(January 30, 2018 at 4:36 pm)Catholic_Lady Wrote:(January 30, 2018 at 4:26 pm)Neo-Scholastic Wrote: I would be remiss in my duties as a Student of Swedenborg if I did not mention New Church doctrines that I believe make explicit doctrines that are tacit in other denominations.
There seems to be concern about good people going to hell, either voluntarily or by compulsion. We need to ask ourselves if it is even possible for someone to be good. In truth, people are not in-and-of-themselves good.* Whatever good anyone has comes not from him- or herself but from God working in and through them. Thus the Christian makes no claims to virtue for him or her self. In contrast to this, the non-Christian, whether religious heathen or atheist, attributes their goodness to themselves, something they have attained by their own merits. This belief subverts God's moral authority and separates someone from God because he or she is looking to themselves as the highest moral authority and not God.
The question for me is not whether a heathen or nonbeliever has tacitly accepted some kind of Christ-Incognito; but rather, if, apart from Christian doctrine, he recognizes that he is not the source of his own virtue, acknowledges some moral authority higher than himself, allows Grace to work through him, and does not claim personal credit for the good that he has done.
*similar to Total Depravity
I mean, if he is atheist then of course he's not going to know it comes from a higher power. He doesn't think one exists in the first place.
Without knowing it comes from God, the person nonetheless recognizes that it is good. And can't something be said if they embrace it and choose to live by it?
What you are describing, CL, is an empty set. No atheist I know recognizes any kind of transcendent Good and thus there is nothing for them to embrace.
