Believers Armed and Dangerous

Last week, we looked at a few ways the world was changed by the arrival of Christ, His teachings, and the lives of His followers.  We’ll look at a couple more today and see how the ministry of Jesus did not just change our lives spiritually but also the entire Western culture and worldview.

Respect for women

Galatians 3:28 (ESV)   There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Before the time of Christ, women were treated as little more than slaves.  The man was the omnipotent ruler in charge of his wife.  In Greek culture, a man of means had two women in his life: a wife with whom to have and raise a family, and a mistress for other pleasures.  The wife was not allowed to speak to the husbands friends, attend social gatherings with him – including dinners in their own home – or even to be seen in public unattended by a male, usually a servant was assigned the task of watching her.  The wife could not divorce her husband, but he could do so at any time.

The mistress, on the other hand, was the man’s companion at social and public gatherings, she was his companion and sexual partner.

This began to change at the coming of Christ.  Men were told to love their wives sacrificially (Eph. 5:23).  Women could be leaders in the church (2 John 1:1; 1 Tim. 3:11).  There were women who prophesied (Acts. 21:9), it was women who first saw Jesus had risen and women who testified to others in the church about it.  Men and women now were to hold equal standing (Gal. 3:28).  This was all very strange and very threatening to the culture of the time.  We can thank God, then, for the freedoms and dignity women in the West enjoy today.

Education

Acts 5:42 (ESV) And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus.

In the first century world, education was only for the elite, the wealthy.  Only they had the money and time for teachers and mentors.  The church changed that.  Church meetings included teaching sessions.  Proselytes were taught the basics of the faith and were questioned about what they had learned before baptism.  Many of the early creeds of the church were used for this very purpose.

Christianity is not a blind faith but a faith founded on fact.  Those facts must be conveyed and explained to the followers of Christ so they can more effectively understand the faith and better share it with others.  Our salvation is based on faith – which leaves out no one – but study is expected of the believer as well (2 Tim. 2:15). 

The first public schools appear to have been created by Christians in Germany through the efforts of Martin Luther, Philipp Melanchthon, and Johannes Bugenhagen.  These men felt education should be for everyone and would be beneficial to society to such an extent that the government must be persuaded to fund it.  It was Christians who first began graded education, education for the blind and deaf, and it was Christians who established the first universities.  While the Greeks first treasured the idea of higher education, it was the Christians who first combined campuses, faculties of scholars, and libraries for the sole purpose of education.

In 1780 Scottish printer, Robert Raikes saw the need to help the poor who had little or no education.  He was especially concerned with the children.  Since poor children of that time often worked twelve-hour days six days a week, he struck on the idea of a school on Sundays when the children were available.  So, from 10:00 until noon each Sunday, Raikes began to teach these children the Bible.  He soon realized the children could not read, though, so his first objective became teaching them to read and write.

Many pious clergy and laymen sought to end Raikes’ efforts and restore the “sanctity of Sunday,” but leaders including John Newton, John and Charles Wesley, and others persuaded them differently.  Raikes’ Sunday school was a great success helping the people of his day out of poverty and ignorance in the name of Christ.  The Sunday Schools we see in churches today are not the same as what Raikes began, but they are still a powerful educational arm of Christ’s church.

Next week we’ll look at Christianity’s influence on science, labor, and more.

Philippians 2:3-4 (ESV)
³  Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. ⁴  Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Recently, I fell into a discussion about how much a particular cult was doing for God.  As a result, I began to review the things I knew about Christian history and returned to a book my wife and I had read 10 years ago, How Christianity Changed the World, by Alvin Schmidt. Here are some of the points Schmidt makes.

While many atrocities have been done throughout history in the name of Christ, they were not done according to the teachings of Christ.  Most of the major beneficial changes in the history of the Western World have come through the actions and philosophy of Christians.

The Sanctity of Life

  In the ancient Roman world, life held little value.  The slaughter in the Coliseum claimed many thousands of lives in the name of free entertainment for the citizens.  One consequence of devaluing life was the Roman practice of throwing unwanted infants into the Tiber River to drown.  Beginning in the first century, Christians would rescue these children from certain death and raise them as their own.

Of course, today, we see Christians at the head of pro-life causes in the United States.  As with slavery, this is an evil against which desent people must stand.  Christians are at the forefront.

Slavery

     While slavery was practiced in both Old and New Testament times, the New Testament taught slaves were equal to their masters, that they would need to be treated as brothers and sisters in Christ.  It was legal, accepted, and even expected to kill a runaway slave. In the little New Testament book of Philemon, the slave master is asked to forgive his runaway slave, Onesimus, and accept him as a Christian brother.

