As I confront people with the gospel I find two fatal errors in the natural man's thinking. I believe as Christoans we must learn to see what is behind what people say. Because behind everything we think and say there is a presupposition or a mindset that is controlling how we perceive things. It is like that age old question: if a man is stranded on an island and has never seen a Bible or heard the name Jesus does he go to hell? The controlling idea behind that question is that God owes that man salvation or that he does'nt deserve God's judgment. My answer to that question is that I should be that man stranded on the island and I should be bound for hell. That is the proper starting point. However the first fatal error in the natural man's presupposing thoughts is that he is not evil. This is the great problem: that we would evaluate ourselves as something that we are not. The question is not, do you know that you are a sinner, but the question is: do you know that you are evil and that you set against God? Our very existence is sin (without Christ) every breath that we take is defrauding God of His glory unless He by His grace changes our situation. If a man has never seen himself as an enemy of God I find it hard to believe that he has or could come to Christ. We must first come to the reality of "oh, wretched man that I am" before we can come to the reality of "There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus". And where does this fatal presupposition come from? It comes from a miscalculation of God which is our second fatal presupposition: that God is not holy. A man falsely judges himself as good because he does not understand the holiness of God. We by nature make ourselves to be God and formulate our own standard, while neglecting the standard set by Almighty God which is perfection. God is so holy that one sin will send a man to hell forever. God abhors all sin and must judge all sin no matter how insignificant it may appear to us.
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