Humanism or Christianity
“What man of you if his son ask bread will give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish will give him a serpent” (Mat7:9-10). “Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts” (Mat 15:19-20). “I say unto you, swear not at all” (Mat 5:34). “Or those eighteen upon whom the tower in Siloam fell and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you Nay: but except you repent, you shall all likewise perish” (Luke 13:4,5). For the humanist, man is essentially good; for the humanist, sin is a quaint archaism which he prefers to translate into modern idiom as anti-social behaviour. Social good and ill become the criteria of right and wrong.
Jesus on the other hand “needed not that any should testify of man; for he knew what was in man” (John 2:25). To the founder of Christianity, however, there is something pathetically ridiculous in man’s high-sounding oaths. With withering realism he calls attention to man’s impotence to change the colour of one of his own hairs. For the humanist, man is good; maladjusted perhaps, but essentially in control, and on his way to Utopia. For Jesus, man is evil, sinning from his heart against God, woefully weak and assigned to destruction unless he repents. Here are two philosophies opposed to each other. We must choose between them; we cannot have both. Our needs cannot be met if we refuse to acknowledge their opposition.
The early church fathers, ignoring Christ’s warning that “we shall all likewise perish” attempted a compromise with Platonism and welcomed into the church the totally unchristian doctrine of the immortality of the soul. Since then, humanism has narrowed its platform. This is not to deny beauty and greatness too much of man’s achievements nor assert that man is incapable of any good whatsoever; that would be unbalanced and unnecessarily severe. Jesus, we must remember, had a heart of compassion: he knows how to give good things to his children. But he insists that man is a broken reed as far as his own salvation and corporate weal are concerned. Paul says “When they knew God, they glorified him not as God…Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools…who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature instead of the Creator; who is blessed for ever” (Romans 1:21-25).
The Psalmist says: ”They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches; none of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him … that he should still live for ever and not see corruption” (Psalm 49:6,7,9). “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish, foolishness... For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent… and God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and the base thing of the world and things which are despised, has God chosen, yea, and the things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: that no flesh should glory in his presence” (1 Corinthians 1:18,19,27-29). “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).
Bro Isaac Kapa (Tongaren, Kenya)
