Some more of my Theological writings from a couple years ago.. on Good and How it isn't actually that Good.


The Depravity of Good
by Ash Durrance


Evil never separated anyone from God. Good does.

False Good is what separate's us from God.

No man ever commits Evil for the sake of Evil.

Men only commit Evil because they have convinced themselves what they
are doing is Good on some level.

Therefore Evil is not what leads to a Fall, Good is.


---A difference between Good and Righteousness----

All evil that exists , exists because of Beings desiring to be Good.

The first one to do this, would be Satan, who desired to be God, who we
learn from Christ is the Only Good that exists. In other words, he
desired to be Good, instead of God.

He did not desire to be Bad, but his desire was bad because he desired
to be Good, in place of Good Himself (God).

Therefore let us not seek after being Good, but instead let us seek
after Righteousness, which is knowing that we are not good, and only
God is.

----- Heaven is filled with the Righteous, not the Good----

Heaven is not filled with Good beings. Hell is.

Heaven is filled with Beings that acknowledge Forever that Only God is
Good. This is what Praise is.

For their is no reason to praise something we are equal too.

One Praises God because He is Good. Which means that you are not.

If you were Good, you would be worthy of praise, not God.

Holy crap this post is amazing!

I disagree with the points, and this is some really twisted thinking.

BUT THERE IS NOT ONE FREAKIN' TYPO IN THAT POST.

*claps loudly for 35 seconds*

That post was Good.

Hguols wrote:

I disagree with the points, and this is some really twisted thinking.

It is the " twisted theology" of Christ, is it not?

Matthew 19:17

"7And he said unto him, Why
callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God"

Jesus declares the even He is not Good and that only the Father is Good. So whcih of us should think that we can be Good or that we are Good?

Also, all over scripture we are told that " Only the righteous shall inherit the Kingdom of God".

It never sayd the Good shall inherit the Kingdom of God.

Is there a difference between Righteousness and Good? yes.

Good is subject to the Law..

Righteousness is subject to Grace.

Trying to be Good.. is trying to take the place of God.. for we do not even know what Good really is.

This is the nature of the Knowledge of the Good and Evil and why it damns us-

In "knowing' Good, we take on Judgment ( discernment if you like ) which belongs to God alone. . What judgment? In every thought that involves our own Goodness over God's... we are Judging what is good in place of God.

How is being Righteous different?

In Being Righteous.. we are acknowledging everyday that only The Father is Good, As Christ taught.. and in so doing we deny our own "godhood".. and allow God to be God. This is the basic nature of righteousness.. it is the nature of the heavenly.

In fact, one cannot be Righteous and think that He is Good. I do not see this as scriptural possible. If you think it is.. please show me. In fact.. the very core of Christianity is to know that you are a sinner.. and in need of slavation. This is at the core.. what Righeousness is.

The thing is.. you do not need to be Good.. you need to be "Right".

Christ didn't come to make us Good.. did he? I woudl say he came to make us fully human again. For he was and is the First and Most Human Man.. we were created in his likeness. Since he declares that he is not Good... and that we should know as Christians that we are sinners.. I would cal that righteousness as scripture defines it.

Also, if there is a worry that if we stop trying to be Good.. that we will suddenly fall face first into every vice known to man.. and turn into a heinous version of ourselves.. I think you will find suprisingly that this is not the case. For in practicing Righeousness... which is acknowledgeing that God alone is Good.. you will find that one of the side effects is Actual Goodness.. or in another expression,, Purity.

To quote CS Lewis-

" The bad man is bad because he thinks he is Good. The Good man is good because he knows he is Bad".

So much for the lack of typos.

Go into Biblegateway.com and type in the word "good". You'll find many references (beyond Genesis even) where God finds something "good".

If you're seriously too lazy to look it up, I'll post some for you. (but I don't think you're too lazy if you've already gone to these lengths to play with words)

Ash is correct in stating that only God is good. We, as humans, try to do good but fail miserably. Often, when we try to do good, when end up doing evil because we are human (and as such fallen). That is why we need God's grace.

Hguols wrote:

So much for the lack of typos.

Go into Biblegateway.com and type in the word "good". You'll find many references (beyond Genesis even) where God finds something "good".

If you're seriously too lazy to look it up, I'll post some for you. (but I don't think you're too lazy if you've already gone to these lengths to play with words)

Good is one of those words that is vague and means many different things depending on context. What I am dealing with here is "Good" in relation to God and the Knowledge of Good and Evil.. not Good in it's Moral, Societal or Ethical sense. which is a watered down.. less in depth use of "Goodness".

Kamerad Ash wrote:

Some more of my Theological writings from a couple years ago.. on Good and How it isn't actually that Good.


The Depravity of Good
by Ash Durrance


Evil never separated anyone from God. Good does.

False Good is what separate's us from God.

No man ever commits Evil for the sake of Evil.

Men only commit Evil because they have convinced themselves what they
are doing is Good on some level.

Therefore Evil is not what leads to a Fall, Good is.


---A difference between Good and Righteousness----

All evil that exists , exists because of Beings desiring to be Good.

The first one to do this, would be Satan, who desired to be God, who we
learn from Christ is the Only Good that exists. In other words, he
desired to be Good, instead of God.

