Are people basically 'good' or 'evil'? Who was the 'beloved' disciple? And is the Sermon on the Mount legalism?
Ask NT Wright Anything

Are people basically 'good' or 'evil'? Who was the 'beloved' disciple? And is the Sermon on the Mount legalism?

B2Upper-intermediateAugust 31, 202635 min

Are people basically good, or fundamentally sinful? Did Jesus teach salvation by works in the Sermon on the Mount? In this episode of Ask NT Wright Anything, Tom Wright and Mike Bird explore what the Bible really says about human nature, arguing that our primary identity is not simply "good" or "bad" but people created for God's vocation. They also examine one of the New Testament's enduring mysteries, the identity of the "beloved disciple" in John's Gospel, and ask whether we can know who he really was. Finally, Tom tackles a common misunderstanding of the Sermon on the Mount, e...

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0:00

Hello and welcome to another episode of Ask Anti-Right Anything, the program where we try to answer your questions about Jesus, the Bible and the life of faith. I'm Mike Bird from Ridley College in Melbourne Australia joined by... Tom Wright from Wickley Fool in Oxford and currently in Scotland.

0:21

Now Tom I've got to ask the question where do you stand on the Protestant doctrine of total depravity. I mean, do you think that's a good way of putting it? Or, you know, is that a little bit of a pessimistic view of human nature? People are basically good, but sometimes they let us down. Or should we always expect the worst that way when never

0:42

disappointed? Yeah. When somebody says, do you believe in total depravity? I say, well, you know, I look in the mirror every morning and it seems to me to make a lot of sense. Or I've known, I remember one family who had a child who they nicknamed OS because he stood for

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