Selfishness

One of the books that had a big impact on my life coming out of high school in the mid-sixties, was Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged". (Ayn Rand was an atheist and rejected Christ sacrifice for sin because it did not make sense in her worldview. She could not comprehend the love of God offering Himself.)

It seems, even in the sixties, altruistic collectivism was passes on to us from church and school as a high goal to which we should attain. The "we" of community as a means of survival did incubate me in the safety of the group, where I could mature in relatively sheltered obscurity, but it also prevented me from thinking for myself, as to go outside the group would disturb the harmony of the same group. No,it was much safer to just go along.

I still can feel the shock of Rand's "individualism" and her championship of "selfishness" after reading Atlas Shrugged. It went against all my religious and cultural upbringing.

Even today after viewing Milton Friedman's You Tube on the goodness of greed to the health of the financial system, the inward me cautions that it might be an opposing view of following Christ. But is it?

Individual interest is crucial to our eternal state, is it not? How often is it stated that you will not enter heaven on your mother or father's faith. No, we have to individually make the choice to accept that Jesus Christ, on the cross of Calvary, paid for my sins .

Then as we "work out" the salvation that God has given us, we again have to individually choose to allow the "new creature" to rule our lives or to follow our "old creature" whose default settings are naturally embedded in the hard drive of our lives.

We will all someday, individually, have to stand before the judgement seat of Christ, and individually we are instructed to care for our own or we are "worst than an infidel."

I'm not entirely sure of my footing on this matter as it pertains to all of life, but it seems to me that the "ism's" of this world's collectivism produces bondage and tyranny, while self-individualism produces freedom of choice.

Each individuals most pressing choice is to freely choose God's provision of forgiveness and eternal life, offered to all who put their trust in His Son, Jesus Christ.

It seems freedom of individual choice is the highest of God's gifts to mankind.