“Most men will proclaim every one his own goodness:
but a faithful man who can find?” ~Proverbs 20:6 (KJV)
[in need of editing]
Would you like to find out if you truly are a good person? Most men believe they are.
It is easy to do. It all depends upon who you compare yourself to.
And whose standard you use to test your own goodness.
Everyone seems to have their own standard to help them adjust the scale in their own: 1) weak areas of character development, 2) personality deficiencies, and 3) immaturities. By their own standard & adjustments, they somehow come out looking pretty good, especially when they compare themselves to Hitler, Charles Manson, Mussolini, or Jeffrey Dahmer.
Now, what if we use God’s Eternal Standard–The One He uses to qualify us, to see if we have prepared ourselves and are ready (and acceptable) to Enter Into His Eternal, Perfect, and Holy Kingdom–where no falsehood, no lies, no false motives, no selfish dealings, and no fake religion exists? What if we choose to use His Quick and Simple Perfect Standard? How many of your friends would pass with flying colors, and make it in on their own merits?
You may be surprised.
Ready to take the test? The most important issue here is: Can you be open and answer the questions honestly? Otherwise the test will be fraudulent and of no value whatsoever.
The Good Person Test
Question #1: How many lies have your told in you entire life? (Be honest.) What do you call someone who tells lies? (Remember, time does not erase the crime.) If you have told multiple lies (to your parents, to your friends, to your teachers, to your children, to your boss, etc.), what does that make you? If you are honest, you will confess, that makes you a liar. You have broken the 9th Commandment of God. Do you believe, you, aa a liar, are a good person?
Question #2: Have you every taken anything that was not yours regardless of the value? What do you call someone who takes things without permission? A Thief, right? It’s called theft or stealing. If you have done this typically your conscience with bring that thing to mind that you have stolen. If you steal things, what are you? Yes. A Thief. In fact, a lying-thief. You have broken the 8th Commandment of God. Do you still believe you, as a lying-thief, you are a good person? Remember, time does not erase the crime.
Question #3: Have you ever looked with lust (sexual desire) upon another person who was not your spouse? Yeshua (Jesus) said, whoever looks with lust upon another person (not their spouse), has already committed adultery in their heart. Have you ever done that? Then you have broken the 7th Commandment, and probably the 10th Commandment–thou shalt not covet … (lust for, deeply desire). Do you still believe you, as a lying-thriving-coveteous-adulterer at heart, are a good person? So far you have most likely broken 4 of the 10 commandments, and we have only looked at 4. You are on a role 4-for-4.
Exodus 20:17 (KJV) Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass [nor his Corvette], nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.
Question #4: Have you ever used the LORD’s Name in Vain, or made or used any reference to God in an unholy manner? The LORD’s Name translated YAHWEH, etc. (YHWH) is the Holiest Word in the Hebrew Scriptures, written nearly 7,000 times in 1,000 pages (on average). To use his name as a cuss word to express disgust is sacrilege and blasphemy–a very serious sin punishable by death under the Old Testament Hebrew Law. If you have used His Name if Vain, what does that make you? A Blasphemer. You have broken the 3rd Commandment of God. Do you still believe you are a good person? A living, thieving, covetous, adulterer and blasphemer at heart?
Definitions:
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- sac·ri·lege| [ˈsakrəlij]. A noun: a violation or misuse of what is regarded as sacred.
- blas·phe·my. [ˈblasfəmē]. A noun: (plural blasphemies) the act or offense of speaking sacrilegiously about God or sacred things; profane talk. (source: Apple Dictionary)
So far we have looked briefly at only 5 of the 10 commandments. And if you are honest you will most likely have admitted, by your own confession that: you are a Lying, Thieving, Blasphemous, Covetous, Adulterer at Heart. Do you still believe you are a good person, according to the Commandments of God? For the majority of people they will be five for five.
If God were to justly judge you, right now, by only these five commandments, would you be innocent or guilty?
