Can Human Nature Change?

In a publication called Armstrong Economics, a reader asked the following question:

 
 
If we take the statement “History repeats because human nature never changes” it would suggest that the human nature cycle will never reverse. That in itself does not track. If everything is like a pendulum, shouldn’t it swing back around to where human nature can and will change?... [1]
 
 
 
To which was the reply:
 
 
 
Human nature will never change insofar as we all have personal feelings — we can love or hate. That said, we are also influenced by mob behavior…
That said, society swings back and further between public & private confidence. People canceling anyone who has ever said anything, even 30 years ago, is the swing of the pendulum excessively to the left. The swing is based upon the “sheep” who can be herded and they will move back and forth depending upon their influence. That does not negate that we still have within human nature the battle between good and evil. Therefore, every government in history has collapsed because human nature swings back and forth…[2]
 
 
 
The most notable part of the response to the question is how mankind has and can be swayed by every wind of influence that there is and the reason for this is because everything that he places his trust in, be it a figure of influence and authority, an activist movement, a political or philosophical system is subject to error and failure and when one thing that he has placed his trust in fails to deliver on its promises, meet his needs, or fulfill his every desire, then he will simply look for something else he finds more worthy of his confidence and trust.
 
If one pleasure or trend loses appeal and flavor, another deemed new, superior, and fresher will take its place.  When an established authority is deemed inept, unreliable, unjust, corrupt, and even evil, it will be replaced by another.  When one system is deemed insufficient to meet the needs of a people, they will replace it with another, but often times that which is bad ends up being exchanged for something worse due to man being driven not by wisdom or discretion but by his emotions and discontentment, relying on his own understanding, trusting in his own strength, and going forth in his own power thus keeping in motion that pendulum of civilizations; their rise and fall, another being raised up in its place and then its eventual rise and fall. 
 
What must also be addressed is that while it is true that human nature can never change on its own, but it can be changed by way of a spiritual transformation of the heart, mind, and soul, but in order to understand how this transformation process works, we must first understand the condition of the state into which all men are born.  Man is born with both the ability to choose what is good and right, and yet he is naturally disposed to do evil.  Were it not for the instillment of a conscience which instills in us an understanding of right and wrong and the establishment of governing powers to produce and maintain order in society, there would not be a single person on the face of the earth who will not have committed theft, adultery, some perverse act, or some act of violence up to and including murder, even over those thing not worthy of violence or death. 
 
And yet with the establishment of a conscience and the institution of governing powers for the purpose of restraining lawless and wicked activity and an understanding of right and wrong, there has not been a single person on the face of the earth who has not had a dark thought, who has not lied, lusted, or coveted, harbored a grudge against his fellow man or even so much as wished death and destruction upon him even over things that would not be deserving of such.
 
And yet while we have in us the capacity to do good as well as evil, why then is it that we do not have to be taught to do evil, but be taught to do that which is good and right and to live morally upright and productive lives?
 
It cannot be explained any other way except that we are born with are born with an inherent condition held in common by all people that scripture calls sin and defines sin, not merely in terms of outward behavior but rather the corrupted inward condition of the man which can and eventually leads to bad behavior and wicked deeds.
 
But before sin, the world was a vastly different place and the nature of man was not as it is now.  Creation was unspoiled, pure, and without corruption.  There was no death, decay, turmoil, sorrow, or grief.  There was only peace and perfect harmony between man and nature and uninterrupted fellowship between God and man.
 
