The PuritanBoard - View Single Post - Are unsaved people capable of selfless acts?

toddpedlar · #14 (**permalink**) 05-17-2008, 05:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pergamum

An unsaved soldier jumping on a grenade to save his friends is a good act. Or an unsaved firefighter saving a baby from a burning building.

Good does not mean meritorious and I think that God's commmon grace allows these acts and that God even gives the strength in the unbeleiver to prform these acts.

Of course, there is enough sin in the prayers of the saints to damn them.... but I do think we can call some acts "good" whoever they are performed by, even if only a civil good.

God doesn't have to give strength to do "selfless" things, and while benefit may derive to someone from someone else's actions, the actions themselves aren't properly called "good". Many charities exist that are nothing more than people giving glory to the creature rather than God - and through them God does provide, while at the same time the unbelievers working for said charities are digging their own graves. To serve man only for the purpose of serving one's fellow man is sin - to give away one's worldly possessions in order to help out another person is nothing if Christ is not in it. We certainly can use the word "good" but recognize that it's only stubble without God's Spirit.