Philip Arthur Bence PhD Thesis - Research@StAndrews:FullText

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agnosticism.""4 Yet his writings express his strong
hope for universal salvation. Through Jesus' death on
the cross, God defeated the force of evil. Although God
has resolved the problem of eternity, natural man,
unaware of grace, alienates himself from the loving God
by his disobedience. God created man for perfect
fellowship with him, but man, through sin, cuts himself
off from God. God's love remains unchanged. God has no
wish to punish sinners, but they punish themselves by
breaking their relationship with God. '3 Man, outside
fellowship with God, moves even farther from God.
In this state, man knows little but misery. He
knows the constant effects of sin which "tormented the
conscience, . . . brought the will into abject slavery,
. destroyed fellowship with God, . . . hardened the
heart, and blinded the ludgment, and warped the moral
sense, . . . destroyed life itself."
In response to those needs, preaching proclaims
forgiveness, strength. and hope. As man becomes aware
of, and believes in, God's grace, God transforms his
being. Life becomes new. Rather than moving away from
God in sin, the believer grows toward Christ in loving
discipleship.
Rudolf Bultmann portrays natural man in strong,
negative terms. Man is a self—assertive rebel living an
inauthentic life, incapable of achieving authenticity by
his own efforts. 7 In himself, man has no freedom to
turn himself around. His past determines his present