Morality

The Reality of the Law
When was the last time you argued with someone? Most likely it was not too long ago. People argue over all sorts of things, all the time. But regardless of the subject of the argument, one aspect is always the same. Because in order to argue, we must make reference to some sort of moral, or ethical code. We know that an ethical code exists, but how do we explain it? I recently read called “Mere Christianity” by C.S. Lewis, and in it he made the point that we cannot logically explain this phenomenon by natural means. His book inspired me to write this post.

Moral Similarity
One point C.S. Lewis made, was that every culture on earth has had some sort of ethical code. And these ethical codes are all basically the same. C.S. Lewis says, “…but for the present purpose I need only ask the reader to think what a totally different morality would mean. Think of a country where people are admired for running away in battle, or where a man felt proud for double crossing all the people who had been kindest to him. You might just as well try to imagine a country where two and two made five.” The point is, although moral codes are created by the people of a given culture, totally isolated cultures always reference the same concepts of unselfishness, justice, keeping your word, generosity, ect. This similarity must somehow be explained, and the only reasonable explanation is that there is some sort of universal standard, and each culture reflects the ideas of this ethical standard, (although with differing degrees of accuracy).

Personal Decision?
There are instances, in which a given culture’s ethical standards do seem to be different, and even seem to go against what we would consider to be good. C.S. Lewis pointed out that if a certain culture allows some sort of “immoral” behavior that we consider wrong, we instantly seem to conclude that their morality is inferior, and wrong. But how can anything be wrong, if there is no right. For instance, a football player cannot make a foul unless the teams agree on what should be considered fair, and unfair. There will be some of you who will no doubt say that there are no universal morals. But I cannot believe that you actually believe this. You see, as much as you may say that Hitler’s moral standards were just as noble as ours, you don’t mean it, your conscience knows that it is impossible to excuse the killing of innocent people. Is it possible that Hitler knew it was wrong too? Of course! When was the last time you did something even though you knew it was wrong? We do it all the time. Obviously, there is more to morality than a personal decision.

Universal Contract?
Now that we know that all of mankind is effected by the same belief of an ethical standard, the next question is, “what could possibly cause this strange phenomenon”. Some say that morality is universal because “Good” is anything that benefits mankind, whereas “Bad” is anything that harms, or causes pain or suffering. At first this makes sense; killing someone, or taking their money is obviously bad, but rescuing someone, or giving them food and shelter is considered good. Both of these are judged based on how they affect humanity. This is all well and good, but believe it or not, this does not explain morality. You see, benefiting society is a good way to describe moral law, but it is not the reason for the law. If benefiting society is why we have moral laws, then why do we feel obligated to benefit society? Think for an instant, if you could re-create moral law for yourself. If no-one, (not even God, for those of you who are Christians) would condemn you for anything, would you honestly choose to do everything that didn’t come naturally to you? Now there would be some sense in making everyone else do these things that didn’t come naturally, for your own welfare, but if it were all for your welfare, (most people think it is) then why would you feel bad when you cheated someone? Is it just because you broke a universal “niceness” contract? But if this contract is only for your wellness, the only reason to feel bad would be fear that someone else would break the contract and harm you back. This selfish reasoning would be totally acceptable if the universal contract theory was correct, but even this selfishness is looked down on. And I don’t know about you, but when I do something wrong, I feel more than fear, I feel guilt. If morality really is a contract between all of mankind, it seems that our minds refuse to believe this, and instead our conscience is constantly bombarding us with feelings of remorse, and guilt, over offenses that we cannot seem to make ourselves stop doing.

A Better Explanation
Following the reasoning that morality is more than a personal decision, and more than a contract between all of mankind, what is a better explanation? I propose that mankind was not the author of ethical standards. Instead, the morality of our diverse cultures reflect a greater standard set by God himself. When you think about it, who else would have the authority to do this, than the one who created us? We were made in the image of God, and he made many of our aspects reflect himself. This is why we have a conscience. However our sinful nature tells us that we have been distorted from out original image. Our two sides; the sinful nature, and our conscience, are fighting against each other, causing the guilt and remorse over issues we cannot change. We are a badly distorted reflection of God, but we still know what we ought to be like. God wants us to be unselfish, not only to benefit each other, but to glorify him. He also wants us to refrain from behavior that harms ourselves, (such as drunkenness, sexual immorality, and addiction) because these things harm our relationship with God. This is my explanation for morality, I personally think it fits the evidence, and reasoning, the best. If you have one that you think better, please comment on this post.

