What in the world is wrong with us? Get this book?<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

By Steve Cornell

It's hard to watch the news. The bad news is endless. Each day we hear of people injuring, abusing and killing other people. We hear of nations hating other nations and plotting ways to destroy each other. Why can't people peacefully co-exist? Why is anger, hatred, and violence such a main theme of human history? We've found great solutions for many problems. Advancements in medicine and technology alone are absolutely amazing! Why can't we overcome our uglier side?
Consider the normal run of life in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />America. Why do an alarmingly large percentage of marriages fail? Why, in our well educated, prosperous country do we have so many turning to drugs and alcohol to escape the painful reality of their lives? Why are there overwhelming problems with street gangs, school violence and prisons filled beyond capacity? Crime flourishes in our land: theft, rape, murder, youth killing youth, and government leaders involved in questionable dealings - these are constant headlines in local and national news. Why do husbands abuse their wives and abandon their children? Why do many of these same children become adults who repeat the actions of their fathers? Something is clearly wrong with the human race.
Are there any solutions to these serious problems? Can anything or anyone make wrong things right? Is more or better government the answer? Should we look to education or technology? Gratefully, some help has come from these sources, but it is obvious that greater answers are needed. No century has witnessed as much evil and brutality as the 20th century - the most advanced in human history. Something is desperately wrong! 
Please believe me that I am not a pessimist. I do not savor negative analysis. I try to look at life with as much optimism as possible. And, I am strongly convinced that what I see is (to borrow the title of a book) Not the Way It's Supposed to Be. If you are looking for some insightful perception into the human condition - read this book! The author, Cornelius Plantinga, Jr., tackles the complexity of the human dilemma with great skill and honesty.  According to one review, "Professor Plantinga has accomplished the feat of writing a delightful book that probes deeply into a grim subject - human sin, in all of its multifarious disguises and stubborn ingenuity."
According to Plantinga, the main human problem is sin. He views sin as a spoiler of God's good creation. The section dealing with sin as the vandalism of shalom (peace) is worth the price of the book. Plantinga observes that "sin is a departure from the norm; deviant, perverse. An injustice, ingratitude, iniquity. It is disorder, disobedience, faithlessness, lawlessness, godlessness. It oversteps and fails to reach God's holy standard. Sin spoils the goods, stains the garments.  It is a hitch in one's gait, a wandering from the path, a fragmenting of the whole.  It is an anomaly, an intruder, a notorious gate-crasher. Sin is a parasite."
A classic illustration of the profound depths of sin is found in King David's sin of adultery with Bathsheba. When David confessed his sin, he acknowledged that his problem was deeper than his immediate actions. He said, "Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me" (Psalm 51:5). His act of adultery (and the murder of Bathsheba's husband) gave witness to his sinful nature - a nature common to every person. The scripture says, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).
Not the Way It's Supposed to Be is also a book that argues for the human need of salvation by grace alone. God's salvation reconciles what sin separates - it restores shalom. Why do relationships fail? Could the answer be that sin has been a separating force from the beginning? The "fault line" runs so clearly through the Scripture: Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Sarah and Hagar, Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob and Esau, Joseph and his brothers, David and Saul-in each case, separation and alienation defined the relationship. The pattern is clear. The fault-line runs through every human heart. Who can deny the words of the prophet Isaiah, "All of us like sheep have gone astray; each of us has turned to his own way" (Isaiah 53:6).
We don't need religion - we need to be rescued. We need redemption. We need a powerful means of reconciliation. But, as is so painfully obvious in the daily headlines, we do not have the strength, wisdom or resources to rescue ourselves. We can only be rescued by God based on his grace. And, grace is what God offers through Jesus Christ. Scripture specifically states, "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God' not as a result of works, that no one should boast" (Eph. 2:8-9).  Those who find the vocabulary of salvation distasteful have a very unrealistic and simplistic view of the human predicament.
In a classic portion, Plantinga suggests that, "… slippage in our consciousness of sin, like many fashionable follies, may be pleasant, but it is also devastating. Self deception about our sin is a narcotic, a tranquilizing and disorienting suppression of our spiritual central nervous system. What's devastating about it is that when we lack an ear for wrong notes in our lives, we cannot play right ones or even recognize them in the performance of others. Eventually we make our selves religiously so unmusical that we miss both the exposition and the recapitulation of the main themes God plays in human life. The music of creation and the still greater music of grace whistle right through our skulls, causing no catch of breath and leaving no residue. Moral beauty begins to bore us. The idea that the human race needs a Savior sounds quaint."
"The heart of sin is the persistent refusal to tolerate a sense of sin, to take responsibility for one's sin, to live with the sorrowful knowledge of it and to pursue the painful way of repentance." 
In our sophistication we may think we've grown beyond archaic ideas about sin but its destructive presence continues to disrupt peaceful existence. "In short," writes Plantinga, "for the Christian church (even in its recently popular seeker services) to ignore, euphemize, or otherwise mute the lethal reality of sin is to cut the nerve of the gospel. For the sober truth is that without full disclosure on sin, the gospel of grace becomes impertinent, unnecessary, and finally uninteresting."
Steve CornellSenior pastorMillersvilleBibleChurch
http://thinkpoint.wordpress.com/