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Current Moral Issues from a Biblical Perspective
by Samuel E. Ward
Introduction
Charles Colson and Nancy Pearson write in How Now Shall We Live
Understanding Christianity as a total life system is absolutely essential, for two reasons. First, it enables us to make sense of the world we live in and thus order our lives more rationally. Secondly, it enables us to understand forces hostile to our faith, equipping us to evangelize and to defend Christian truth as God's instruments for transforming culture.
Because the world was created by an intelligent being rather than by chance, it has an intelligible order. As Andrew Kuyper wrote, "All created life necessarily bears in itself a law for its existence, instituted by God Himself." The only way to live a rational and healthy life is to ascertain the nature of these divine laws and ordinances and then to use them as the basis how we should live. We tend to understand this principle very well when it comes to the physical order. We know that certain laws exist in the physical world and that if we defy those laws, we pay a steep price. Ignoring the law of gravity can have very unpleasant consequences if we happen to be walking off the edge of a cliff. To life in defiance of known physical laws is the height of folly.
But it is no different with the moral laws prescribing human behavior. Just as certain physical actions produce predictable consequences, so certain moral behavior produces predictable consequences. Adultery may be portrayed as glamorous by Hollywood, but it invariably produces anger, jealousy, broken relationships, even violence. Defiance of moral laws may even lead to death, whether it is the speeding drunk who kills a mother on her way to the store or the drug addict who contracts and spreads AIDS. No transgression of moral law is without painful consequences.
If we want to live healthy, well-balanced lives, we had better know the laws and ordinances by which God has structured creation. And because there are laws of our own inner nature, Kuyper notes, we will experience them not as oppressive external constraints but as "a guide through the desert," guaranteeing our safety.
-- Charles Colson with Nancy Pearcy, How Now Shall We Live (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 1999. p.16.
The primary question we need to consider is "Who is God that He should tell me what to do?" It is an ancient question that was asked as early as c. 1450 B. C. when God commanded Pharaoh through Moses to "Let my people go!" Pharaoh's response is recorded in Exodus 5:2, "Who is the LORD, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD and I will not let Israel go."
Let us first answer the question and then consider some related
He is Creator, Gen 1:1.
I. There Are at Least Two Truths that Naturally Follow
A. All things and people belong to God by virtue of His creation, Psa 100:1-3; Isa 45:11-12; Rev 4:11.
Psalms 100:1-3 (NIV) 1Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth. 2Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. 3Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
Isaiah 45:11-12 (NIV) 11"This is what the LORD says—the Holy One of Israel, and its Maker: Concerning things to come, do you question me about my children, or give me orders about the work of my hands? 12It is I who made the earth and created mankind upon it. My own hands stretched out the heavens; I marshaled their starry hosts.
Revelation 4:11 (NIV) 11"You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being."
B. All things and people belong to God's purposes by virtue of His creation, Col 1:16.
Colossians 1:16 (NIV) 16For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.
II. What God Creates Is Intrinsically Good. Gen 1:4,10,12,18,21,25; 3:6.
When created by God. . .
ü Light was good, Gen 1:4.
ü The land and the seas were good, Gen 1:10.
ü The plants and trees were good, Gen 1:12.
ü The sun and moon were good, Gen 1:18.
ü The creatures of the sea and air were good, Gen 1:21.
ü The land animals were good, Gen 1:25
III. Man Was Created to Serve and Obey God, Gen 2:4-5,15.
Genesis 2:4-5, 15 (NIV) 4This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created. When the LORD God made the earth and the heavens— 5and no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth and no plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the LORD God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no man to work the ground, . . . 15The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.
John H. Sailhamer makes note of the Hebrew text here where the words translated "to work it" and "to keep it" in the NIV ("dress it" and "keep it" in the KJV) are perhaps an error which shows up in the Greek translation of the Old Testament (the Septuagint) due to an improper masculine suffix placed at the end of two words that in the Hebrew text are feminine. The words are quite frequently (and almost exclusively when associated with man's relationship with God) translated "to serve" and "to obey". It is the masculine ending added to these words in the Septuagint that caused translators to erroneously, though understandably, render the object of the infinitives to be the Garden of Eden. Thus the better translation might be, "The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to serve and obey." (Gen 2:15 NIV) This interpretation also takes away the problem of Adam and Eve's assignment to tilling the ground before the Fall, an assignment that was clearly meant to be the consequence of disobedience and not a privilege.
Consider.
1. 'Abad, "to serve", can refer to one who serves the ground by tilling it (Gen 3:23), serves men as a slave (Gen 15:13-14), or serve the Lord by worshipping Him (Ex 3:11-12; 7:16)
2.. shamar, "to keep" (or obey), is often used in connection with keeping God's covenant or commands, Gen 17:9, 10; 18:19; 26:5.
IV. God Knows the Value of Companionship and Communion, Gen 2:18, 20-25.
Genesis 2:18, 20-25 (NIV) 18The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him. . . . 20So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field. But for Adam no suitable helper was found. 21So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh. 22Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. 23The man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman,'
for she was taken out of man." 24For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. 25The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.
The most fulfilling and complete human relationship possible is to be found in the marital relationship. Why?
A. Marriage was ordained by God to unite man and woman into a relationship that is described as "one flesh". After marriage, "we" are one and "I" am always a part of the other. Nothing can affect me without affecting us, good or bad. "We" celebrate the good together and seek to promote it, and "we" survive the bad by supporting each other, .
B. Marriage was ordained to satisfy our deepest needs for loving and being loved in a way that no friend or casual relationship can. That is why God says we must break free from the relationship that had once been our place of refuge and growth (provided by our fathers and mothers) to enter into an even stronger intimate one where we provide a place of refuge for another. God intends the bond between husband and wife to become stronger than that between father and son, mother and daughter, and every other possible combination.
V. God Commands Obedience But Allows Humans a Choice with Consequences, Gen 2:15-17; 3:1-7; 6:7.
Genesis 2:15-17 (NIV) 15The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."
Genesis 3:1-7 (NIV) 1Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"
2The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'"
4"You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman.
5"For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
6When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
Genesis 6:7 (NIV) 7So the LORD said, "I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them."
Observations from the text:
A. What was withheld from Adam and Eve was not something better than what they already enjoyed. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil did not taste or look any better than other like trees. It was merely one set apart from the others and therefore holy unto God.
B. What was challenged by Satan was God's right to withhold anything from Adam and Eve that they might desire for themselves, Gen 3:4-5.
C. What was suggested by Satan to Adam and Eve was a "right to autonomy", or self-rule, even as God Himself possessed.
D. What was declared by Satan was that God had deceived Adam and Eve so that they could not be gods themselves, Gen 3:5, and thus decide for themselves what was "good" or "evil."
We will use these observations in our analysis of the moral issues confronting the church as it seeks to relate to the present culture, a culture rapidly becoming anti-Christian towards it teachings and followers.
Conclusion
At the heart of every moral issue is "Who decides what is "good" or "evil?" In fact, there are those who are of the opinion that there is no such thing as "good" or "evil" but rather what is most to the advantage of the individual. They believe no one has the right to judge the behavior of another.
