[grumpa]

For more about basic Christianity see our Faith Facts article, the Christian Cram Course here:

http://www.faithfacts.org/bible-101/christian-cram-course

[hecticskeptic]

I didn’t go through all the references quoted but I often make a mental note of how the versions mentioned here on FR compare to the King James Version. In this case, the KJV version of Jeremiah 17:9 states “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” Somehow that word ‘wicked’ just seems far more apropos than the word ‘sick’.

[Basket_of_Deplorables]

People are mostly good, but sometimes sin. What kind of angry, unhappy, negative pessimist believes otherwise? Any faith that teaches otherwise—that people are somehow inherently bad—is frankly awful. But thanks for posting it—helps reaffirm the wisdom of my decision to leave the church and go buddhist.

Namaste.

[boatbums]

But here is the good news: “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)

We are told in Ephesians that we are saved by grace THROUGH faith and not our works "so that no man may boast", this tells all those who would glory in their own righteousness and merit that we cannot save ourselves. The "Law", Scripture says is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. It shows us - as your examples do - that it is not the letter of the law but the SPIRIT of the law that reveals our unworthiness. Without Christ's righteousness imputed to us, we would be utterly lost. Good works, all our works of righteousness, cannot make propitiation for our sins or atone for even one. Only by the shedding of blood, for it is the blood that makes atonement for sin (Leviticus 17:11). Jesus paid that sin debt in our place and offers us the righteousness of God IN Christ.

Until we come to the realization that we are destitute sinners outside of the mercy of God, we will never know the wonder of His grace within it!

[Gene Eric]

Existence is intrinsically evil.