Articles
'Good, Moral People'
When Jesus was asked by the religious leaders, “By what authority are You doing these things? And who gave You this authority?” (Matt. 21:23), He did not reply, but put a question to them first: “The baptism of John—where was it from? From heaven or from men?” (Matt. 21:24, 25). They, of course, did not answer, showing themselves to be motivated by political motives over any interest in the truth. But the question of Jesus lays out for us the two possible origins of authority: from heaven or from men; it will always be one or the other.
Why should I care about this? Why should you care about this? We should all care because what we are seeing in our society today is a clear indication of what happens when we reject the authority of Christ [i.e., from heaven] and replace it with a society ruled by the authority of mere men. With Christ having been rejected, society ostensibly follows human authorities [government], but the reality is that men have only established themselves, individually, as the only authority. What is now being demonstrated is that when Christ, the supreme authority, is rejected, there is no logical reason why any one man or group of men is any more authoritative than another, or even self. If there is no supreme authority [over all men], then who is to say any one man or group of men has any authority?
This is best seen in the establishment of moral laws. When God or Christ are accepted as the supreme authority, man fashions his laws around God’s laws and God’s standards; that is the way it has been in this world, generally speaking, since man first conceived of laws. Whether an individual or a nation followed God or not, the laws that have been common to all nations and cultures have generally followed God’s moral laws, with exceptions on some of those moral laws [most notably, laws regarding sexual behaviors]. But most all societies and cultures have frowned upon dishonesty, theft, and murder. This is not to say that man has always been interested in what God demands of us regarding moral behavior, but man has rested upon what even might be called “natural law” to dictate what is and is not acceptable in his society or culture.
The declaration by militant atheists that society can live ‘morally good’ lives without God is often argued, but it is never proven. The reality of mankind is that when we remove God from the picture, moral behavior does not improve over the long run, but gets increasingly worse. We could examine essentially any culture in history [including our own, as an example], but consider a Bible example that may be familiar to us: the Gentiles.
When Paul opened his letter to the Romans, he pointed back to the generations past when the Gentiles knew God, but then rejected Him. What happened? Let Paul tell us: “although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things” (Rom. 1:21-23). And they didn’t stop there.
Having rejected God and then established themselves as wise, they replaced God with images of man and other creatures [idols, or false gods], man then began his downward spiral into immorality. “For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness” (Rom. 1:26-29). In short, there was no immoral thing man would not do. With the Supreme Authority out of the way, who was to say anything was wrong? And the true God simply stood back and watched their slow decline into what can truly be called ungodly behavior.
The outline of the Gentiles’ rejection of God and downward spiral into ungodliness is a foretelling of where we are headed, as a society and nation. We, too, once knew God but have long since failed to “glorify Him as God” and we, too, profess ourselves to be wise and have established self as the only authority. We, too, have “exchanged the natural use” and even the reality in which we were created [man or woman] and born [as individuals], for whatever we declare ourselves to be and, again, who is to say we are wrong? Those who stand up and speak truth are the ones shouted down, ridiculed, and punished.
This is not new, however, as illustrated by the Gentiles’ history; but it was also seen in the history of the Israelite nation. This nation and people, who had the knowledge of the true God, began their decline early when, after the generation of Joshua passed away, “another generation arose after them who did not know the Lord nor the work which He had done for Israel” (Jdgs. 2:10). Despite intermittent corrections and instruction of the people, we find there would be times when “everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Jdgs. 17:6; Jdgs. 21:25). It was during those times the people got further from God and His standard of morality — not closer.
It was when they had no knowledge of God that Israel then “forsook the Lord God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt; and they followed other gods from among the gods of the people who were all around them” (Jdgs. 2:12). With this pattern established, they would never again be the people that were pleasing to God [moral and holy] but a people of whom it would be said, “the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you” (Rom. 2:24), and, “She has rebelled against My judgments by doing wickedness more than the nations, and against My statutes more than the countries that are all around her; for they have refused My judgments, and they have not walked in My statutes” (Ezek. 5:6).
How sad to read that this once-great nation had declined to the point that they were more wicked than the nations God drove out because of their wickedness (Deut. 9:4)! Let us not think that this country will fare any differently if we continue down this path into more and more ungodly behaviors. Let us not think, as some might have done regarding the Gentiles, “doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God” (Rom. 2:3). Why? Because “God…will render to each one according to his deeds” (Rom. 2:9), and, “there is no partiality with God” (Rom. 2:11). We will have to answer to Him!
Let us acknowledge the truth Jesus spoke shortly before He left this earth: “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth” (Matt. 28:18). That means His standard of morality must rule, and I have no authority to make my own standard. Neither does any man. If we reject His standard, then one man’s standard is as worthless as another, and it will not be long before we descend into utter moral and societal chaos. It will not end well.
The solution is not having or electing the ‘right’ President, but acknowledging Christ as our King. — Steven Harper
