RE: Atheist Bible Study 1: Genesis
December 11, 2018 at 9:22 am
(This post was last modified: December 11, 2018 at 9:31 am by GrandizerII.)
The Jews who follow the Old Testament don't believe exactly what evangelical Christians believe regarding the nature of man and thereby the means to salvation. To the Jew, no one was always righteous, but some were considered righteous for what they did, even when at times they sinned against God. In some NT passages, righteousness is instead imputed by God to those who believe, and thus the believer is justified by faith (though some passages seem to suggest man's righteousness is a merit in its own right and thereby the believer is justified by works that complete one's faith, such as in James).
As for Lot, it's not clear to me why he was considered righteous in 2 Peter (when Genesis suggests otherwise, and God only saved Lot because he remembered Abraham). In 2 Peter, it seems like Lot was saved because of his own righteousness/godliness, which isn't even hinted at in Genesis.
Anyway, since this is about Genesis and not any of the other books in the Bible, that's all I'll say here on this matter. When/if we ever do get to those passages, then I'll have a few more things to say about the topic of righteousness in light of what those passages state.
As for Lot, it's not clear to me why he was considered righteous in 2 Peter (when Genesis suggests otherwise, and God only saved Lot because he remembered Abraham). In 2 Peter, it seems like Lot was saved because of his own righteousness/godliness, which isn't even hinted at in Genesis.
Anyway, since this is about Genesis and not any of the other books in the Bible, that's all I'll say here on this matter. When/if we ever do get to those passages, then I'll have a few more things to say about the topic of righteousness in light of what those passages state.
