Reason is the dangerous thing. Someone who has not given their life over to Christ can justify anything with reason. It was people used reason that brought about the crusades. It was when people used reason that the inquisition came about. They reasoned that they had the right to torture and kill others for gain. It was not faith that lead those acts. It is when people use reason to use weaker, less informed people’s faith to profit them that is dangerous.

By doing nothing when those who are committing acts that profit them at others expenses brings about acts like 9-11. By abandoning Afghanistan when the Russians left we gave the Taliban and bin Laden the power to perform evil.

The Republican party used the word Christian but their actions prove that they are not living their lives for Christ. There is a reason that we are warned that not all who say that they are doing thing in HIS name are known by HIM. By prayer and meditation we take responsibility for our actions. By prayer we look beyond our selfish wants.

I am not a perfect person. I try to do good but I regularly fall short do to my own weaknesses. Even so I try to be as righteous I can be and ask forgiveness for my mistakes.

I also know that being a good person is not enough to pay for the sin committed against GOD. GOD does not abandon us. We chose to abandon HIM. If HE abandoned us then HE would never have sacrificed HIS son to pay the cost of that sin. The price of sin is death. A sinless man paid that price for all who accept the gift. We have free will. We can chose to accept the gift of forgiveness or not.

Your first comment on this quote was interesting- and I am glad to witness a different take on it. Wow it has been over 5 years since your first post. I became interested in this quote because of my recent understanding of the issues with sex slave trade. This quote comes directly to mind. I am righteous through Christ (Romans). Good, well I try – not for heavens sake but to be obedient, and because I love the Lord I want to please Him. My heart is deceiving and weak. I think the term ‘good’ is mostly expressed in the typical ‘Christian’ who is out to do good (which can be debated whether or not ‘he/she’ is saved) – sometimes feels like the blind leading the blind…. too weak with little faith to trust in Him and do His work. Sometimes thought of as in complacent terms, something this country has gotten a little too comfortable in. I agree with most of you the difference between righteous, perfect, and good. But, in and out, given the wide variety of good, it is still possible for ‘good men to do nothing.’

peace
T

Although I do agree with you in much of what you have written, I have to make a case of what may seem like semantics. I STRONGLY oppose the term “good” in the context of your comment. You can only appreciate it as a Christian. As a Biblical concept, the term good is subjective and therefore means next to nothing.

A great many Biblical characters were “good” people in the eyes of the world. Even Ananias and Sapphira, who were giving “almost” all the proceeds from the sale of their estate (and they were wealthy) to God in the book of Acts, yet God chose to strike them dead. Just imagine someone in modern days selling their belongings for $10 million and giving a local church $9.9 million. And even, as in case of Ananias and Sapphira, if they claimed to be giving it ALL having withheld $0.1 million – they would still be considered good people.

A good person nowadays could be as charitable as he or she can be, or perform acts of kindness that would put to shame most kind people in the world, or be more encouraging than all motivational speakers combined, etc. – as long as Christ is not present in their hearts, that “goodness” would mean next to nothing… It is a subjective term… Thus, (rhetorically) who determines whether a person is good or not? A suicide murderer is considered “good” by a vast group of people… Hitler was considered good (and still is) by a vast group of people for one reason or another… Having been raised in a Communist country, I can vouch first hand that Vladimir Lenin was loved and considered good by tens, if not hundreds, of million of people – including me at the time…

I am only using these extreme examples to make a point. There are plenty of “ordinary good people” in all of our lives, yet without Christ this means nothing…

GOODNESS IS SUBJECTIVE, RELATIVE, AND TEMPORARY… RIGHTEOUSNESS IS OBJECTIVE, ABSOLUTE, AND ETERNAL…

As well as THE truth is always objective, absolute, and eternal… It is always measured by one standard: The Word Of God…

And, returning to the topic of this discussion, I believe that the historical context of the quote prompts one to interpret “good” as “righteous”…

I also believe that it is not the Good that is antonymous to Evil, but it is rather Righteous (not from poetic or grammatical perspectives, but from the spiritual one).

Unlike you, I know of no “righteous men who are far from good”. Do not mean to sound judgmental toward them, but they might be Pharisaically righteous, which is simply a hypocritical righteousness.

Basically, what truly matters is to be “good” in the eyes of Christ and to be Christlike… And THAT is what will cause one to be good period… Even in the eyes of the people of the world, and not the other way around.

I apologize for being so long-winded. Believe me, I could go on… but I’ll stop here so as not to disperse my point…

I am somewhat glad that YOUR “works” will not go beyond your websites comments… This will your “great” contribution for posterity! I really want to call you an idiot, but that would be a compliment… (I really hope that you have not “oozed out” anything publishable with your PRIMITIVE concepts).

Get a life!!!

Wasn’t this a primary point of Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan? That men need to be good to each other (not the whole point of course, because there is much deeper meaning in that parable).

