Can a healthy tree not bear bad fruit?

@josephw said
But you missed the point, so this thread is really about your misunderstanding of the Bible.

Stop dodging.

@fmf said
there are many Christian ideas that make pretty good sense as part of one's code for living. But others, not so much.

"A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit" or "A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit".

Isn't this just nonsense?

And how does it sit alongside KellyJay's axiom which is that everyone, without exception, is "evil"?

This is a more sensical description of the human condition: You can get good apples from a diseased tree and you can get bad apples from a healthy tree.

@medullah said
What are apples like from a badly diseased apple tree ?

Are you a "good tree" or a "bad tree"?

@fmf said
Explain. Stop dodging.

It is you that's dodging. You understand perfectly well what the metaphors are about in the verses you referenced.

And I know perfectly well that you're looking for ways to justify your resistance to the truth.

Spiritually speaking no one has ever measured up to the standard of perfection called for by the law. You know that. One little lie is all it takes to prove that point.

Don't pretend you're not dodging that truth.

The truth is a bad tree cannot produce good fruit no matter how far you try to stretch the metaphor to disprove it.

@FMF

I think that you might just have underlined how little I know about apple trees 😁👍

@josephw said
The truth is a bad tree cannot produce good fruit no matter how far you try to stretch the metaphor to disprove it.

If you've ever had any fruit trees on your land, you will know that you can get some good fruit from a bad tree and you can get some bad fruit from a good tree.

@josephw said
And I know perfectly well that you're looking for ways to justify your resistance to the truth.

I think the truth here is that the proposition that a healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit and an unhealthy tree cannot bear good fruit is just nonsense.

@josephw said
Spiritually speaking no one has ever measured up to the standard of perfection called for by the law. You know that. One little lie is all it takes to prove that point.

So, according to your beliefs, is everybody in the world, without exception, "a bad tree"?

@medullah said
I think that you might just have underlined how little I know about apple trees

Be that as it may, but I reckon good people can do bad things and bad people can do good things. What does the Bible verse in the OP have to say about this?

@fmf said
Be that as it may, but I reckon good people can do bad things and bad people can do good things. What does the Bible verse in the OP have to say about this?

"Just as every cop is a criminal, and all the sinners saints"

The Stones

(Maybe they were on to something)

@fmf said
there are many Christian ideas that make pretty good sense as part of one's code for living. But others, not so much.

"A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit" or "A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit".

Isn't this just nonsense?

And how does it sit alongside KellyJay's axiom which is that everyone, without exception, is "evil"?

I would never go so far as to call God a "diseased tree".

As for this or that person's beliefs: maybe we could say that creative contrasts and apparently unresolvable imbalances keep life interesting.

Which is not to say that "keeping life interesting" is necessarily one of my top priorities.

@josephw said
Read the passage, Matthew 7:17-20.

Jesus was, and is an absolutist. And I'm glad at least He was. Jesus was the only man that ever "brought forth good fruit" 100% of the time.

He was a homeless wanderer. Are you saying he went around offering grapes from his sash when he couldn't even pay rent or afford a pillow?

And what of gay men? Can a gay man not be a good fruit of the Lord, Who is the Tree of Solomon?

And what proper place does the Nose of the Pharisee (especially meaning the Nose of the Christian Pharisee) have in my boxer shorts?

And why does it seem we are prioritizing fruit over bread -- which is the "staff of life" according to certain scriptures?

@medullah said
@FMF

I think that you might just have underlined how little I know about apple trees 😁👍

Some time ago I learned there were hundreds more cultivars of apples around the world than the half dozen or so we can find at the grocery store [British: grocer's].

Not sure any of those could actually be grown in Galilee or thereabouts.

@fmf said
Are you a "good tree" or a "bad tree"?

I think I'm somewhere between an oak and a chestnut.