     Many preachers in the American South before the Civil War taught slavery was God’s way, that the black man was born to serve the white man, and that the black man was inferior and good only for manual labor.  We often forget it was the Christians who created the Underground Railroad.  It was Christian activists who were the abolitionists.  It was the Christian abolitionists who helped form the Republican Party in order to fight slavery on a grander scale, to change the heart of a nation.

Later in American history, Reverend Martin Luther King fought segregation and bigotry in our land as a Christian principle.  King was a Christian and a lifelong Republican. Two things seldom mentioned today.

Healthcare

     Dionysius of Alexandria tells of a plague in that great city in 250 A.D., how the pagan Romans would turn from the sick, even from their close friends.  They would leave them in the road to die and treat their bodies with contempt letting them rot where they lay.  He describes how the Christians treated the sick: Very many of our brethren, while in their exceeding love and brotherly kindness, did not spare themselves, but kept by each other, and visited the sick without thought of their own peril, and ministered to them assiduously and treated them for their healing in Christ, died from time to time most joyfully…

     Once Christianity was legalized by Constantine in the early fourth century, Christians began to establish public health care facilities.  The Council of Nicea (325 A.D.) issued an edict that a hospice was to be established in every city that had a cathedral.  While the main purpose of these hospices was to nurse the sick, they also provided shelter for the poor and lodging for Christian pilgrims.  All this was based on the examples Jesus gave us of healing the sick and helping the poor and coming to the aid of strangers.

     Still more can be said of the changes to world history created by the ideas that we are to love our neighbors.  We’ll look at those in the next blog. 

There have been times when we’ve shared the gospel with someone who became insulting and antagonistic quickly and seemingly without cause.  We only found out later that there was a lot more going on in their life than my witnessing. 

The problem may be them, but sometimes it lies with us.  Maybe we’re occasionally less than kind in our approach even though 1 Peter 3:15 says we’re supposed to be gentle and respectful.  At times, though, there’s an unseen wall we’re facing.                                                                                                        

Many years ago I spoke with a Jehovah’s Witness named Mel who had been a Witness for most of his life. As we talked, he confided in me that his daughter had died a painful death.  Blood transfusions should have been part of her treatment, but as a good Jehovah’s Witness, she refused the transfusions and eventually died.  She “suffered for Jehovah,” Mel told me.

As he and I continued to meet, he began to understand what I was telling him about the love of Christ and the errors of the Watchtower were true.  He told me at our last meeting, though, that he could never accept the Christian God because he would also have to accept that he had persuaded his little girl to die for a lie and she would be have been cast into outer darkness for the beliefs he had taught her.  On top of that, Mel would have lost all of his social life and most family contact since his entire family was Jehovah’s Witnesses.  They would be required to shun him if he left the Watchtower organization.  There was a huge wall standing between Mel and accepting the truth.

Some people are like Mel who may even know what they believe is wrong but will hang in there for other reasons. 

A person might be fighting against your witness because they were hurt by a church experience.  Maybe they’re so angry with God, they want nothing to do with Him.  Any offer of salvation falls on deaf ears.  Maybe it’s a personal tragedy or an abused childhood and they blame God.  We often just don’t know what walls we’re facing.

So, how do we scale these walls?  How do we help hurting people, scared people, scarred people?  We love them.  We don’t speak louder.  We don’t exclude them from our circle of friends.  We love them.

We can’t convince them with words because they won’t listen.  We have to show them.  It may take some time for them to see, but we need to be patient and persistent.  The Spirit of God lives in us.  Let’s allow Him to love others through us.

The parable of the Good Samaritan shows us that there should be no limit to who we love either.  Everyone is our neighbor.  The Samaritan and the Jewish victim had very little in common.  They were separated by religion, by geography, by ethnicity, and by prejudice.  Yet, Jesus uses the Samaritan to show who our neighbor is, who we’re supposed to love.  We’re to love everyone.

So, we need to be sensitive and understand that those who need the gospel may not be willing or even looking to receive it due to circumstances beyond our control.  But, God is faithful and not willing that any should perish.  We must be Christians to them and for them.

Boldness

Boldness in our Christian walk is something we all desire.  We read in Scripture of Daniel’s friends standing before Nebuchadnezzar and telling him to stick it in his ear, they would not worship his idol but only our Lord.

Then there’s Paul who stood before the philosophers at the Areopagus in Acts 17 witnessing to the greatest Greek thinkers of his day.  He stood before Felix, the Roman Governor and eventually before Nero and shared Christ with them as well.

What is it that gives our Christian heroes such boldness and how can we gain that same courage?

Scripture says we can gain boldness by hearing the stories of others who stand strongly or watching the actions of bold Christians:

Philippians 1:14 (ESV) And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.