“What if there are no good men”. Well, eventually that may be the case. But for now we know that there are good men and women — lots of them. We also know that there is innate good in almost everybody (I don’t say that man is innately good — because this is patently false. But only that there is a seed of good in most people. As proof I offer how easily bad people can be good to their family, or how even hardened criminals in prison respond with anger to pedophiles).

I think it is wise for the Christian community to embrace an old Arabian concept in certain matters — “The enemy of my enemy is my friend”. When good people stand against evil, we as Christians need to recognize and support this goodness as a common bridgepoint.

humm …
ok …

this question is very interesting to me .
there is the god who has created the world in order to let its creation keep following its will and to live in its promised land .

we chose not to follow its rule and its will so that we will be judged by the god .

after that ,we should have been dead ,we shall be dead .
we should already have a judgement before it punishes all of us and it should already have made a judgement for everyone .

but there was a man who tries to follow its rule and its will from the beginning to the end . this man was the jesus christ .

and he claimed that he is the son of god . what he have done was all about salvation

he was willing to have given his life to the god in order to save us away from devil or something else and he was willing to give all of us the chance to live so that we are now free to go .

he became a bridge between all of us and the god ,and he gave us a deal with the god .

now ,we can make our own choice whether be a good man or not which means no more god’s will and no more god’s rule .

it is because of the god does not know how to make its creation stop to do everything it would not like to see .

it is also about the decision that the god had made .
it had chosen to let its son die for us in order to keep all of us alive so that we are still free to go now .

where is the god ? it has gone for long long time .
what was the jesus christ done ? he has just done what he want to do .no more , no less .

that is why i said “the god has left in africa” whether there are christians or not . in fact it should be “the god has already left all of us”

no matter the god or the jesus christ has done ,that is nothing to do with us now .

the jesus christ has just demonstrated what the definitely righteous human is and what the real truth is .

so now … we have a new question . what is good man ? what is bad man ?
i believe that there is no second one who can be the same as the jesus christ .

now, you got the answer .
the god only choose the one , jesus christ , being its son forever .
all of us or rest of us is still guilty forever until we die .

there is no more good man in the world , only if every one of us can be the same as the jesus christ .then , we could say “there is a good man in the world” .

to someone who has felt having been set up .
they would say “there is no good man in the world”
to someone who has not felt having been set up.
they would say “there might be some good men in the world”

because there is no one who can proudly say “he is a good man” except the jesus christ .

in the other hand ,what is good ? what kind of rules about to be a good man do you accept ?how can you measure everything you see that is good ?

at least ,i think the bible that is just a way for measurement .
and i believe that is just what the jesus christ would let us see .

the bible is meaningless ,it is just a kind of standard which could let us refer to it .that is all .

to be honest with you ,to protect anything you like or to protect whatever you have is our natural instinct .

who can decide the rule that should be followed by every one of us ?
no one , only one oneself can do it for oneself .

that is why i said “the jesus christ was the one who tried to be the one forever and ever.”

and that is also why i said “that is why we call those rules which had been written on the paper by his followers the bible.”

what if there is another one who is chosen to be the god or to be another jesus christ for somebody .
then , what this one will do will always be correct to them .

finally ,i realized that the truth of that quote “the only thing necessary for triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing” is totally bullshit .

if the jesus christ were still alive ,he should now be ruling us almost for two thousand years .

and we should never die .and why do we have to be judged by him or the god ?

even if we shall die before we try to be good men or we try to believe those rules , there is no other reason for us to think of the judgement’s day . without the god’s will , we still need to keep alive in the world no matter the world will be . without a judgement of the jesus christ , we still need to make any decision for our own choices no matter what we will get.

and when will the day come ? when will the jesus christ come back ?
the god has given a new life to its son once. now , where is the son of god ?

have you ever seen him ?
who is against whom ?

since all of us is evil , by definition of the bible .
whoever one is against whomever one ,you ,me ,he ,she . but not the god and the jesus christ .

they are just two nouns to us .

the god does nothing . the jesus christ did not come back .
even if he did come back ,what is all about ?

nothing ,we will still die ,we will be judged by him ,we are still guilty when we were born .

what is different between before he die and after he is dead ?
none .

the bible is just the rules to help us make a judgement for our behavious .that is all .

by the way .
how about my english ?
i think that it is not so good .

maybe ,you will say “you are a noob” . he he he
i just said what i feel .
no offense .
any suggetion , any advice and any comment are welcomed .

I might actually suggest you to check out what Christianity is about.

that is also the truth of what you were discussing about if all of us was not communist .

maybe you would like to think of this question in this way .

if all of us was a christian ,there would no longer have needed the god .
if all of us was good enough ,the god should have done what it want to do for us already.

the conclusion will be about the rules of what the son of the god ,jesus chirst , had made is unable to be changed.

that is why we call those rules which had been written on the paper by his followers bible.

and the jesus chirst was the one who tried to be the one forever and ever.