Is Mankind Born Naturally Good?

It has been my experience that current life experiences enable me to recall foolish things that someone has shared in the past. The foolish statement from the past I recall was uttered by a former CEO of my company in the middle 1990s. Just to be clear, he was an individual who came to my company by way of an acquisition and ascended to the CEO position by clever political maneuvering and other Machiavellian means. Soon after becoming CEO, he called a management meeting where he shared his optimistic vision for his new administration and paraphrased Jean-Jaques Rousseau’s teaching that mankind is born naturally good and is destined to live and act in a virtuous way if he is educated and allowed to develop naturally. I have no idea if the CEO actually believed Rousseau's philosophy, but I am certain he thought it was a great cultural sound byte! In any event, this collided with my Christian Biblical world view in Jeremiah 17:9 and Romans 3:10-12 which makes clear that man is not born naturally good but is in fact born with a sin nature and is destined to commit sin. And just to be clear, this CEO’s business acumen was no better than his theology as my company’s stock price slid to under $5.00 per share on the New York Stock Exchange before he was mercifully “retired” from his position.

So, what was my current life experience that caused me to recall the foolish comments made by my company’s prior CEO? It was a recent trip my wife Cathy and I took to Germany which included a visit to the notorious Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site. Initially, Dachau was established by the Adolph Hitler Nazi regime in 1933 to imprison and re-educate political opponents of the Nazis. As the Nazi regime strengthened and its persecution expanded, the Dachau Concentration Camp expanded to include Jews, homosexuals, clergy who opposed Adolph Hitler, and members of religious sects. Over 200,000 prisoners passed through Dachau and over 30,000 deaths were documented while the actual number was likely far higher. Dachau was infamous for extreme overcrowding; malnutrition and starvation; severe beatings and executions; and horrific medical experiments involving drug testing and exposure to extreme environmental conditions. Thankfully, on April 29, 1945, Dachau was liberated by the United States Seventh Army.

To their credit, our local German guides were candid and transparent in describing the horror and evil of Adolph Hitler’s Nazi regime. There was no sugar coating. It was obviously a painful discussion for them to conduct about a very dark period of history in their country that brought great shame and embarrassment to the German people. Even after 80 years following its liberation, the moral and sinful depravity of Dachau cast a dark pall during our visit. I was thankful to have the opportunity to visit this Hell Hole pictured below but also relieved when the visit concluded.

What did I learn from the experience? First, a chilling reaffirmation that man is not born naturally good but is in fact born with a sin nature that can result in deadly and horrific consequences. Second, while the 1933-1945 period of Nazi rule in Germany may be one of the best-known examples of evil, it is certainly not alone. The Stalin regime in Russia executed millions of Russian citizens, and the leaders in Iran and North Korea have murdered thousands of their own citizens. Third, lest anyone in America feel smug, the United States has its own shameful legacy of slavery. All of this should make clear to Christians that man is weighted down by a sin nature from birth and heading toward a dark place in eternity unless redeemed through faith in Jesus Christ.

I will have more to share about my visit to Germany in future blogs. In the meantime, God bless you and thank you for the privilege of your time in reading my blog.