He did not desire to be Bad, but his desire was bad because he desired
to be Good, in place of Good Himself (God).

Therefore let us not seek after being Good, but instead let us seek
after Righteousness, which is knowing that we are not good, and only
God is.

----- Heaven is filled with the Righteous, not the Good----

Heaven is not filled with Good beings. Hell is.

Heaven is filled with Beings that acknowledge Forever that Only God is
Good. This is what Praise is.

For their is no reason to praise something we are equal too.

One Praises God because He is Good. Which means that you are not.

If you were Good, you would be worthy of praise, not God.

nice job on the seperation of mans idea of good and righteousness. i think it needs a little bit of clarification though. i see the point your making but to someone else it may trigger a wtf moment.

Kamerad Ash wrote:

[size=12]Evil never separated anyone from God. Good does.[size=12]

Evil IS what separates us from God. Evil is sin, and the sin nature that is born into each of us will inevitably boil over into sinful acts/thoughts at some point, no matter how "good" we try to be. Can I get an amen?

MetalFRO wrote:

Kamerad Ash wrote:

[size=12]Evil never separated anyone from God. Good does.[size=12]

Evil IS what separates us from God. Evil is sin, and the sin nature that is born into each of us will inevitably boil over into sinful acts/thoughts at some point, no matter how "good" we try to be. Can I get an amen?

Not from me and here is why.

Evil is NOT what separates us from God. What separates us is Sin alone. Evil, Darkness, is only knowledge, which spawned from the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Sin is the committing of Evil and Darkness.

Evil doesn't separate us from God because God knows Evil as well. We are like God knowing Good and Evil, so if having evil is sin, then that means God is sinful for He knows evil as well. It is sin that God can't commit while we can.

I do know what you are saying Fro overall, and that will get the Amen. I needed to clarify though on your point.

^ this is the beauty of it, if we overcome sin, through the power of christ, we become the image of god, which was our creations intent, the fall was intentional, falling from god is SUPPOSED to happen, and we are supposed to return, the bible says god delights in a man who has fallen and returned rather then a man who is in no need of salvation. this is our creation, this is lifes purpose.

MetalFRO wrote:

Kamerad Ash wrote:

[size=12]Evil never separated anyone from God. Good does.[size=12]

Evil IS what separates us from God. Evil is sin, and the sin nature that is born into each of us will inevitably boil over into sinful acts/thoughts at some point, no matter how "good" we try to be. Can I get an amen?

What creates evil is when Bad people think they are Good and act upon that thought.

Also.. Evil usually refers to MIsfortune and calamity.. not Wickedness.. they are two different things.

We know this... because in scripture, we see all over the Old Testament that God does do Evil.

God do Evil? I know, sounds crazy. But just as God possess's the Knowledge of Good and Evil without Falling.. and is written as being the Only being who is Good. WE can also assume He can perform Evil Perfectly.

Remember.. Evil in this sense means Destroy.. Calamity.. Jdueg with Misfortune. etc. It does not mean that God does Wickedneses.. OF course.. that is not scriptural.

Evil and Wickedness are two different subjects that are often confused as each other.

In this sense.. if one performs Evil perfectly.. one does not Sin. But one cannot perform Wickedness without being in sin.

Just as Good is not enough to Get you into heaven.. Evil is not enough to keep you from it, ironically.

I also like to view Sin as a state of existence more than a series of offenses. It is a State of Existence of Rebellion from God.. via thinking that we are Good.. which declares that we are god. ( Because in thinking we are Good, we Judge as God judges ).

If you are in fact Good. then you are worthy both of praise.. in place of God, and also you worthy to Judge as God Judges. In this is the nature of our fallen State and of Sin.

" only the righteous shall inherit the kingdom of God"

Righteousness is simply this-

To every day acknowledge only God is Good.

In doing this we are denying our sin nature.

I believe this is also the only way to achieve Christian Joy. So the Concept of Good to me is incredibly important andincredibly under taught.

you need to study more, evil is going against god, god cannot go against himself.

There is a long tradition in Christian theology (see Augustine, Pseudo-Dionysius, Aquinas) that "evil" is a privation (i.e. deprivation) of good. It is not per se a reality; it is the LACK of full goodness, much as cold in the absence of heat, dark of light, blindness of sight, etc. Good is understood in terms of something behaving according to its proper purpose/design--thus blindness is a nautral evil, and immoral behaviors which are moral evils.

In effect, then, good is a precondition for evil. There could be goodness without evil (if ewverythinbg lived up to its intended purpose), but logically, there cannot be evil without good--you cannot have an absence of what is supposed to be if the latter never was at all!

Calling it a preconditionv is a bit different than calling it a "cause," but we can say that sin conssits of SETTLING (falling short of the mark) for less than the full complement of goodness, or perhaps for choosing a lesser good over a greater one (full communion with God). This is what makes sin tempting--we properly recognize goodness in it, but we fail to see that the goodness it offers is incomplete, and ultimately obstructs us from the full goodness. We lust, for example, but sexual desire, in the proper context, is a good. So, the desire itself is a good, but when settled for in a way that impeded the fullness of God's plan (Christian marriage which models for us God's unwavering unselfish commitment to the Church), becomes an intentional "settling" for something less than what it is intended to be--and this is sin/evil.

My twent nine cents, graybeardheadbanger