If God were to justly punish you, according to the crimes you have committed against His Law, giving you what you have earned so far, by breaking his commandments, would he rightfully send you to heaven or hell to receive the reward you have earned?
Now be honest. What do you deserve? Remember, in a court of a law, a criminal is not judged by his good deeds–he is judged only by the criminal laws that he has broken. The criminal can say to the Judge. “Judge, I know I have broken the Law. I have lied, coveted, stolen, committed adultery, fornicated, and blasphemed your name many, many times, but Judge, in my heart, I know I am a good person. And oh, I have also committed murder and rape, but that was all in the past.”
The Judge (if he is a good & righteous Judge), will have to convict the man who is a criminal according to the crimes he has committed. The Judge must punish those crimes according to the dictates of the law. A just Judge who is impartial can not soft pedal on the punishment, even if He Loves the Criminal, even if the Criminal is His Own Son. The Crime has been committed therefore Justice for the crime must be paid.
Do you know what wages or just earnings the criminal shall receive from Breaking God’s Eternal Laws? We will answer that in a minute. Let’s look at a few more commandments, first.
Question #5: Have you ever murdered anyone? Yeshua said, “if you hate a person in your heart, you have already committed murder in your heart towards that person. Have you ever hated someone in your heart? Have you ever thought or said out loud, “I wish ‘so and so’ was dead!”? Or I wish they would Go to Hell! Have you ever told anyone: ‘Go to Hell!’? (Does any person pop into your mind?) If you have, Yeshua, says, it as though you have committed murder in your heart. Hating someone in your heart is a severe act. This behavior won’t be allowed in Heaven, you must rid yourself of this sickness before climbing the pearly stair to the pearly gates. The Way to get free from hatred is too forgive. (See Richard Wurmbrand video–it is very poignant on this point.)
The Law of the Messiah, is that you must forgive others their crimes/wrongs against you, just as God will forgive you your crimes against him–on this one condition: you forgive others all of their crimes against you. God also emphasizes the fact that if you do not forgive others their crimes against you, God will not forgive you your crimes against him. This should only be seen as reasonable, many stumble here because they really hate the people who have harmed them and really don’t want to forgive those who have done wrong to them. “My heavenly Father will also do the same to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart.” Matthew 18:35 (Do what? What will the Father do to you … and or me if I do not forgive others? Read Matthew 18 to find out.)
Please Note: the Only way you can commit physical murder or physical adultery, is that you have already committed spiritual murder or adultery in your mind first. These are pre-meditated crimes–complicated and involved crimes. You don’t just fall of a chair and commit these crimes. You must think about them, plan them, nurture them, fantasize about them, and when the right moment comes along you execute them. If you ever fantasize about either of these you are just one step closer to doing them.
Question #6: Have you ever disobeyed your parents? Ever lied to them? Ever dishonored them? Ever rob them? Ever hate them in your heart? Ever think evil about them? It’s OK you can be honest with yourself and God he already knows anyways. If you have … you’ve broken the fifth commandment, which commands you “to honor your father and mother, so that it may go well with you, and that you will live long in the land the Lord your God has given you.” Living long includes: receiving the many blessings of God upon yourself and your family relationships, that they would be full and rich, deeply bonded and well protected, close interpersonal relationships. I must say this is a very rare thing in modern society. Even in some of the best homes and families especially the wealthy ones, there is a little honor from the heart in today’s homes–everyone is divided from one another. It’s like an epidemic worldwide. Malachi prophesies about this in the final chapter, in the final book of the Old Testament.
“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet
before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD:
6 And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children,
and the heart of the children to their fathers,
lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.
Malachi 4:5-6 (KJV)
This prophetic picture has been fulfilled several times in world history among the nations, but it also happens in individual families and individual lives. It is a phenomena that leads people into the Salvation of God, without it we would only be under a curse–the complete and final rejection of God. With it, there is hope for individuals, families, and even nations to repent, and do what God has always required, before the Time of Judgement (a great and terrible Day of the Lord) that has.been promised from the Beginning which will come upon each and every one of us.
