically Good? is a compact summary of the doctrine of total depravity, a doctrine shared by all of the major Christian faith traditions.

Related:

What is Repentance? by R.C. Sproul.

Can I Have Joy in My Life? by R.C. Sproul.

What Do Jesus’ Parables Mean? By R.C. Sproul.

How Can I Develop a Christian Conscience? by R.C. Sproul.

How Should I Think About Money? by R.C. Sproul.

Does Prayer Change Things? by R.C. Sproul.

What is the Church? by R.C. Sproul.

How Can I Be Right with God? by R.C. Sproul.

Top photograph by GoaShape via Unsplash. Used with permission.

“Conversion” by Michael Lawrence

Can “nice” be a pejorative? Can all those songs we sing in church about “Jesus healing me” be wrongheaded? That group of people who come together on Sunday – is what they are about simply coming together on Sunday?

In Conversion: How God Creates a People, Michael Lawrence, senior pastor of Hinson Baptist Church in Portland, Oregon, takes these questions and more, applies basic Christian doctrine, and outlines a view of the church that is historic, Biblical, and real. It’s startling to see the simplicity of Biblical doctrine applied like this – and to see just how radical it really is.

Take “nice,” for example. In too many churches today, the prevailing doctrine is the doctrine of “nice.” Things work like they’re supposed to as long as we’re “nice.” Everyone gets along because we’re all so “nice.” Being “nice” is doing all the right things.

Lawrence juxtaposes the doctrine of the new creation against the doctrine of “nice,” and “nice” doesn’t fare well. At all.

And he goes one, in what is a relatively short (128 pages) work packed with this same kind of upending discussion. Sincerity doesn’t save our souls. Christian conversion is not a decision you make. Faith is not about healing (the so-called “therapeutic model” that has engulfed everything form the church to education and politics). The church, and churches, are to be distinct, not designed like some marketing brand. In fact, the church isn’t about marketing at all.

Michael Lawrence

It’s a sobering account. It’s also a hopeful one.

Lawrence is the author of Biblical Theology in the Life of the Church (2010) and co-author of It is Well: Expositions in Substitutionary Atonement (2010). He’s also a regular contributing writer to anthologies and a number of Christian print and online publications. He received a B.A> degree in English Literature from Duke University, a Masters of Divinity degree from Gordon-Conwell Seminary, and a Ph.D. in church history from Cambridge University. He and his family live in Portland.

Conversion is part of the 9Marks Series for Building Healthy Churches. It tackles the basics of conversion and what it means in both contemporary culture and contemporary church culture.

Top photograph by Viktor Jakovlev via Unsplash. Used with permission.