But man was given a choice to choose between life and death for in the midst of a certain garden, as it is written, God had planted two trees:  One was called the tree of life which would have enabled man to live forever, (Gen. 3:22)  and one was called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
 
The first man, called Adam and his wife, called Eve, were told that they could eat the fruit of every tree in the garden except for one: the tree of the knowledge of good and evil for is was warned of them that in the day that they should eat of it, they would surely die. (Gen. 2:16-17, 3:3)
 
But at the behest of a wicked spirit taking on the form of a serpent, Adam and Eve disobeyed their Maker and ate of that forbidden fruit and in that moment sin entered into them thus sending the world into the corrupted state that it is in today and that sin which entered into them and with sin came death and not just to them but to all of mankind because that sin which entered into them also passed down to us who are descended from them and as a result, we all sin and therefore we all die as a consequence. (Rom. 5:12, 6:23)
 
It was in that day of man’s fall that the metaphorical pendulum, which the Armstrong item uses to illustrate ongoing cycle of human history, began to swing and the cycle presented in scripture has been an ongoing cycle of people and nations seeking out and calling upon the name of the Lord and then turning away from him and falling into sin which, once it reaches a certain measure, is subject to judgment which has and can result in the eventual destruction of a people or nation and we see this pattern repeated time and time again throughout the Bible beginning with the fall of man in the garden:
 
 
1.  Before the fall of man, humanity was at peace and perfect harmony with their Creator, but were led into disobedience by a wicked entity who we now know to be Lucifer or Satan who was cast from his position in Heaven when he, in his pride, tried to make himself equal with God (Is. 14:11-21, Ezekiel 28:12-19) which began that age long warfare between God and Satan which then became a war for the souls of men as soon as Eve was deceived into eating the forbidden fruit which also brought Adam into disobedience.
 
2.  After a certain period of time, after the fall,  men began to call upon the name of the Lord (Gen. 4:26) but by the days of Noah, man’s thoughts were no longer upon the Lord or the things pleasing in His sight but, as it the scripture says, his thoughts were only filled with evil which led the world to become filled with such wickedness and violence that the only remedy to was to wipe mankind from the earth with a flood save for Noah, his family, and the animals that were taken aboard the ark along with them which Noah had built under the command and instruction of God (Gen. 6-8)
 
3.  But the most notable example of this ongoing cycle and around whom most of the scripture centers is the people of nation of Israel; their history being an ongoing cycle of fearing, loving, and worshipping the God who made them, falling into sin, facing punishment, and then returning to God again, worshipping Him once more.
 
 
First, as is written in the book of Exodus, the people of Israel started out in bondage.
They are then liberated.
They become prosperous as a people and nation.
They become complacent, forgetting by what power they received their strength and prosperity and why.
They fall into sin and place their trust in things other than God.
They face punishment which brings them back into bondage but are liberated once more when they repent of their sins and call upon the name of the Lord and this cycle, as one reads the scripture, is found to happen repeatedly.
 
 
It has been often said that this has been the basic pattern and cycle of nations and empires.
 
 
1.  Bondage.
 
2.  Liberation.
 
3.  Prosperity and strength.
 
4.  Complacency.
 
5.  Dependency.
 
6.  Bondage once more.
 
 
And in some cases, that cyclic pendulum will swing too far the wrong way for the last time and when it does, that nation or people may fall for the last time never to rise again and it always seems to have something to do with how the measure that their sin and wickedness reaches.  In some cases, a nation and people are restored after facing a period of chastisement and judgment and it is because God is being gracious and merciful to them, and then there are those who face a final end and the reason why they face that final end is due to their hearts becoming so hardened against their Maker and the things of God that nothing will ever persuade them to turn away from their sin and their evil to God again: They take too much pleasure in that which is sinful.  They enjoy evil too much.  They love the darkness too much. 
 
And presently, the entire world itself, and not just any one community or nation, is reaching a stage in which that cyclic pendulum is going to swing so far away from our Maker that there will be no other remedy but to bring judgment upon the entire world because the heart of man will become too hardened against his Maker to the point that nothing will ever be able to persuade him to repent of his sins and his wickedness, call upon the name of the Lord. 
 