It is important to Note: In God’s House, Leadership, discipline and doing your duty to God and man is extremely important. God has appointed parents with the duty to raise their children in “the training and admonition of the Lord.” (Ephesian 6:4) Parents are accountable directly to God for the way they have chose to train and discipline their children. And Children are directly accountable to the their parents, until they reach the age of accountability, then they themselves will also be accountable directly to the LORD Yaweh, Himself.
Question #7: Have you ever made up a God of your own? Many people do. They don’t like the ideas about God out there, so they simple make up a god of their own. They can even set themselves up as the god of their own life–Basic Atheisim 101. This is nothing new. Every time a person makes up his own god, he breaks the 1st, and 2nd Commandments.
Thou shalt have no other gods before me. 4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: 5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; 6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. Exodus 20:3-6 (KJV)
Please note: god does not say that there are NOT things under the sea, beneath the earth, or in heavenly realms, that have not been worshiped. In fact these strange beings have been worshiped–throughout the ages. These beans love the attention, the adoration, and the reverence of worship and they command obedience to their will and their ways, but Make no mistake. Whatever you call them: ascended masters, highly intelligent aliens, advanced life forms, angels of light, demons, the fallen ones, Lucifer’s Warlords, they are not gods, and God has commanded you not to bow, not to reverence, and not to worship these beings–don’t listen to them, don’t even debate them. Just command them to leave your presence, immediately, and emphatically. More on this subject under spiritual warfare.
No if you have committed the crime of breaking the first and second commandment of god in essence you are in that breaking all the commandments of God. If you truly keep and obey the first two commandments of God, in essence you will keep and obey all the commandments of God.
A Pharisee one day asked Jesus to tell him the first and most important commandment.
Matthew 22:37-40 (KJV) Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
The first and greatest commandment is to love the Lord thy God with all the hard all day mind and all the strength, and the second is like an onto it, to love they neighbor as they self.
If this has happened to you, you have committed the first and foremost horrific mistaken in you spiritual life. This one crime is what precedes all other crimes, all others lies, all others
Now be honest. What do you deserve? Remember, in a court of a law, a criminal is not judged by his good deeds–he is judged only by the criminal laws that he has broken. The criminal can say to the Judge. “Judge, I know I have broken the Law. I have lied, coveted, stolen, committed adultery, fornicated, and blasphemed your name many, many times, but Judge, in my heart, I know I am a good person. And oh, I have also committed murder and rape, but that was all in the past.”
As has been said, The Judge–if he is a good & righteous Judge–will have to convict the man who is a criminal according to the crimes he has committed. The Judge must punish those crimes according to the dictates of the law. A just Judge who is impartial can not soft go on the punishment, even if He Loves the Criminal, even if the Criminal is His Own Son. The Crime has been committed and Justice for the crime must be paid.
In my case
My crimes needed to be paid, I was sentenced to be whipped, and then nailed to a cross and then to hang there until dead. That was my just punishment. There was no way around it. That was what my crime demanded. My crime had to be paid.
But in this case, the Judge came down off his Judgement seat. He came down and met me face to face. He told me to take off my clothes, I did. Then He put on my clothes. He put on my belt, shirt and jacket and tie and shoes, then He was hand cuffed, and led away to be whipped and then nailed to a cross, and to hang there until dead.
I could not fathom what was happening. There was so much commotion. So many people screaming: “It’s not Fair!”
I had just met the Judge once briefly before. Ever since then, I did everything he told me to do. I never expected or even dreamed he would exchange clothes with me. He taking on my rags of sin. And me taking on his Robe of Righteousness. I could not fathom it. What about His wife, His Children, His Home, Family, Life. He gave it all away for me! He took my punishment.
and punish those crimes to the correct and full extent of the Law–to fulfill all justice, righteous, holiness, and human equity.
-if the judge is righteous and impartial, he must pour out the judgement required to punish the criminal for the crime committed.
Do you know what wages or just earnings the criminal shall receive from Breaking God’s Eternal Laws? We will answer that in a minute. Let’s look at a few more commandments, first.