Jesus Christ
Our situation seems hopeless. The Bible says that God punishes sin with eternal suffering in Hell. And unless we are perfectly sinless, we will never enter heaven. But God has provided a way out. Jesus Christ paid the death penalty for our sin. All we need to do is confess our sin, ask God to forgive us, and believe in Jesus as our personal savior. If you are not sure if you are going to heaven when you die, please consider what I have told you. Your life on earth could be over in an instant, and this could be your last chance to let Christ save you from the punishment your sins deserve.

Total Predestination

Predestination in the Bible
You may or may not be familiar with the term, “predestination”. So, before I get started I’ll explain. Romans 8:29-30 says, “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his son, that he might be the firstborn of many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; and those he called, he also justified; and those he justified, he also glorified.” Two main views have developed to explain this passage and define predestination.

The select Few
Total predestination is the view that God has chosen only a select group of people to receive salvation. This view interprets Romans 8:29-30 very literally, (which is a good thing). Look at Romans again, the whole passage is a string of events, God “foreknew”, then “predestined” then “called”, “justified”, and finally “glorified”. What got me is the “called” part. Predestination comes before being called, so it seems like God doesn’t call everyone to himself. But wait a second, to be justified; (forgiven of your sins) you must be called. And we all know that salvation, (glorification) is impossible without forgiveness. So in the end, it seems like God doesn’t give many people a chance to accept his forgiveness, and receive salvation. Although this view is as strait forward as they come, I believe it is a total misunderstanding, and a huge contradiction to the rest of the bible. The Bible says over and over again that our God is a God of love. First Timothy 2:3-4 says, “This is good, and pleases God our savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth”. How could a God of love, who wants everyone to be saved, create this world knowing that by doing so, he was condemning thousands to hell? And why would he limit his kingdom to a select few when such a high price was paid for our ransom?
What’s a better explanation?
The view I believe to be true is called predestination. It is the view that God extends salvation to everyone. However, out of his divine wisdom, God foreknows who will end up in heaven. Think about it, God knows your decisions before you make them, that doesn’t mean he forces you to make certain decisions, you make them, he foreknows them. So, at the end of your life, God knows if you will have decided to accept his gift of salvation, or reject it. This is what meant by “Foreknew” is. Being predestined, then, means that before you were born, god knew Whether or not you would be saved. In other words, god “pre-knew” your destination! The next step is being called. God wants everyone to be saved, and therefore, extends his invitation to everyone. However, to those predestined for heaven, he extends a special, personal calling. And the greatest calling in each of our lives is to tell others about God. In this way, God is able to extend his invitation to people all over the globe.

An Excuse to be Apathetic
Needless to say, your view of Predestination has severe implications on your life. it determines your view on the nature of God, and determines how you live your faith out every day. But most importantly, your view of predestination will determine how you regard witnessing. Every three seconds a death occurs on earth, how many of those souls do you think end up in heaven? One out of ten? One out of fifty? Less? I don’t know, but the scary thing is, if you believe in total predestination, there’s nothing you can do about it. And even worse, God doesn’t care. This gives many Christians an excuse to be apathetic, and to “feel good” even as they watch thousands of souls cast into an eternity of suffering. The truth is, we can do something in all those lives! In fact, god’s primary way to invite people to his kingdom is through us. And picture this, when you help someone to find Christ, God already knew you would! So, that person is already predestined for heaven. Again, I can’t stress this enough, that person was not going to heaven until God reached out his invitation through you. God knows your deeds before you make them, but it’s your decision to make them. Let’s not be apathetic Christians. We have some serious work to do!

