The View: A Matter of Perspective on Morality and Ethics
Romans 1:18-32; 2 Timothy 3:16-17
Cascades Fellowship CRC, JX MI
January 29, 2012
Series: Christ in the Home
There’s a joke my buds and I used to use when driving through town. We’d say that the word “stop” on a stop sign was an acronym for “Slow-to-Peek.” In other words, we obeyed traffic signs and signals according to our own interpretation to them. This is one of the reasons why my mom would always say that it was by grace alone that my friends and I lived to see thirty and beyond.
The reality is that the word “stop” meant exactly that – stop. Quite frankly, my friends and I were arrogant, young idiots that God demonstrated extraordinary mercy towards. This became abundantly clear to me when I was in Talcahuano, Chile while in the Navy. A friend and I were heading out on liberty to check out the town. To get from the port to the city we had to take a bus – it was a nice bus, too; plenty of elbow room.
We were beginning to relax and enjoy the ride as we approached the first traffic light. With a jolt of fear, I realized that the bus was not slowing down; instead the driver began laying on the horn. Now, I do not exaggerate in any way when I tell you that there were cars already in the intersection and we were hurtling straight toward them – horn sounding the entire way. As we whizzed through the intersection, I came to a startling conclusion; in Talcahuano, traffic laws were optional and only one law really mattered – the law of gross tonnage and right of way was earned relative to the weight of your vehicle.
We have been talking over the past couple weeks about what it takes to build a family altar in the home – to make Jesus Christ the center of family life. And if you remember we said that the way you build a family altar is by beginning with the correct worldview. So we have been endeavoring to understand what a worldview is and what goes into forming a worldview.
A worldview, as you remember, is a set of beliefs one holds to be true that s/he uses to put things into context and make sense of our world. It is how we define reality and ourselves in the context of reality. Ultimately, our identity is shaped and our lives defined by our worldview. The importance of understanding this concept of worldview is because our behavior, choices, and actions will all find their basis in our worldview. In other words we will live out what we believe.
We also said that the beliefs that form our worldview can be expressed in a series of paired questions – big questions that get at the nature of existence. The first pairing we said a worldview must address is “Where did come from and why are we here?” In other words, what do we believe about God first of all, and consequently about man. What we believe about where we come from – whether God exists or not – will largely determine what we believe about man; his origin and purpose. In fact, everything else we believe flows out of what we say about God – whether he real, present and engaged with his creation. Our view of God shapes everything else. When you get right down to it the worldview we embrace is simply our theology manifested – what we believe about God lived out.
The second pairing of questions our worldview has to address is “What is true and how do we know?” In other words, our worldview must inform us about what is real – and how do we know it is real. So we looked at how we might answer Pilate’s question – what is truth? And having determined that truth by definition is that which corresponds to reality we concluded for something to be true it must express, explain or lead to experience that is consistent with what really is; it must conform to reality.
We then said that there were two ways for us to know what conforms to reality – the first, if you remember, was special revelation or how God has revealed himself. Our view of knowledge springs from our understanding that all Truth is grounded in the person and character of God, so all knowledge must begin with a correct understanding of who God is and who he has made us to be. Put simply, we must know God and who we are in light of God if we are to gain real knowledge and understanding. Any knowing apart from God is flawed at its foundation and cannot ultimately be true.
We need to understand this because our second way of knowing depends on our first; the second way of knowing is through general revelation or by studying all that God has made. Knowing God as he has revealed himself to us in the person of Jesus Christ and recorded for us in the Scriptures is necessary if we are to correctly interpret what we can know from all that he has made.
Now, I realize that I have just spent a significant amount of time rehashing the past three weeks, but there is a really good reason. As you may have noticed – and as I have already repeated several times just this morning – each of the questions a worldview must answer builds upon the other. How you believe you got here will determine what you believe about why you are here. What you believe about how you got here and why you are here will shape what you believe to be real and how you know what is real. And what you believe to be real and how you come to know it will influence how you will live. In other words, what you believe about God and man will impact what you believe about truth and knowledge which will in turn impact what you believe about morality and ethics – which is what the final question a worldview must answer deals with.
So the final question a worldview must answer is “How shall we live?” Do see what a difference where you begin makes? One of the things that we have learned from the statistics quoted in this series is that the prevailing starting place for a large segment of our society is relativism or the idea that there are no absolutes. The question is, how does this then impact morality and ethics – which is the application of morals?
I want to read for you a quote from J.P. Moreland, Professor of Philosophy at Talbot School of Theology and a well-known apologist.
"One afternoon I was sharing the gospel in a student's dorm room at the University of Vermont. The student began to espouse ethical relativism: 'Whatever is true for you is true for you and whatever is true for me is true for me. If something works for you because you believe it, that's great. But no one should force his or her views on other people since everything is relative.'
I knew that if I allowed him to get away with ethical relativism, there could be for him no such thing as real, objective sin measured against the objective moral command of God, and thus no need of a Savior. I thanked the student for his time and began to leave his room. On the way out, I picked up his small stereo and started out the door with it.
'Hey, what are you doing?' he shouted.
'What's wrong with you?' I queried. 'Are you having problems with your eyes? I am leaving your room with your stereo.'
'You can't do that,' he gushed.