And how about Acts chapter 4 where Peter and John boldly spoke to the people in Jerusalem in Solomon’s Portico at the temple?  That seems pretty bold.  Then they were arrested and taken before the High Priest, the most powerful man in all their culture and warned not to continue to share Christ with others.  They boldly told him and his minions they cannot keep quiet about the Lord they know.  After their release, they gather with other Christians and pray for boldness.  Pray for boldness??  What was it they were just exhibiting?  Just what level of courage must we reach before we can stand as they stood?

I think these examples show us boldness is not necessarily a constant state of mind but a courage that overcomes us as we need it.  Corrie Ten Boom, a modern day Christian hero in her own right, said, “God doesn’t give you the ticket until you’re on the train.”  So, her experience was that God will strengthen us as we need it.

It is our faith, our hope in Christ, that leads us to boldness.

Ephesians 3:11-12 (ESV)   This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, ¹²  in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him.

And I think Paul sums it up wonderfully at the end of that chapter:

Ephesians 3:20-21 (ESV)
²⁰  Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

It is Christ in us using our faith.  It is us understanding our hope and weighing the importance of our opportunity to share against the “light affliction” (2 Cor. 4:17) we might suffer as a consequence.

Let us emulate Athanasius who, in the end of the third and beginning of the fourth centuries stood for the truth against Arias, the bishop of Alexandria and even the Emperor Constantine.  He was told by Arias, “It’s the world against Athanasius.”  In reply, Athanasius stood and said, “No, it’s Athanasius against the world.”

God has done so much for us.  It’s immeasurable.  And, often we wonder just what we can do for Him.  Actually, Jesus was once asked the very thing:

John 6:28 (ESV) ²⁸  Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?”

Jesus answer was simple:

John 6:29 (ESV) ²⁹  Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

Well, that’s easy enough, isn’t it?  We just need to believe in Jesus.  Romans 10:9 tells us just what that means:

Romans 10:9 (ESV) ⁹  because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

So, a belief in Jesus includes believing He is the Lord God and that He was raised from the dead.  But, then what? 

A belief of this sort in Jesus causes a change in those who follow Him.  God’s Spirit comes to dwell in us.  Our minds and hearts are changed in so many areas.  The faith we gain encourages “sanctification”, the process of God moving in our lives to make us more like Him.  James talks about it in James chapter 2:

James 2:14 (ESV) ¹⁴  What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?

If we read the entire passage in James, we see James isn’t saying works are required for salvation.  He’s saying that a faith that saves us, a belief in Jesus as we saw above, making Jesus Lord of our lives, naturally produces works that please God.

It all comes full circle, then.  The work that pleases God is a belief in Jesus, but a belief in Jesus produces works that please God.  So, is God super excited when we climb that mountain of faith for Him?  Do we get a star on our report card if we help that lady across the street, work in a homeless shelter, or go on the mission field?  Jesus addressed that, too.

Luke 17:7-10 (ESV) ⁷  “Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and recline at table’? ⁸  Will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink’? ⁹  Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded?
¹⁰  So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’”

I think we see where the rewards come in, though, when Jesus speaks of His kingdom in the parable of the talents:

Matthew 25:23 (ESV)  ²³  His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’

Our reward is not here on earth.  Through God’s grace, we have joys, pleasures, provision, and love here.  Those are ours because of God’s love for His children.  But, our real reward will be to look into His eyes and to hear, “Well done!”

“Given gravity and enough helium, I can explain the universe.”  You may have heard this quote before.  I’ve been unable to find the source, but it’s fairly common on the internet today.  This view is called Materialism. 

We’re not talking about the type of materialism we see at the mall or at the tool section of the hardware store.  Materialism is also the name for the belief that all that exists came from the forces of nature and mass.  Webster defines it this way:  “the doctrine that nothing exists except matter and its movements and modifications.  The doctrine that consciousness and will are wholly due to material agency.”

Put another way, given enough time, the laws of physics, and enough hydrogen and the hydrogen will eventually contemplate itself.  There is nothing outside the physical universe.

We should take exception to that.  As we’ve seen in this blog before, non-physical things exist: the laws of physics, the laws of logic, statements, ideas and consciousness, for instance.

Let’s look at ideas and consciousness.  What is an idea.  Well, some materialists would say an idea is something that exists in the brain.  The cells through electrical charges can hold onto ideas and even contemplate them.  The materialist might say, “In that way, ideas are physical, material.”  But how about when we exchange ideas.  The idea I just stated is now your idea.  I didn’t transfer any gray matter your way.  I didn’t even have to meet you.  You’ve looked at a series of scribbles on a screen and understood something that was not present in those scribbles themselves.  How does that happen?

