Thursday, September 01, 2005
Common Grace and the Breakdown in New Orleans
Common Grace is the Christian doctrine that God bestoys good gifts on both believers and unbelievers. Rain and sunshine for both believers and unbelievers. A key portion of the doctrine is that God restrains the full measure of evil in a society. Louis Berkhof wrote "[Common grace] curbs the destructive power of sin, maintains in a measure the moral order of the universe, thus making an orderly life possible, distributes in varying degrees gifts and talents among men, promotes the development of science and art, and showers untold blessings upon the children of men." Police and your parents spanking you would be an example of common grace which restrains sin.
I firmly believe what you are seeing currently in New Orleans is when God withdraws some of his common grace. Some.
As Stu Bykofsky wrote in today's Philadelphia Daily News, "the frightening thing is how little has to happen before the thin veneer of civilization is pulled back to reveal the moral rot beneath."
John Rabe wrote today:
I know some of you will say "not everyone is doing this. Some are being good people." Yes, some/many are. Follow my comments for a moment and I will address this.
We fancy ourselves with our good behavior and flatter ourselves for being so good. Look how good society is. But every once in a while something like this comes along to illustrate the truth of the matter. What is the truth of the matter?
Our good behavior has much more to do with God restraining the evil in us. God is the source of our good behavior and then we say "you don't need God to be good."
God, in His wisdom, occasionally peels back the curtain on our nature. He withdraws some of His common grace. Someone once told me that God doesn't have to do anything active to get a person or people to be evil. He merely has to withhold His common grace, His Spirit, His ministers the police. When you drop a ball, it falls. To get the ball to fall, you don't need to do anything but simply let go. Likewise, God just needs to "let go" and you will be sinning up a storm before I could blink.
So, yes. God hasn't so completely withdrawn His grace that everyone is acting like a thug. But please don't be so foolish as to think this is a sign that people are inherently good or neutral. Or as Mr. Bykofsky said "I don't believe this is genetic, because that would mean there's a class of people born to be criminals. More likely it's opportunistic behavior that's learned from friends, family, and peers."
No, it is genetic. And it is common to us all. He is correct. I am no better that those looters. There, but by the grace of God, go I. We are much closer to Hitler than we are to Christ.
When we see what is happening in New Orleans our mouths should be shut and we should stand in awe. We should ask for mercy and plead forgiveness.
Common Grace is the Christian doctrine that God bestoys good gifts on both believers and unbelievers. Rain and sunshine for both believers and unbelievers. A key portion of the doctrine is that God restrains the full measure of evil in a society. Louis Berkhof wrote "[Common grace] curbs the destructive power of sin, maintains in a measure the moral order of the universe, thus making an orderly life possible, distributes in varying degrees gifts and talents among men, promotes the development of science and art, and showers untold blessings upon the children of men." Police and your parents spanking you would be an example of common grace which restrains sin.
I firmly believe what you are seeing currently in New Orleans is when God withdraws some of his common grace. Some.
As Stu Bykofsky wrote in today's Philadelphia Daily News, "the frightening thing is how little has to happen before the thin veneer of civilization is pulled back to reveal the moral rot beneath."
John Rabe wrote today:
In the wake of Katrina's visit to South Florida last week, I saw little hints of lawlessness in the hours immediately following the storm. Every 30 seconds or so at major intersections where there were no signals (which by law are supposed to be treated as four-way stops), someone (usually in a pickup truck) would simply barrel through the intersection without stopping, honking and obscenely gesturing at anyone who protested. Several scam artists dressed as Florida Power and Light employees have talked their way into homes to steal items. People raced to Home Depot to beat their neighbors in the rush for generators.
All of this is minor compared to what's happening in New Orleans right now. The damage to The Big Easy from Katrina was much more serious, widespread, and long-lasting than what we experienced here. And the looting and pillaging is spreading. People are stealing diapers and food--and shoes, and cars, and television sets. And they're shooting cops.
Often we hear people proclaiming their "faith in human nature" and in "the basic goodness of mankind." So why is it that in the sudden absence of enforced law, we see society almost immediately deteriorate? Why is it--if mankind is basically good--that instead of seeing humanity rise up in a time of crisis and become better behaved, pulling together for the common good, we see it degenerate into a state of anarchy? Who among those who pay such lyrical homage to human nature, if they were to be honest with themselves, truly feels safer during a time of lawlessness when human nature is left to its own devices? Who believes at such a time that most, or even a few people altruistically have your best interests at heart?
The truth, of course, is that the notion of "the basic goodness of mankind" is a humanistic lie that has fueled many of the world's greatest atrocities, from the French Revolution to the Russian gulags to the Chinese slaughter of tens of millions to the Cambodian killing fields. We intrinsically know the real truth, that "the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked..." (Jeremiah 17:9), but we suppress it, choosing to ignore the obvious in favor of a dangerous utopian fantasy.
If, Heaven help us, the terrorists ever succeed in shutting down the power in this country for more than two days, it will become Lord of the Flies. They know it, you know it, and I know it. And it won't be because of mankind's essential goodness.
I know some of you will say "not everyone is doing this. Some are being good people." Yes, some/many are. Follow my comments for a moment and I will address this.
We fancy ourselves with our good behavior and flatter ourselves for being so good. Look how good society is. But every once in a while something like this comes along to illustrate the truth of the matter. What is the truth of the matter?
Our good behavior has much more to do with God restraining the evil in us. God is the source of our good behavior and then we say "you don't need God to be good."
God, in His wisdom, occasionally peels back the curtain on our nature. He withdraws some of His common grace. Someone once told me that God doesn't have to do anything active to get a person or people to be evil. He merely has to withhold His common grace, His Spirit, His ministers the police. When you drop a ball, it falls. To get the ball to fall, you don't need to do anything but simply let go. Likewise, God just needs to "let go" and you will be sinning up a storm before I could blink.
So, yes. God hasn't so completely withdrawn His grace that everyone is acting like a thug. But please don't be so foolish as to think this is a sign that people are inherently good or neutral. Or as Mr. Bykofsky said "I don't believe this is genetic, because that would mean there's a class of people born to be criminals. More likely it's opportunistic behavior that's learned from friends, family, and peers."
No, it is genetic. And it is common to us all. He is correct. I am no better that those looters. There, but by the grace of God, go I. We are much closer to Hitler than we are to Christ.
When we see what is happening in New Orleans our mouths should be shut and we should stand in awe. We should ask for mercy and plead forgiveness.
