Public figures such as preachers cannot produce more than scraps of truth, because Satan runs the world (Luke 4:6), and he does not allow significant truth.

Justification is one of the main subjects preachers take up. It is a central focus of Paul's theology but unmentioned by Christ. It's necessary to start with Paul's theology instead of Christ's, because Paul is the chief theologian in Satan's world, not Christ.

To rationalize justification one would have to say people are supposed to be moral and constructive. (morality is that which sustains life, which means all constructivity.) Christ taught constructivity as the basis of morality. He called it the path to life (Mat 7:14).

Christ said his words must be put into practice (Luke 6:46-49). He said, "Why do you call me 'Lord, Lord' and not put into practice what I teach you? Any man who desires to come to me will hear my words and put them into practice. I will show you with whom he is to be compared. He may be likened to the man who, in building a house, dug deeply and laid the foundation on a rock..."

You sometimes hear the argument that doing constructive things might be nice, but they are options; they have nothing to do with salvation. Does the path to life have nothing to do with salvation? Is to get saved to die? Even when not directly stated, this argument is implicit in the assumption that there is no path to salvation.

Christ equated salvation with eternal life, because there is nothing to get saved from but the death which sin creates (Mat 25:26). It was the ones who "neglected" to do what Christ said who went to eternal punishment, and those who did do who were saved.

The non doers will sometimes quote John 5:24, which says, "..the man who hears my word and has faith in him who sent me possesses eternal life." It supposedly means that all you need to do is hear and have faith, as if hearing meant nothing. Hearing means doing, when it is Christ's teaching.

But the real kicker in correct moral theology is that the doing seems impossible. Christ said, Sell your possessions and give to the poor." (Luke 18:22). But this statement followed the requirement to adhere to the Ten Commandments. Humans could admit that they are not perfect and start at the bottom rung on the ladder instead of the top rung. In actuality, at least in the modern world, it would do no good to sell one's possessions, because a person would be just as lost afterwards. You have to be born into poverty, if it is a path; you can't create your own poverty, because you wouldn't know how, and it would not be constructive.

In other words, what modern Christians need to be doing is making a little bit of progress instead of assuming they are already perfect due to being born again. Progress means reducing the sin of self and others. But you will never do it focussing upon yourself.

Sin and morality are relationships to other persons. Correcting relationships to other persons is required for the path to life. Poverty does much of it automatically, but it could theoretically be done through analysis. Try making a little bit of forward progress through correct theology.

This means understanding and knowledge must be added to the path. Christ told people to look and listen, seek and find and produce understanding and honest judgment from the evidence (Mat 7:8, 13:16, 15:10)(Mark 4:13, 8:18)(Luke 8:18, 10:23,24 12:54-57, 24:45)(John 7:24, 8:43).

Here is some of what you need to find: Satan, "the prince of the world" (John 12:31, 14:30, 16:11), has corrupted the standards of society in ways which are imperceptible. Learn what those corruptions are and what the correct alternatives are. Learn what sin and morality are; learn what nihilism, bigotry and elitism are; learn what fraud and propaganda are; and then learn how truth frees people from Satan's death grip (John 8:32, 34).

A very important truth to start with is the nature of Satan's frauds. A large part of the world follows Satan as their "prince." Of course, they don't call him Satan. The demons call him "the lord of knowledge and light." He can't add and subtract without someone doing it for him; but he has power rivaling God's. In the world, power is virtue, and powerlessness is corruption. Bigotry is the subconscious assumption that power is virtue and powerlessness is sin.

Satan is often translated to mean "the accuser." Satan accuses, because it works. It convinces gullible persons that he is fixing the problems, while someone else is creating them. Who is causing the problems, if not Satan? Satan is behind every problem in existence. Consider the Vietnam war. Some persons thought they were stopping communism. Satan's purpose was to destroy South East Asia. Who prevailed? Was communism stopped, or was South East Asia destroyed? The prince of the world made the decisions.

Whenever humans try to glorify themselves with some big project, Satan's jealousy creates a fire inside of him, and he has to destroy it. A clear example was the Titanic. It was the largest mass of steel ever constructed, and it was used as a party boat. It didn't just sail into an iceberg field while the captain slept, the rivets were loose, there were half enough life boats, and passersby ignored the flares assuming that partying was going on. Satan goes for body count, not just destruction of property. Similarly, after the kids spent two years planning to send a teacher into space, Satan's fire of jealousy built to a point where he had to blow her out of the sky in front of them.

The naysayers claim Satan doesn't do such things. Is he just a pussycat, while someone else does the destroying? There are no real accidents, because every molecule of concern is controlled by competing influences in the spirit world.

Where does Satan get such power? It's spelled out very clearly in Genesis. Eating the forbidden fruit would open the eyes of the eater and make them like gods. But they would surely die. Christ said, "It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless" (John 6:63). Apples are as useless as flesh. The source of godly powers is stealing spirit substance from the minds of other persons. Spirit cannibalism gives corrupt persons power rivaling God's.

Here's how Genesis states it (Gen 3:3-5): "...God said, 'You shall not eat it or even touch it, lest you die.' But the serpent said to the woman: 'You certainly will not die! No, God knows well that the moment you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods who know what is good and what is bad.'"

The world then tries to project power as the equivalent of virtue. The implication is that no one could acquire power without being worth something and knowing what they are doing. Satan doesn't need to know anything or be worth anything to acquire power rivaling God's through spirit cannibalism. You need to understand the fraud of bigotry to know why power is not virtue.