All sin must face eventual punishment and once it reaches a certain measure, judgment must come lest sin should become so great that it destroys everything that is good.  The taint of sin affects more than we can possibly comprehend.  It is not merely a bad action or behavior nor words carelessly or cruelly spoken, but rather sin is the corrupted condition of human nature of which bad behavior becomes the result.  Sin not only influences actions, behavior, and speech, but it also warps our thinking, clouds our understanding and judgment, corrupts our motives, darkens our thoughts, and produces hearts of stone.
 
It is the reason why we fall short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23) which is moral perfection
and because of this, it is impossible to earn our way into Heaven by our own merit because there is no place in Heaven for sin and without a remedy, they who die in sin have nothing to look forward to but a fearful and terrifying everlasting punishment in order to satisfy that penalty demanded of sin which God in His holiness and goodness must carry out for the goodness of God demands that all sin and evil face justice yet because He is also a God of love and mercy, He is not willing that any should perish but that all would come to repentance (2 Pet. 3:9) and be delivered from the eventual wrath to come and so in His love and mercy, God provided us a remedy by which we can attain salvation and it is found in Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, who came to this earth as God in the flesh (Jn. 1:14) to give Himself as that needed and required sacrifice for our sins and it is by His death on the cross that both the demanded penalty for sin was satisfied and mercy was shown and by His resurrection we are justified in Him ((Rom. 4:25) for in His death was the sacrifice made and by His resurrection was that sacrifice on our behalf shown acceptable to the Father and His victory over death, hell, and the grave achieved so that any calling upon the name of the Lord for the forgiveness of sins will be saved (Rom. 10:13) and delivered from what would otherwise be a punishment dreadful beyond imagining.
 
With salvation comes a new nature that is spiritual and contrary to the old sin nature which appeals to the carnal; it is that spiritual nature which we receive when we call upon Christ to forgive us of our sins and call upon him to be our Savior and Lord by which we undergo that transformation from one who is self-centered and worldly to one who is God-centered and heaven seeking, no longer taking pleasure in that which is evil in the sight of God but aiming for that which is good and pleasing in His sight, no longer pursuing selfish ambitions, but heavenly ambitions, no longer interested in making a name for himself but instead seeking to magnify the name of the Lord and include Him in every aspect of his life.  He no longer places all his hope in the things of this temporal life but sets his sights on the world to come, no longer seeking the favor of men, but the favor of God above all else, no longer fearing that which can only go so far as to kill the body, but only the God who is able to cast both body and soul into Hell, no longer pursuing after earthly wealth, but only on building up his heavenly wealth, trusting God to meet his every need, to keep and deliver him from evil, and sustain him through the adversities from which he may be delivered, trusting that the greater the sacrifices required of him that he is willing to make on behalf of our Lord, the greater the reward to come and though he be made a new person in Christ, (2 Cor. 5:17) because he continues to dwell in a body in which sin dwells, there will be an inward struggle going on inside of him between the new person and the old and which becomes stronger will depend upon the one he decides to strengthen the most.  The Apostle Paul describes this struggle best:
 
 
For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. (Rom. 7:15)
 
 
If there is anyone in history who could serve as the best example of a faithful and committed follower of Christ, it is the Apostle Paul, but faithful as he may have been, he still found himself doing the things that he knew that he shouldn’t be doing and not doing that which he knew he should and it is this struggle that reminds us constantly that we cannot rely on our own merit for God’s continued favor but only on His grace alone; our obedience and devotion to Him being done out of appreciation and gratitude for the that grace bestowed upon us and the forgiveness of sins that we have received in Christ for if we be in Christ, why continue walking in those things that placed us in danger of eternal damnation in the first place?  God may expect us to be “sinless” because of the corruption within us against which we contend, but He does expect us to sin less as we serve Him and draw closer to Him.
 
