+JMJ+
May the Word of the Lord always be on our mind, on our lips, and in our hearts.
Come Holy Spirit...
Greetings and God bless one and all!
Moral relativism is the belief that there is no right or wrong. There is no "good" or "bad." This is often justified by people by saying that our rules, morals, etc. are "old fashioned" or "out of date." Apparently in modern times, right and wrong no longer apply in more and more people's minds. In other words, morality is relative.
But is this true? Is the Bible and church teaching out of date, old fashioned, or no longer relevant? If so, what is this belief based on?
The simply answer to that last question is, it is based on nothing. There is zero reason to believe that morality is suddenly relative and that the line between right and wrong has been erased. This is a lie that Satan has come up with to pull God's people away from Him and His teaching.
Is there evidence that God's laws are as still relevant in the year 2011 as they were in the years 1911, 1511, 1011, or even 111? Yes! There certainly is!
Malachi 3:6-7
“I the Lord do not change. (Italics mine.) So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. Ever since the time of your forefathers you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord Almighty.
Even before Christ was born, God dealt with people ignoring His laws (decrees.) And what is His response? That He does not change! Ever. God is the same in 2011 as he was thousands of years ago. He is perfect, He does not need to change. And since the Lord does not change, then neither do His laws.
God also said, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end." --Revelations 22:13.
Of course He is, because only He started everything and He can end everything as we know it. And along the way, He does not change, he has already said.
So the argument that God or His church's moral teachings are no longer relevant in this day and age does not hold up at all. He does not change. Not yesterday, not today, not tomorrow. God and His laws remain forever. God is not "old fashioned." He is the beginning and the end. Society's tolerance for immorality does not affect God in any way. We are still called to follow Him, not the world.
God gave Moses the Ten Commandments for a reason. Jesus taught the Sermon on the Mount for a reason. God gave His church the Bible for a reason. These were not temporary rules or mere suggestions that He thought might be nice for us to peruse at our leisure and follow if we feel like it, or when the world tells us it's OK. These are eternal rules to live by. From the beginning until the end. From the Lord who does not change comes moral rules that do not change. There is no relativism. Right and wrong are still clear as day. Just because society tolerates something does not mean God does. This is why Jesus tells us to not be of this world. We are not to follow the world's rules, but God's alone. The world's rules may change, but God's do not. He said He does not change, and He doesn't lie.
Jesus called Satan "the father of all lies." And the theory of moral relativism is one of Satan's biggest, and most dangerous, lies. It causes us to rebel against the Lord. It causes us to live in ways that are not in accordance with God's laws for us.
How far back has Satan been tempting us to question whether or not what God said actually applies to us? From the very beginning!
Genesis 3: 1-4
Now 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’?”
The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but 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.’”
“You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman.
We all know how that ended. Right from the start, Satan was telling us that God didn't really mean what He said, so go ahead and do what we want to do. And that became the first sin.
Moral relativism is still a sin. It is still evil. Because it is a lie and leads to rebellion against the Lord, which is exactly what Satan did himself, and exactly what he wants us to do, as well. But it is still a lie.
"I, the Lord, do not change." And neither do His rules about right and wrong, no matter what generation we live in. Reject Satan's lies, and instead embrace God's Truth.
And remember, God loves you.
Most people who identify as moral relativists would give a more nuanced definition of this position than "the belief that there is no right or wrong." You might take a look at Moral Relativism Magazine for more info.
ReplyDeleteHi MRM, thanks for the comment.
ReplyDeleteI agree that some moral relavists may have a more nuanced view than that, just as there are nuances in every philosophy, but the phrase moral relativism pretty much explains itself in a nutshell (morality is relative.) But the bottom line is that the underlying theme is a degradation of God's authority, or that somehow His rules have changed over the centuries. The point of my post was that this simply is not true. What was true before, is true now. What was, still is.