The best advice I can give you is this: church traditions, when they do not run counter to the faith, should be observed in the form in which previous generations have handed them down; and the usage of one church is not to be annulled because it is contrary to that of another.
"The line dividing good and evil runs down the middle of every human heart."
I've read this Solzhenitsyn quote many times. It is only true of God's elect who have been born again. At that point, rather than only having a capacity for the "evil" part, we neither know nor have any capacity for the "good". There are, therefore, at any point in time, an unknown number of folks completely unencumbered by any goodness, seeking out only evil continually - kept in check only by the hand of God almighty. This number is made up of the non-elect, and God's own whom he has not yet, in His sovereign grace, regenerated (to be born again).
It is, I believe, important for us to account for this. There are those of us struggling to know and to do good, but there absolutely are folks out there, whose "wickedness...[is] great on the earth, and that every imagination of [their] thoughts of [their] heart [is] only evil continually".
Some of us have the "new man" to battle against this "old man". The rest do not. We should be wise as serpents, but harmless as doves.
Ron, I agree that some of us have the new man to help us in this battle, while some do not. But only psychopaths practice only evil, always. Throughout my studies, including the Sermon on the Mount, it is discussed by the authors (especially Lloyd-Jones), that we see people who remain "old man" do *seemingly* good deeds. It is in this context that I take the quote.
I have, in the past somewhat modified Solzhenitsyn's quote, because "down the middle of every heart" implies we are all 50/50 good/evil (if thought of physically). I write that it goes through every heart, but for some of us it is more on one extreme edge than for others.
I would disagree with Lloyd-Jones. If a person demonstrates any fruit of the Spirit at all, of which goodness is one, they are born again (elect) children of God. Goodness is a moral quality. We cannot do goodness, apart from the Holy Spirit residing in us.
The inescapable conclusion is, if we observe that "most" people at least occasionally do "good" deeds, then we are observing that most people have been born again, regardless of how much their overall walk is "in the Spirit".
Now, with that said, we must distinguish between the goodness of the deed vs. the goodness of the outcome of the deed. The Lord can work our evil for good.
With all of this said, of course we cannot look on the heart - only God knows who is one sort and who is another.
"The line dividing good and evil runs down the middle of every human heart."
I've read this Solzhenitsyn quote many times. It is only true of God's elect who have been born again. At that point, rather than only having a capacity for the "evil" part, we neither know nor have any capacity for the "good". There are, therefore, at any point in time, an unknown number of folks completely unencumbered by any goodness, seeking out only evil continually - kept in check only by the hand of God almighty. This number is made up of the non-elect, and God's own whom he has not yet, in His sovereign grace, regenerated (to be born again).
It is, I believe, important for us to account for this. There are those of us struggling to know and to do good, but there absolutely are folks out there, whose "wickedness...[is] great on the earth, and that every imagination of [their] thoughts of [their] heart [is] only evil continually".
Some of us have the "new man" to battle against this "old man". The rest do not. We should be wise as serpents, but harmless as doves.
Ron, I agree that some of us have the new man to help us in this battle, while some do not. But only psychopaths practice only evil, always. Throughout my studies, including the Sermon on the Mount, it is discussed by the authors (especially Lloyd-Jones), that we see people who remain "old man" do *seemingly* good deeds. It is in this context that I take the quote.
I have, in the past somewhat modified Solzhenitsyn's quote, because "down the middle of every heart" implies we are all 50/50 good/evil (if thought of physically). I write that it goes through every heart, but for some of us it is more on one extreme edge than for others.
I would disagree with Lloyd-Jones. If a person demonstrates any fruit of the Spirit at all, of which goodness is one, they are born again (elect) children of God. Goodness is a moral quality. We cannot do goodness, apart from the Holy Spirit residing in us.
The inescapable conclusion is, if we observe that "most" people at least occasionally do "good" deeds, then we are observing that most people have been born again, regardless of how much their overall walk is "in the Spirit".
Now, with that said, we must distinguish between the goodness of the deed vs. the goodness of the outcome of the deed. The Lord can work our evil for good.
With all of this said, of course we cannot look on the heart - only God knows who is one sort and who is another.