What Man Can Do

The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is? (Jeremiah 17:9, NLT 2015).

My Musings – “Knowing yourself means knowing, first, what it is to be a person; secondly, knowing what it is to be the kind of person you are; and thirdly, knowing what it is to be the person you are and nobody else is. Knowing yourself means knowing what you can do; and since nobody knows what they can do until they try, the only clue to what man can do is what man has done. The value of history, then, is that it teaches us what man has done and thus what man is.” (R.G. Collingwood, Oxford philosopher, historian, and archaeologist, 1889-1943).

Part of this quote, “the only clue to what man can do is what man has done,” is shown at the end of the movie Nuremberg, which depicts the trial of Nazi Germany’s high command following World War II. As wicked as these times were, they were not the worst of times. The worst of times were those leading up to the flood. “The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.” (Genesis 6:5, NIV 1984). With recent claims that the holocaust never happened, it is not surprising it is also claimed that the flood never happened. But both did. The “value of history” is to not deny it.

What man had done preceding the flood, was clearly an indication of what man could do in World War II and in other “wars and rumors of war.” It also includes other deceitful evils like taking the lives of unborn children. Since the flood, there has always been some “good” that has pushed back against evil. Yet as time marches on, the distinction between good and evil in our culture continues to blur. A clear demonstration that “the human heart is [indeed] the most deceitful of all things.” Blind to the Bible’s unmistakable warning, “woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.” (Isaiah 5:20, NIV 1984).

The Age of Reason has not succeeded in enlightening the hearts of mankind. If it had, then it might have been reasonable to expect that The Great War would have been the war to end all wars. That is until it had to be renamed World War I. Today, we are possibly closer to World War III than we have ever been since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. With it getting harder and harder to determine who the “good” guys are. So, perhaps, we may be the generation that witnesses the real war to end all wars. “I saw the beast and the kings of the earth, and their armies gathered together to make war against the rider [Christ] on the horse and his army.” (Revelation 19:19, NIV 1984).

Of course, “no one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.” (Matthew 24:36–37, NIV 1984). To a certain extent, things will go on as before. “People [will be] eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to [that] day.” (Matthew 24:38, NIV 1984). But in other respects, not so much. Once again “every inclination…only evil all the time.” Knowing “nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.” (Matthew 24:39, NIV 1984).

How can this possibly be? Because “The human heart [really] is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?” Not those who persist in “[calling] evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.” How can anyone know “how bad it is” when there is no longer any acceptance of absolute truth? That only Jesus is “the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through [Him].” (John 14:6, NIV 1984).

My Advice – God knows the human heart. That it is “desperately wicked,” or as another translation reads, “beyond cure.” That what cannot be cured, must be replaced. The promise to ancient Israel can be ours today. “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.” (Ezekiel 36:25–27, NIV 1984).

A new heart. A righteous heart. “a righteousness from God, apart from law… This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.” (Romans 3:21–22, NIV 1984). “To be the person you are and nobody else” is wrong. “What man [must] do” is put their “faith in Jesus Christ.” It is the only way to break the pattern of “what man has done,” because of what Jesus did.

Want to learn more about the “war to end all wars?” Read my series, “Studies in Revelation.”