The Mean Dog

“If the devil does not exist, and man has therefore created him,  he has created him in his own image and likeness.”  Fyodor Dostoevsky

This idea interests me.  It is often said that man created God in his own image which reverses what Genesis 2 says: 26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness…”  (NASB) Since it is commonly believed among the intelligentsia  that Satan does not exist (although 60% of American adults believe he does according to the Harris survey) then man made both God and Satan in his own image.  If so, then man is both intensely evil and dominantly good.  Every human has a dark side and a good side.  Is this true?

Which is dominant?  Are we mostly good with a dash of Satan or mostly evil with a sprinkle of good?  Or maybe we are evenly mixed.  An American Indian “wise saying” quoted an elder saying:

“Inside of me there are two dogs. One of the dogs is mean and evil. The other dog is good.   The mean dog fights the good dog, all of the  time.”  When asked which dog wins, he reflected for a moment and  replied “The one I feed the most.”

I have noticed that I can get into trouble if I don’t discipline my mind.  Yet we lack power to overcome our basic nature which is drawn towards evil.  Paul said it in Romans 7

18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not.  (NASB)

In the rest of the chapter, Paul says there are two dogs but one is dominant.  The evil one.  The other dog is dead.  It takes the indwelling Spirit of God to overcome the mean dog.  Without Him we are helpless against it.  That is hard for a proud mankind to admit or accept and the primary reason for most human resistance to the message of Jesus Christ.  At least that is what I have observed.

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