a Getting Straightened Out	3Back to Home

4 Navigation --------------- Homepage St. Matthew St. Matthew 2 St. Mark St. Luke St. Luke 2 St. John St. John 2 Acts of Apostles Acts of Apostles 2 --------------- The Letters --- Romans --- 1. Corinthias --- 2. Corinthias --- Galatians --- Ephesians --- Philippians --- Colossians --- 1. Thessalonians --- 2. Thessalonians --- 1. Timothy --- 2. Timothy --- Titus --- Philemon --- Hebrews --- James --- 1. Peter --- 2. Peter --- 1. John --- 2. John --- 3. John --- Jude --------------- The Apocalypse

To say this usually evokes a vigorous response. VIGOROUS RESPONDER: Did you say, "We can't set the situation right ourselves"? What defeatist talk! Certainly we can set the situation right, if we are just determined enough. We will try specially hard to do what we should. We will do more than we usually do. If pride is our problem, we will be very, very humble before God. And in time the surplus of good will overcome the deficit of evil from the past. Don't tell us that we're powerless. We're going to lick this thing ourselves! Actually, this only makes the situation worse. Our problem is that we "think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think." We must stop being proud and arrogant, and become humble. When we recognize this, we say to ourselves, "We will strive with all our might to be humble." And what happens? To the extent that we succeed, we become aware of how humble we are, and, try as we will, we are unable to avoid the conclusion that it is pretty grand of us to be so humble. We really have been very good about it -- much better than a lot of people we know. God must be pleased at the splendid character of our humility. What has happened? We have become proud of being humble. But does recognition of this solve our problem? No, even as we become aware of this fact, we are in danger of being proud of the fact that we recognized that we were proud of being humble. We are caught, and we seem doomed to remain caught. We cannot escape. Unless, of course, God should decide to help us. God conquers death God gives us the power to conquer The Only Real "Answer" A Question You Can't Avoid Some Current Answers -- a Dime a Dozen The First Part of the Biblical Answer What Is the "Image of God"? Some Consequences The Second Part of the Biblical Answer What Sin Is Supplying Some Documentation What Sin Is Not Getting Straightened Out How Can I Be Changed? The Third Part of the Biblical Answer The First Step After the First Step The Heart of the Matter Not Once and for All Some Hints for Growing -- Tried and Tested A Final Warning Why Isn't "Individual Religion" Enough? The Case Against the Church -a Bagful of Objections When Did the Church Get Started? Just What Is a "Covenant"? The "New Covenant" Becomes a Possibility Those Words of Jesus to Peter Those "Upsetters of the World" A Rebuttal of the Case Against the Church Why the Church? Last Judgment? Second Coming? What Do They Mean? The Inescapability of Eschatology The Point of Biblical Eschatology: History Is Going Somewhere The Dangers of Literalism Exploring New Testament Eschatology The Kingdom of God A Few Bits of Help The Gift of God Schatology and "What I Do Today" What Happens When I Die? Sheol -- Where God Is Not Present The Community of the Resurrection Paul's Attempt to Describe the Christian Fact A "Spiritual Body" The Facts of the Case I Try to Live a Good Life. Why Isn't That Enough? The "Micah" Variation The "Worship and Action" Variation The "Therefore" Variation The Biblical faith that God is the Creator