In answer to the video "Sin and Salvation, Part 5 - Paradise in Islam"
Man chooses to sin Isa66:3-4, against his good nature Eccl7:29, just as he can
Ps34:14"Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it".This is illustrated through the story of Abel and Cain. In
Gen4:7"Is it not so that if you improve, it will be forgiven you? If you do not improve, however, at the entrance, sin is lying, and to you is its longing, but you can rule over it",God speaks to Cain and tells him that good and evil are his choices and that he should choose good. God tells Cain that he can master evil and avoid falling in sin, it is an advise to choose the right path or face the consequences of sin. There are therefore 2 possibilities depending on Cain's choice.
If God tells him that he must master evil it means it is in his capability, that there is no sinful nature unwillingly imposed on him preventing him from doing any type of good and following a command from God, otherwise why would He tell him to master his evil thoughts, why would God tell him to do something impossible to him and punish him for failing. Later, Cain chooses to sin by killing his brother.
This was done out of his freewill, and his failure to master his evil tendency does not mean that he didnt have the ability to do any good. If it was the case, God would not have told him that good and evil were his own choices, nor order him to master evil or face the consequence of his sin. The most prevalent theme in the Jewish scriptures is that God relates to people according to their deeds, both good and bad. The sinful nature of man does not cancel out any good that we do, the actions of men find favor in the eyes of God Gen26:4. David is pointed as an example of righteousness that others should follow 1Kings11:38. This does not mean that he was sinless - he wasn’t. But it does mean that his sins did not nullify the good that he did. God chose to save life on this planet through the handiwork of the righteous Noah. Noah’s ark, which was built by Noah’s obedient action, was the means through which God recreated the world. The message is clear
Prov10:25"And the righteous one is the foundation of the world".
Just like in Islam, freewill is a foundation of Judaism. From the very beginning, mankind's original design already included the capability of free will. The textual proof of this in the HB is that God issued a commandment to Adam; God doesnt issue pointless commandments and - if mankind lacked the free will to obey or disobey - then every commandment would be pointless.
Deut30:19"I call heaven and earth to bear witness this day, for I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Therefore, choose life, so that you and our children may live"
Lamentations3:38"Evil and good come not from the mouth of the Most High. Why then should a living man complain, a strong man, because of his sins?"this explains that if a person chooses evil and fails to heed the call to righteousness, he has no cause to complain, for the decision is his alone.
As to
Isa64:5“and all our righteousness (are) as filthy rags.”Its a long prayer of confession where Isaiah compares the righteousness of a SINFUL generation to filthy rags. It isnt speaking in general. The prayer continues by asking God to return to His servants and have mercy on the righteous sons of Jacob (63:17). As is clear, the passage doesnt dismiss all people's righteous deeds as useless, only those coming from insincere and sinful people. This isnt something strange, whether Jesus or the Quran would equally later denounce religious hypocrisy.
Ps14,53 "The Lord looked down..There is none that does good, no, not one."but the psalm continues
"Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? Those who eat up my people as they would eat bread, and call not upon the Lord"although the psalmist uses “the children of men” and “all”, he is only talking about the “workers of iniquity”, and is clearly excluding “my people.”
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