'Well,' I replied, 'since I lift weights and jog regularly, I think I can in fact do it without any help. But maybe you meant to say, 'You ought not do that because you are stealing my stereo.' Of course, I know from our previous conversation that this is not what you mean. I happen to think it is permissible to steal stereos if it will help a person's religious devotions, and I myself could use a stereo to listen to Christian music in my morning devotions. Now I would never try to force you to accept my moral beliefs in this regard because, as you said, everything is relative and we shouldn't force our ideas on others. But surely you aren't going to force on me your belief that it is wrong to steal your stereo, are you? You know what I think? I think that you espouse relativism in areas of your life where it's convenient, say in sexual morality, or in areas about which you do not care, but when it comes to someone stealing your stereo or criticizing your own moral hobbyhorses, I suspect that you become a moral absolutist pretty quickly, don't you?'”
Now, we may smile and think that such a story is clever and insightful, but pay attention to that final sentence because it indicates what the major fallacy of relativism is – it cannot be applied consistently. In other words it is a self-defeating system from the beginning. You see, if you say there are no absolutes you are making an assertion – a truth claim about the nature of existence. But in making that statement you violate it – if it is true that there are no absolutes, then the statement itself is false because such an assertion claims that there is absolutely an absence of absolutes or absolutely no absolutes.
Folks, this is more than just semantics – as the illustration demonstrates. If it is true – or maybe to avoid confusion let’s say it this way – if it is correct that there is no absolute truth in which to ground an absolute morality then the Marquis de Sade was right when he said, “"Nothing is forbidden by nature… Justice has no real existence, it is the deity of every passion. . . . So let us abandon our belief in this fiction, it no more exists than does the God of whom fools believe it the image; there is no God in this world, neither is there virtue, neither is there justice; there is nothing good, useful, or necessary but our passions."
Look, if we accept the claim that our moral and ethical standards are but social conventions – pragmatic standards adopted by society to promote order – our standards will continue to shift and morph as society shifts and morphs. In other words, there is nothing to restrain us and we might as well do what seems right in our own eyes. And since there is no set standard, then we have no real basis for saying that anything is right or wrong – think about that for a moment. If truth is relative, then the pedophile has every right to pursue and woo underage children for his own sexual gratification. If moral relativism is true, then we have no basis for judging anything to be wrong or right. All things become permissible and despite how offensive something may be to us, we have nothing to say.
The Christian perspective or view of Morality, however, (or perhaps it would be more accurately expressed as a view of Moral Law) is that there exists an objective moral law established in creation and finding its source in the person and character of God. In other words, there are objective laws which govern all cultures and societies and by which all cultures and societies are judged. These laws are inescapable, much like the physical laws that govern the universe, although the consequences of challenging them are not as obvious.
For instance, if one neglects the law of gravity or challenges it, the result is a fall and possible physical injury. However, if one breaks the moral law the result is a broken relationship, which may or may not manifest in observable misery.
Because the moral law finds its source (it is a reflection) of the person and character of God, it is also timeless. It not only spans every culture and people group, it also spans every age. So this means is that the moral norms for Abraham and Moses are the same norms we have today. There may be variation in the application of the moral law, but the law remains authoritative and unchanged.
We find the reality (the truth) of an objective morality in Scripture, for instance in Romans 1:20
“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.”
Paul here is building his case that all men are morally responsible before God for their actions and have violated God’s moral law, not because they were ignorant of it, but because they suppressed the truth with a lie. Instead of doing what God had implanted in their heart as what is right they acted out of their own self-interest, becoming a law to themselves. Without Christ, the result is condemnation.
Likewise, Christian theism holds that ethics are absolute since they are rooted in an objective morality that finds its source in the character and person of God. In other words, we believe that God determines what is right and what is wrong and that he reveals to us what is right and what is wrong through special revelation – that is his Word. That is why Paul could write to his protégé Timothy that even though he was teaching a Hebrew faith among a Greek culture, he could do so with all confidence because
All Scripture is God-breathed [inspired by God] and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:16-17
This means that the morals and ethics found in Scripture transcend both time and culture and can be applied universally. Since they find their source in God and how his character is expressed in the words of Scripture they are by nature absolute – that is, they are grounded and rooted in Christ and remain unchangeable despite the passage of time and the shifting of culture. Their application may vary to address evolving cultural issues, but the standard they set concerning what is right and wrong, good and evil remains consistent.
Are you beginning to see why this talk of worldview is so important? This is more than just some esoteric, philosophical discussion – something a bunch of egg-heads with too much time on their hands sit around sipping coffee and arguing over. This is real-life stuff that impacts absolutely every sphere of life because it determines how you see things, which determines how you act in and feel about any and every situation. It is absolutely unavoidable – you will live out your worldview, as will your children; they will live out the worldview that you impart to them both by what you teach them formally and informally. They will act the way they see you act – this why all this worldview stuff is so important; why it is so necessary that you make a conscientious effort to build your family altar upon the only sure foundation – Jesus Christ and him crucified.
It is time to examine ourselves – to honestly assess where we are getting our worldview data from and how it is shaping the way see the world and how we act in it. Where we find vain philosophy and human tradition driving our thoughts let us cast them aside and turn to the Scriptures for wisdom. Let us build our homes upon the only foundation that will stand in the storm – the Rock, Jesus Christ.
Moreland, J.P. Love Your God With All Your Mind (NavPress, 1997) pp. 153-54.
Storms, Sam http://www.enjoyinggodministries.com/article/moral-relativism/
