Last week my friend Scott and I were reading the book of Jeremiah, which includes one of the most memorable statements regarding human nature ever penned. If it didn’t come direct from God, most of would be rushing to expunge this “incredibly pessimistic” comment from the book. Liberal humanist types had better grab something solid while they take in this query:The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can understand it? (Jeremiah 17:9)
If any of us said this, we would feel compelled to back up our claims—which would not be all that difficult, given the near-infinite availability of empirical evidence documenting human sinfulness. Not Jeremiah, though. He notes the words—which are God’s—like a good shorthand journalist and moves on. The certainty of direct revelation is something I can only dream about.
However, the verse caused me to think about the way in which even our attempts to be unaffected are affected (“deceitful above all things”). We make a brave show of authenticity. We apply various honest masks in order to “keep it real.”
Not to say it’s always this way. But I have a hard time accounting for this kind of knee-jerk duplicity without hearing statements like the one on Jeremiah. A glance at the front page on any weekdays reveals that humans are very sophisticated when it comes to evil—but why? Here’s an eye-opening assessment from O.H. Mowrer, one-time president of the American Psychological Association:For several decades, we psychologists looked upon the whole matter of sin and moral accountability as a great incubus, and proclaimed our liberation from it as epoch-making. But at length we have discovered that to be free in this sense—that is, to have the excuse of being sick rather than sinful—is to court the danger of also becoming lost. This danger, is I believe, betokened by the widespread interest in existentialism which we are presently witnessing. In becoming amoral and ethically neutral and free, we have cut the very roots of our being, lost our deepest sense of self-hood and identity, and with neurotics themselves find ourselves asking, “Who am I? What is my deepest destiny? What does living really mean?”
Again and again, the Bible gets it right. When alternative explanations try to take on the human heart, they falter. Only God’s revelation can begin to explain the elusive reality hinted at by Augustine:I placed myself behind myself all the time. You took me from behind myself, put me in front of myself. I saw myself and was horrified.
Are we to believe this ingrained, reflexive bias toward deception is simply an educational issue? If this was the case, a mere change of program, a smart course of study, should solve the problem. If only it were so easy. Modern society has been beating its head against the wall of human evil for the last several centuries, searching for the “educational” strategy that will solve this lingering dilemma.
But only a new birth can heal this kind of "sickness."
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Your Sick Human Heart
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4 comments:
This is the best blogpost I have read for months. Well done, Ariel!
Jeremiah certainly had some of that directness of revelations that at least I long for. To be so close to the heart of God that every word He whispers in our ear for us to speak is a knife that cuts the sin from the divine, the holy.
Secular psychology or philosophy will never get down to the core of this, because they deny the existense of a living Creator, and consequently deny the reality of the perverting influence of sin.
But ah, you can express it in words better than I can. And you just have =)
Great post!!! Keep up the great work brother. Enjoy your family and the new one. We had our first child about 6 months ago. She rocks !!
God Bless
You have a beautiful Blog and a very blessed life. I find this blogpost to be very interesting and enjoyed your reading choices. To me this question of the human heart brings up two different philosophies; that of Mencius who believed all humans are born good and become corrupt if encouraged, and of Xunzi who believed we are all evil and need religion and the state to enforce morality. I think that you would like their arguments and I also think that both of them add complexity to this issue that has plagued mankind forever. Thank you for such a great blogspot.
"Secular psychology or philosophy will never get down to the core of this, because they deny the existense of a living Creator, and consequently deny the reality of the perverting influence of sin."
I think this is the core problem with a lot of current psychology, education, therapy, etc. You put it well, Mathias. The "humans are basically good" assumption is wrong-headed.
"We had our first child about 6 months ago."
It's cool to hear from other new parents. I'm guessing that you probably would like to be addressed as "the blunt prophet? :)
"Mencius...believed all humans are born good and become corrupt if encouraged, and Xunzi who believed we are all evil and need religion and the state to enforce morality"
I appreciate the thoughtful comment. I'd suggest that Mencius, if not acknowledged by name, has a mass following today, generally among secular humanists, atheists, and materialists.
It would be harder to find proponents of a Xunzi-like position, because the popular tendency (among non-Christians) is to take the "optimistic" view and say that people are basically good (ala Mencius).
And Christians, like myself, would not agree with Xunzi because: 1) The Bible says that neither "religion" nor "the state" can enforce morality; 2) In fact, morality, as the Bible describes it, cannot be "enforced;" 3) This is because goodness originates in the heart, and the heart defies external coercion; 4) Jesus Christ, who miraculously transforms the heart, is the only source of inner purity; 5) Outward "morality" flows from this inner transformation.
I hope that was helpful in clarifying how I look at this question. Thanks for the thoughts!
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