Many devout, serious and genuine Christians are of the Calvinist persuasion. This makes allowance for the fact that most of them deny being Calvinists. Yet, as the saying goes, “If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.” That is how I always heard it. According to a site called Quora the original is a bit longer,
“I can’t prove you are a Communist. But when I see a bird that quacks like a duck, walks like a duck, has feathers and webbed feet and associates with ducks—I’m certainly going to assume that he IS a duck.”Theologians have a problem with the idea of righteousness. They tend to quote the Apostle Paul when he wrote,
(Rom 3:10 KJV) As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:Paul is theoretically quoting the Old Testament and a suggested verse is,
(Psa 14:1 KJV) To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.The problem with this is the problem with any eisegetical proof texting, it ignores a host of other scripture that must be included to come to an understanding. In the same chapter of Psalms it says,
(Psa 14:5 KJV) There were they in great fear: for God is in the generation of the righteous.My mind got off on this rabbit trail because I was counting my blessings and I really can’t believe that God blesses me so much because I deserve it. Or maybe I do.
Anyway, I got off on the question of how do we define righteousness. It occurred to me that we have a problem with righteousness the same way that the current crop of woke Proregressives* have a problem with America. In both cases people are comparing reality to Utopia. When people find fault with the United States of America they compare it to some fantasy land that is called Utopia. They don’t compare it to any real country because they know they will come up short. The same with righteousness.
I believe it is possible to live a righteous life. It may not be utopian but it is a standard that God gave us along with the ability to live that way.
homo unius libri
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Comments are welcome. Feel free to agree or disagree but keep it clean, courteous and short. I heard some shorthand on a podcast: TLDR, Too long, didn't read.