Post Modernism vs. Christianity

Sorry, You Can’t Be Both!
Did you know that only nine percent of born again Christian teens think there are moral absolutes? This view is called post modernism, and unlike it’s predecessor; Evolution, (or “modernism”) this is not a battle fought with science. The danger of post modernism is that people are allowed to determine for themselves what is right and what is wrong. That way, everybody's free to do anything they want and no-one is able to judge them for it. This idea also means that there are “many paths to heaven”. So, the Buddhists, Muslims, Christians, Hindus, and Atheists are all correct in their beliefs, and are all going to heaven. According to the Bible, that’s not the way it works.

One Way; Jesus
The Bible teaches that no one comes to the father, (goes to heaven) except through Jesus Christ. But if truth is relative, (that is, no one can be wrong in their beliefs) how do you explain Christians? We believe that there is a moral absolute; god. And Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven. This totally contradicts post modernism. But, are we right? Well, according to post modernism, we can’t be wrong, so we must be right! But if you say we are wrong you must assume there is some sort of moral absolute out there.

Million Year Creation

The Compromise
This idea has become very popular during recent times. People have started questioning how long it really took God to create the universe. So, instead of the original six days, they’ve come up with the view that each day of creation was really a very long period of time. I call it the million year creation. It’s kind of a compromise between creation and evolution. After all, we must somehow explain the overwhelming evidence we see out there that supports evolution and millions of years, right? Wrong! Hopefully after reading my blog you will begin to understand how ridiculous the entire hypothesis of evolution is. So why is it so appealing to jam an error ridden, unproven, hypothesis like evolution, into the inerrant word of God? (To see how the Bible does on a real scientific test, go to “Labels” and click on “The Bible”). When you are better informed, it’s not.

What’s a Yom?
If you’re still not convinced, we are going to take a look at what the bible means when it says “day”. Some would argue that Hebrew, (the original language of the Old Testament) is not clear in regards to certain periods of time. Thus, what we translate to be a day could really be an hour, a week, or a million years. But the Bible makes it quite clear. The Hebrew word used in the original New Testament is the word “Yom” and it rarely means anything but a literal, 24 hour day. To clear up matters, the bible says “And there was evening, and there was morning- the 1st (2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th ) Day”. Whenever the word Yom is used with the word evening or morning, it ALWAYS means a literal, 24 hour day. So we really can’t afford to compromise. Either you must believe the bible is wrong, or that evolution is wrong.

Time and Eternity

Eternity
Its unimaginable, in comprehensible, and for many people, mythical. The idea that something can have no beginning or will have no end sounds impossible. Christians are sometimes ridiculed by people saying, “prove your eternal God”. But is there an alternative? Time, matter, space, can’t create themselves. We must assume that either they have always been here, or some supernatural force has always been here. If you believe in the natural explanation for eternity, you must believe that eternity is simply an immeasurable amount of time which has marched on unstopped since um… infinity ago. But if you believe in the supernatural, eternity doesn’t have to be made of time, I believe, weird as it sounds, that eternity is a different realm. Its always happening, and since it requires no time, it requires no beginning or end. Here’s why I believe this.

Logic Affirmed
First off, there are some problems with the naturalistic view of eternity. One is called Entropy. It’s a scientific law. You see, as time marches on certain things happen, new things get old and break down, living things age and were out, and orderly things become disordered. Given an infinite amount of time, entropy could obviously do an infinite amount of damage to anything. This alone destroys naturalistic eternity. But this next problem puts the nails in the coffin. If eternity is made out of time, then picture yourself on a timeline.
< -----------------O----------------- >.
The present time is represented by an O. now pretend you are going to travel back in time to the beginning of infinity. When would you get there? Never. In the same way, if you started out an eternity ago, when would you arrive at the present time? Never. Do you see the problem? I know it’s a little deep, but think about it.

Scripture Affirmed
My second reason is that scripture tells us, “With the lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day”, 2nd Peter 3:8. This doesn’t make sense by time’s standards. So in the end, eternity poses a real problem to people who don’t believe in the supernatural. It’s important to remember that my view of eternity is unproven. It isn’t a scientific law, or even a theory. I don’t have all the answers about eternity. Some things only God can explain. But just the same, if you are ever asked to prove your eternal god, just ask them to prove how time could be eternal.