Billy Graham newspaper column

[older]

Some months ago our newspaper started running Billy Graham's newspaper column. It's supposed to be a Q&A type thing. I usually ignore it but from time to time I look to see how sophomoric it is. I can't believe that all the questions are real; some, and their answers, are real head bangers. Here's the latest one, "Can we be good on our own, apart from God?" which is full of logical fallacies and false premises:

 

https://www.arcamax.com/healthandspirit/religion/billygraham/s-2116013

 

I might add that most of the columns I have read make me want to throw up.

[Geezer]

The fear of hell has proven to be somewhat effective when it comes to behavior modification, but only somewhat. There are certainly Christians that behave badly in spite of their fear of God and punishment.

 

The legal system with jail time & prison is also a somewhat effective when it comes to behavior modification for both Christians and secularist, but nothing is completely effective. Personal experience indicates the fear of hell tends to be most effective with those that have a fundamentalist mindset. 

[1989]

In the last paragraph I noticed that the word good was enclosed in quotation marks.  How many standards of goodness are there?  I've always defined God's good in terms of obedience.  God demands love.  God demands loyalty.  God demands sacrifice.  In return we get Heaven and eternity to... well... the Bible doesn't really say.  People's views on Heaven seem well tailored to what the particular Christian wants Heaven to be.  My mom, for example, thinks Heaven is a chance to meet up with lost family members, because there's nothing more important than family.

 

Anyway, before I get further off topic, good seems to always be what we can do for God, regardless of all the preachers saying that salvation is free and Christianity is all about what God can do for us.  But only after we've done what we can do for Him.  There's definitely a disconnect there someplace.

[TheRedneckProfessor]

There have been good people throughout all of human history who were good, moral, and upright irrespective of religion, creed or race.  Granted, most of them were deceived and were only good because the devil made them do it and now they're burning in hell because god is good.  And only god is good, so people can't be good anyway, with or without god, so, no, despite all the food people past and present, good people cannot possibly be good without god... or with him, either.