Does Holy Spirit using the “righteous” and the “unrighteous” 521 - 7 - 3

For some, the thought of the Holy Spirit using the “righteous” and the “unrighteous” is a new concept. Reflections on When I witnessed this in my life.

I had written a DQ#8 for Romans Part 2 that dealt with Maslow's hierarchy of needs, a theory by Abraham Maslow presented in his paper, "A Theory of Human Motivation." I added the remark that decades later I can still remember the impression that this theory made on me as a young college student. The hierarchy of needs form a pyramid with physiological needs at the lowest level. Safety needs, love and belonging and esteem are higher levels of needs topping out with self-actualization.

This elicited the following criticism from a fellow student, “Maslow's Hierarchy, when examined through the lens of Scripture, is the antithesis of God's will for man.  Maslow, a humanist and atheist, and made his position on spiritual matters clearly known: "To spell out only one implication here, these propositions affirm the existence of the highest values within human nature itself, to be discovered there. This is in sharp contradiction to the older and more customary beliefs that the highest values can come only from a supernatural God, or from some other source outside human nature itself."

This accurate and well-meaning reply reminded me once more of how in the box often is the thinking of Christians; that we can turn non-Christians off by seeming to be too rigid. Rather than taking offense I saw this as an opportunity for this discussion question. Maslow may be humanist and an atheist; however, in my opinion his theory has relevance today. So much of our society is still at the lower levels of the hierarchy just trying to survive. Also, there seems to be a tremendous lack of self-esteem among the younger generation, again, my opinion. Perhaps this is because they were sold a bill of goods about evolution and that they are “From the zoo by way of goo.”

So I replied that it is my belief that although Maslow may be a humanist and an atheist his hierarchy has merit. I added that I have surprised Christian friends by stating that humanist and atheist Ayn Rand is a favorite author of mine. In "The Fountainhead" a lone man stood for his beliefs rather than conform to the ordinary but acceptable architecture of the day. Kind of like we Christians are to stand firm on the Word. In her book "Atlas Shrugged" like-minded people sought out like-minded people (producers), akin to not being unequally yoked. I thought that comparing the disappearance of the producers as being somewhat similar to the Church being raptured is a bridge too far. However, these producers often gave up everything to join their fellow producers in Galt's Gulch, also known as Mulligan's Valley.

As a humanist and an atheist I would suggest that the late Ayn Rand would be considered as unrighteous and likely self-absorbed. Given her great intellect and requirement for objective absolute it is a shame she didn’t meet and study under CM