Doing Good or Being Good for Heaven's Sake PROGRAM PART 2

The dominant worldview that circulates amongst the general population is that if we can do enough good or to generally be good enough with the actions of our lives then we might have a succeeding chance of being judged favorably by God when we die and stand for his judgment. We might be in a good position to negotiate with God and to convince him that he can and should outweigh our bad actions with our good actions and thus, tip the scales of any possible negative decision that might come against us. However, it is not a teaching that is found in the written biblical lessons of the Bible. Nonetheless, Judaism does continue to teach that God is just going to show us mercy and compassion based on our record of merit and good deeds whilst the side of God's demand for justice is totally ignored.

On today's podcast for Real Israel Talk Radio, we will take a look into how one can acquire a topped-up merit account for the day of judgment. We will take a good look into who is actually doing good as its defined in the Bible. We'll answer the questions:

1. Is all of man or mankind in this world naturally or intrinsically good? I would say, No.
2. Is man or are we created in the image and likeness of God? I would say, No.
3. Before our yet-future day of judgment, is it possible to actually "top-up" a personal merit account in order to potentially outweigh our bad deeds with our good deeds? Can we then use our merit to buy our way out of a negative divine judgment and buy ourselves into an afterlife that will give us a share in a life of the World to Come?
4. And what about all the good that is done in the world? Is it truly good OR does it only look good on the outside but on the inside it's poison fruit?

Join us here on Ancient Roads: Real Israel Talk Radio for 50-minutes of thoughts on all these questions and so much more. This is program AR201031, Episode number 43, with Avi ben Mordechai.