04 – The deepening crisis

You can’t take a stand for truth and justice if you can’t prove what is true and just. If any religion is evil, there must be a way to know and prove it is evil. If a person’s behavior is wrong, there must be a way to know and prove it is wrong. Opinion isn’t enough to prove what is wrong, even if everyone shares the same opinion.

Most Christians think our religion and morals are true by faith and not because of provable facts. That can’t be true, however, because that would leave us with only personal opinion and subjective experience – instead of facts – as our witnesses to the truth. By themselves, personal opinion and subjective experience carry no weight with the skeptic who (properly) expects convincing proof that the Christian worldview is true.

Because we have agreed with the skeptic that religious and moral truth are based on personal experience, Christians cannot effectively bear witness to the truth of the gospel or take a stand for social justice. Society no longer listens to us because we have agreed that our “truth” really is no more than personal opinion based only on our own experience.

What happens to a society that believes truth and justice are merely matters of personal opinion? 

Chaos grows because people have been told each person decides for himself what is right and wrong. No one’s values apply to anyone else. People have been told they are only highly evolved animals. They have been told their world is an accident. They have been told, “If it feels good, do it.” 

People inevitably reach the logical conclusion that a person should do whatever he wants to do – just don’t get caught. Each one begins to do, as the Scripture says, what is “right in his own eyes.” Most people choose what they want, not what others need.
Recent research in the United States, for example, showed that almost two-thirds of Americans approve of gambling and of couples living together outside of marriage. Almost half harbor no moral reservations about abortion or extramarital sex. About one-third see no problem with homosexuality or pornography.

Yet somehow everyone is baffled at the rise of moral chaos in society. Teenagers entertain themselves with group sex parties. A live-in boyfriend molests his partner’s child. The very sick and the very old are terminated for social convenience. Men take what they want at the point of a gun, then kill the victim to reduce the chances of getting caught.

When a society is steeped in moral chaos, the inevitable result is anarchy. Even if we don’t want to believe it, men are not by nature good. When society excuses immorality and injustice, men wonder why they should obey social rules that really are only matters of opinion. When they see others living for their own pleasure and desires, they wonder why they should deny themselves. When others take from them, they take from someone else.

Even though they have been told there are no moral absolutes, people still feel deeply about their own personal values. They see or experience injustice and recognize the evil, even if they can’t tell you how they know it is wrong.

But skeptical society gives people no standard of morality to which they can appeal for justice. Government no longer stands up for the weak and powerless. So the weak and powerless find like-minded individuals and take action, seeking to force the “evildoers” to conform to the activists’ moral values.

Anti-globalists conduct violent demonstrations against meetings of powerful elites. Animal rights activists engage in desperate actions to draw attention to their cause. Environmental militants attack chemical factories. “Pro-life” vigilantes execute abortionists. Armed gangs set up roadblocks on lonely roads. Powerful men oppress whole towns and cities.

What are people to do when chaos begins to overwhelm traditional morality? Is there no way for people to agree on what is right so they can organize a just, free, civilized society?

Think about it!
Make a list of the examples of moral chaos that concern you most.

Get involved!
Ask your church leader or Bible teacher to help you learn what the Bible says about the moral issues on your list.

Next installment
05 – The worldview dead-end

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