Are We Good

n a popular science news website, an eye-opening article suggests that researchers are beginning to understand the psychology of why people continue practicing bad habits even after they learn those habits are harmful to them. For instance, they want to know why a smoker will continue to puff even after he recognizes that cigarettes can destroy his health. One of the top reasons listed might surprise you, even though it really shouldn’t. According to the Canadian study, much of our addiction to bad habits stems from an “innate human defiance.” In other words, inherent human rebellion! Apparently, modern science is finally ready to confirm what the Bible has taught from the beginning: Rebellion against that which is good and holy has infected our DNA. Job says, “Man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward” (5:7). Jeremiah explains, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (17:9). And Jesus affirms that our natural bent is toward evil, even if we do good things every so often. (See Luke 11:13.) Should I go on, it might get depressing. But according to Scripture, we are naturally selfish prior to our conversion. Without divine aid, we will naturally choose to be bad even though we know better. Interestingly, one of the researchers says, “People aren’t changing their behaviors. But it’s not because they haven’t gotten the information that these are big risks.” No, according to the scientists, people “tend to … live for now and into the limited future—not the long term.” Sadly, this is true for God’s people on a spiritual level. Christians are not immune to rebellion even though they know better than anyone else the destructive force of sin. This is partly because many Christians are forgetting the big picture, the great controversy, clinging to worldly compromise for the sake of “peaceful

coexistence” and the temporary comforts of this world. So I want to remind you that we need to keep looking ahead, always considering the eternal... [continues]

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