Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Fallible Wesley
“Faith guided his [Michael Faraday] conduct; reason and experiment guided his work. The philosophical and behavioral strictures of the Sandemanians served to channel Faraday’s abundant energy toward his scientific pursuits. In particular, the Sandemanian belief in human fallibility permitted him to fearlessly explore frontiers of science, with full knowledge that some of his conjectures would be overturned. There was no purpose in hitching his ego to the correctness of his conclusions. Faraday noted Job’s admonition in his personal Bible: ‘If I justify myself, mine own mouth shall condemn me; if I say, I am perfect, it shall also prove me perverse’ (Job 9:20)” (Hirshfeld, The Electric Life of Michael Faraday)
Human fallibility is one of the most important concepts of Christianity. Where salvation through Jesus Christ, who is God, therefore perfect, is probably the most important concept of Christianity, human fallibility explains why everyone needs Christ.
“There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God.” (Romans 3:10, 11 NIV)
Paul is quoting Psalm 14:1-3. In that same passage, Paul quotes parts of five Psalms, Isaiah, and Ecclesiastes. All speak of the human error. As an aside: returning back a few posts to aletheia (truth), the question was asked if truth can be found. On your own, the answer is no. The answer is still no for even an entire inquisitive world. No one understands, and no one seeks God.
Can you say, “Sorry, I was wrong”? Many times it is hard for me. Today I was shown how I was wrong. After much convincing, I had to agree. The hard part was going to the two or three people I had shown my analysis to and took it to be right. I said I was wrong way too much today. :-D
Human fallibility is more profound than doing an engineering problem wrong. That kind of human error does not have substantial spiritual consequences. Erroneousness pertaining to God’s desires is what matters. But if no one seeks God or understands, how can we know God’s desires? Good question … for next time.
Human fallibility is one of the most important concepts of Christianity. Where salvation through Jesus Christ, who is God, therefore perfect, is probably the most important concept of Christianity, human fallibility explains why everyone needs Christ.
“There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God.” (Romans 3:10, 11 NIV)
Paul is quoting Psalm 14:1-3. In that same passage, Paul quotes parts of five Psalms, Isaiah, and Ecclesiastes. All speak of the human error. As an aside: returning back a few posts to aletheia (truth), the question was asked if truth can be found. On your own, the answer is no. The answer is still no for even an entire inquisitive world. No one understands, and no one seeks God.
Can you say, “Sorry, I was wrong”? Many times it is hard for me. Today I was shown how I was wrong. After much convincing, I had to agree. The hard part was going to the two or three people I had shown my analysis to and took it to be right. I said I was wrong way too much today. :-D
Human fallibility is more profound than doing an engineering problem wrong. That kind of human error does not have substantial spiritual consequences. Erroneousness pertaining to God’s desires is what matters. But if no one seeks God or understands, how can we know God’s desires? Good question … for next time.
# posted by Wesley Son of Cornelius @ 11:42 PM 
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I think that we all struggle with admitting that we are wrong. I know that personally I do not like to own up to it sometimes. I think it takes a lot of courage to go back and admit your mistake to others. As for spiritually all we can do is pray, that though we might fumble and stumble over our words, that the Holy Spirit will help us to speak the words that God wants said (or at least that they will hear what he says, not us!)
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