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Heaven helps those who help themselves

Classik

Classik

Member
Are you familiar with this phrase: Heaven helps those who help themselves? Is it scriptural? :dunno :shrug :confused
 
Classik said:
Are you familiar with this phrase: Heaven helps those who help themselves? Is it scriptural? :dunno :shrug :confused
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Completely not scriptural. This phrase actually has a couple of different origins from what I understand. One is from the "Great Awakening" periods of the 1800's. This was something that those charismatic "preachers" would use to promote the false prosperity gospel.

You can look through the bible cover to cover and not find any support for this doctrine.
 
Classik said:
Are you familiar with this phrase: Heaven helps those who help themselves? Is it scriptural? :dunno :shrug :confused
Click to expand...
Not even. "God helps those who help themselves" is attributed, not to the Bible, but to Benjamin Franklin, from the 1757 Poor Richard's Almanac. The phrase actually came from Algernon Sydney in 1698 from an article he wrote entitled Discourses Concerning Government.

All that matters not in the least. The Bible teaches the opposite. It is the helpless, not the self-helping, that God provides for.
Isaiah 25 NASB
4 For You have been a defense for the helpless,
A defense for the needy in his distress,
A refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat;
For the breath of the ruthless
Is like a rain storm against a wall.

Romans 5
6 For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly
​
 
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No foundation in Scripture at all. In fact, it is unbiblical as it contradicts the Bible's message of God's kindness and grace toward humanity, who do not deserve it at all. In fact, God sent Christ to die for us precisely because of the fact that we cannot help ourselves.
 
Many Christians want to do what is right, but they continue to struggle with sinful actions. We all have addictions and habits that we cannot seem to break with our own willpower. However, when we delight ourselves in the Lord, He not only delivers us from bondage, He also changes our desires to match His.
 
Absolutely unbiblical. God helps those who can't help themselves...us! If we could help ourselves, we wouldn't have needed a Savior in the first place.
 
God does help those believers who help themselves because of their commitment to Christ and the Cross.
 
No, it is not. It ranks right up there with "cleanliness is next to Godliness" and "money is the root of all evil". (The love of money is)!
 
iLOVE said:
Job, Mary Magdalene, Elisha, Elijah, King David, Mary (Jesus mother), Peter, John and so many more. Read their stories and notice there commitment to God.
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You cannot produce an example from among any of them that their self-help resulted in blessing. Their blessings were all based on their faith, not what they did for themselves, or for anyone else.
 
The Bible teaches the opposite. God helps the helpless! Isaiah 25:4 declares, "For You have been a defense for the helpless, a defense for the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat..." Romans 5:6 tells us, "For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly."

In terms of salvation, we are all utterly helpless. We are all infected by sin (Romans 3:23), and condemned as a result of that sin (Romans 6:23). Nothing we can do on our own can remedy this situation (Isaiah 64:6). Thankfully, God is the helper of the helpless. While we were still sinners, Jesus died for us (Romans 5:8). Jesus paid the penalty that we were incapable of paying (2 Corinthians 5:21). God provided the "help" that we need precisely because we could not help ourselves.

Apart from salvation, there is perhaps a way that the concept "God helps those who help themselves" is correct. Commit your way unto the Lord; trust also in Him; and He shall bring it to pass. Psalm 37:5

For even when we were with you,<SUP class=crossreference value='(A)'></SUP> we gave you this rule: “The one who is unwilling to work<SUP class=crossreference value='(B)'></SUP> shall not eat.” 2 Thessalonians 3:10
<SUP class=versenum></SUP>
<SUP class=versenum>7 </SUP>“Ask and it will be given to you;<SUP class=crossreference value='(B)'></SUP> seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. <SUP class=versenum>8 </SUP>For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds;<SUP class=crossreference value='(C)'></SUP> and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Matthew 7:7-8
 
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The Lord helps those who help themselves.
This saying is not about salvation and justification.

So if you think that God will help you find a job without you doing anything, you can sit on the couch watching TCT or whatever........while you lose your home, starve, whatever. While all the time the Lord has opened doors you just won't get up and walk through them.

That is my understanding of this saying.
 
No, it is not found in the Bible. If I am not mistaken, it was originally said by Benjamin Franklin.

God helps those who repent and put their trust in Jesus Christ.
 
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