The Deadliest Monster

In school, I've been reading a book called The Deadliest Monster by J. F. Baldwin. It is a book about the contrasting worldviews of the Frankenstein people and the Hyde people. The Frankenstein people are the people that believe that humans are inherently good, it's just that society corrupts us. The Hyde people are the people that realize that human nature is a nature of sin and that we are inherently bad. If you haven't guessed from my last two opinionated statement, I am a Hyde person.

To put it frankly, I am a Christian. In fact, all Hyde people are Christians. Can you think of another religion that says that people are inherently bad and cannot become perfect on their own? I can't. That's one of the main points of the book.

You see, Christians are radically different from other religions of the world because we are Hyde people. Every other religion believes that they can be perfect. Whether it is to get into heaven, to achieve Nirvana or just the belief that they are God, they believe that they can be perfect if they just try hard enough. This is false and it is very hard on them. Why? Because they can't be perfect.

We live in a world where they think you can be anything you want to be if you just try hard enough. You can be a football player if you're a 90 pound girl who has no interest in athletics. If you just work out and practice, you can become an AMAZING football player! In some extreme success cases, this is true, but what about those people who just can't do it? No matter how hard they try, what they do, they just can't figure out football. They think they're a failure. They think the will never be as good as everyone else. They think these thoughts constantly until it becomes an overwhelming stress on them everyday to get back in the game and keep trying and failing with no hope of success in the future. Why? Because they are trying to play like their favorite football player. They're actually pretty good at football, but they're not perfect and if they're not perfect, they consider themselves a failure, when the truth is even their favorite football player is not the perfect football player. No one is.

This is the world. Everyone thinks they can be perfect but they can't. It's a burden and a stress that no one should take on thinking they have the ability to be perfect and the best at something when in reality they can't. We don't have the ability to be perfect. That's where the problem lies. We're sinners each and every one of us and when we don't admit that we can't be perfect, we think we're bad people if we're not.

We are bad people. We are all sinners. That's why Jesus came. To die for our sins so that we don't have to be perfect (because that's impossible for us!) We just have to believe in him and we will be seen by God as perfect. It's so much easier to admit that you can't be perfect. It gets rid of that burden and we still get into heaven by believing and proclaiming that Jesus is Lord.

We don't have to be perfect anymore. Jesus died for us. Stop trying to be perfect. You won't be able to. You may be really good people, but you know you're not perfect. It won't get you into heaven. Only Jesus will. Be a Hyde person, because the Frankenstein person isn't all it's cut out to be. That's what I learned from The Deadliest Monster.