Lies Men Want to Believe – Part 3 (by Walt Henrichsen)

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“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal”  Matthew 6:19-20

The idea that God wants your love to be altruistic constitutes a third lie.  Altruism teaches that people are good with no anticipation or desire for personal gain.   This is such a pernicious and insidious lie that I invite you to review it with me.

Hope always entails personal gain.  You always hope in the direction of what you consider to be in your interest.  This means that hope and altruism are mutually exclusive.  You can only be altruistic to the degree that you are void of hope.  Those who believe that people should be altruistic repudiate the role of hope in motivating people to do what God calls good.  However, God created all people in such a way that they are motivated by hope.

Altruism insists that people learn to be motivated contrary to the way God made them.  Their premise: our job is to educate people in such a way as to correct the mistake God made when He created man.  All biblical commands assume that people are motivated by hope.  You obey God because you wish to avoid the consequences of His displeasure, and anticipate His rewarding you for your obedience.  You do not earn God’s favor by your faithfulness, but God, knowing that He created you with a desire for gain, motivates you by promising eternal rewards for living your life as His obedient slave.

People reason that justice should be defined by equality.  In a just society, people are equal.  Because people will not work as hard for what they cannot keep as they will for what they can keep, society must teach people to be altruistic; it is the only way to create a just society.