This struggle between the sin nature, which may be defined as “human nature,” and the new spiritual nature that we receive in Christ has often been illustrated as a struggle between a white dog and a black dog or in some cases a black wolf and a white wolf; the dog or wolf that is black representing the old carnal sin nature and the white dog representing the new nature imparted to upon the receiving of Christ as our Savior and Lord which comes to us by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit of God.  Which becomes the stronger is dependent upon which one we feed the most and it is that Christ-like nature we should be feeding the most and though the old nature will not disappear entirely, the more it is starved, the weaker it becomes but just as our souls are cleansed from the stain of sin, so our bodies will one day be liberated from their corrupted form when they are changed in a form that is without corruption and in which that sinful nature does not dwell and with that sinful nature gone, we will then be liberated from bodily death, (1 Cor. 15-51-55, 1 Thess. 4:13-18) just as our souls have been liberated from a spiritual death which is eternal separation from the Creator.
 
Which way that pendulum in life and history depends on what each person chooses.  If a people seek after the light, then the pendulum will swing toward the right.  But if they give themselves over to the darkness, then that pendulum will swing toward the left.  But there is coming a day when that cyclic pendulum will cease when this present world is done away with along with its darkness, sin, evil, suffering, hardship, sorrows, and griefs, and with it, the death, decay, and curse that was brought upon it because of sin and in its place will be a new and better world in which there will be no sin, evil, death, decay, curse, suffering, pain, sorrow, or griefs of any sort because all of those things will be done away with.  It will be a world covered in light and in which God will make His dwelling among men (Rev. 21-22) but only they who give themselves over to Christ will get to dwell in this forthcoming new world that is to come.  As for they who side with the things of darkness, and they who refuse to enter into Heaven by the way Christ has made, into outer darkness will they be cast and in which there will only be, as the scripture warns, the weeping and gnashing of teeth.
 
Therefore, if you be a seeker after the light and desire to dwell in the light, then it is the light of Christ to which you must come for He is the source of all light but all the things of darkness in your life must be left behind for the light of Christ cannot dwell peaceably with the things of darkness.  You cannot walk in the light and in the darkness at the same time.  You must choose and which you choose will determine not only the course of your life, but also where you spend eternity.  I urge any readers today that if you have not yet received Jesus as your Savior and the Lord and King of your life, please do so today and let nothing hold you back because there is nothing in this life that is worth your soul and no honor or favor in this world that is worth that which can only come from Heaven itself and if you are not sure what to pray, then here is an example of a simple prayer of repentance:
 
 
"Lord Jesus I need you.
 
 
I realize that I am a sinner
who has fallen short of the glory of God
and that my goodness falls short
of your standard of Moral perfection.
 
Please forgive me of all of my sins.
Come into my heart and into my life
to be the Savior and Lord of my life.
Make me into the servant and follower
that you want me to be.
In your name Lord Jesus, I pray.
 
 
Amen."
 
 
 
Know that God is not concerned with the words that you use to call upon Him forgiveness, but with the attitude of your heart and if you have, with all sincerity, have asked Christ to forgive you of your sins, placing your trust in Him only for your salvation and in nothing else, then your sins are forgiven and your place in Heaven is certain.
 
 
 
End notes:
 
 
 
1. Martin Armstrong, “Human Nature Cycle,” Armstrong Economics, June 16, 2021
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/armstrongeconomics101/understanding-cycles/human-nature-cycle/
 
2.  Ibid.
 
 
 
Scripture references:
 
 
 
1.  Genesis 3:22
 
2.  Genesis 2:16-17
 
3.  Genesis 3:3
 
4.  Romans 5:12
 
5.  Romans 6:23
 
6.  Isaiah 14:11-21
 
7.  Ezekiel 28:12-19
 
8.  Genesis 4:26
 
9.  Genesis 6-8
 
10.  Romans 3:23
 
11.  2 Peter 3:9
 
12.  John 1:14
 
13.  Romans 4:25
 
14.  Romans 10:13
 
15.  Romans 7:15
 
16.  1 Corinthians 15:51-55
 
17.  1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
 
18.  Revelation 21-22