For ideas to be conveyed, we need not only conscious beings but beings that can understand those ideas and act on them if necessary.  Really low functioning animals can do this.  My dogs come when I convey to them there are dog treats available.  So, the idea has been transferred from my mind to theirs.  Pretty nifty, eh?

Consciousness is a fairly important problem right now in scientific circles.  Just how does cold inert matter later become self-reflective?  How can gravity, matter, and time eventually become something which contemplates gravity, matter, and time?

 Then there is the “Binding Problem” neuroscience is facing.  The Binding Problem works this way:  When you look at a computer screen, a part of your brain recognizes the shape of the screen, another part of your brain sees the colors, a third portion of your brain sees the scribbling on the screen, a fourth part of your brain understands the scribbling to convey information, and a fifth part processes that information.  When we look at the screen, though, we don’t worry about all those factors.  In our mind, they all bind together as one event.  Neuroscience doesn’t understand how that can happen in the brain.  And, the brain is where it has to happen because that’s the physical place that these events reside.  There can’t be a non-physical ingredient, a soul.  That wouldn’t be scientific.  So, scientists continue to look for their answer where it likely doesn’t exist.  The problem here, then, is no longer the facts but scientism standing in the way.

Scientism is the belief that science has solved so many problems that it can solve all problems, answer all questions.  Science presupposes a physical universe where nothing non-physical exists.  So, science is materialistic and must exclude the possibility of the supernatural as “unscientific”.  So, any supernatural answer to a question is rejected and only a physical reason can be sought.  This is why Intelligent Design (ID) is rejected by so many in mainstream science.  It appears to give a supernatural answer to the question of how matter became self-aware. 

Now ID isn’t claiming a god exists, only that a higher intellect designed and created what we see in the universe.  There is just too much order, too much complexity to suggest it all came from natural causes.  ID says there appears to be a greater consciousness than ours that did all this. 

Because materialism has limited itself to only looking at physical causes for events, they are missing out on much more logical answers.  It reminds me of the man who was crawling around under a street light on a city sidewalk at night.  A cop stopped to ask what he was doing, and the man said he had dropped the engagement ring he was going to give his girlfriend that evening.  The cop helped him look for a while then asked the man if he was sure this is where he dropped it.  The man’s reply was, “No.  I dropped it over there, but the light is much better here.”

Materialism will not bring us to all truth.  There is more to this universe and outside this universe than just matter in motion.

We hear about both false teachers and false prophets in the Bible.  But, what are each of these, and how do they differ?  Let me use my favorite cult, Jehovah’s Witnesses, as an example of both false teachers and false prophets.

False teachers are people within the body of Christ, the church, who teach non-biblical doctrine and try to draw people into their error.  C. T. Russell, the founder of the Watchtower Society is a good example.  He was part of the Adventist Movement in the late 19th century, the movement that brought us today’s Seventh Day Adventist.  But, because of his doctrinal errors and he continually pushed these as biblical, he left the movement in 1881 and started the Zion’s Watchtower and Tract Society, later to be known as the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society.  Russell was a false teacher.  He continually taught false doctrines.

False prophets are a little different.  While false teachers teach false doctrine, a false prophet takes it a little further.  He falsely claims to speak in God’s name and to predict things that are to come.

Deuteronomy 18:21-22 (ESV)
²¹  And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the LORD has not spoken?’—
²²  when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.

The two tests of a prophet are the same today as they were when Deuteronomy was written.  If someone (1) speaks in the Name of the Lord and (2) what he predicts doesn’t come to pass, he is a false prophet , and you shouldn’t listen to him.  Giving an opinion something will happen or even making a personal prediction do not make you a false prophet.   Claiming it’s God’s prediction is the key.

So, false teachers pervert God’s Word, and false prophets make predictions in God’s name that do not come to pass.  Have we ever seen someone speak in God’s name predict something that didn’t come to pass?

In the April 1, 1972 Watchtower Magazine, in an article entitled, “They Shall Know That A Prophet Was Among Them,” the magazine asked this question: “So, does Jehovah have a prophet to help them, to warn them of dangers and to declare things to come?  These questions can be answered in the affirmative.  Who is this prophet?”  In the next paragraph, the magazine identifies that prophet:  “This ‘prophet’ was not one man, but was a body of men and women.  It was a small group of footstep followers of Jesus Christ, known at that time as International Bible Students.  Today they are known as Jehovah’s Christian witnesses.”  The entire article points to the claim  that Jehovah’s Witnesses in general and, the Watchtower Society in particular, are God’s prophet.  They speak in God’s name.

So, did “God’s Prophet” ever predict anything which did not come to pass?

“In this chapter we present the Bible evidence proving that the full end of the times of the Gentiles, i. e., the full end of their lease of dominion, will be reached in A. D. 1914; and that that date will be the farthest limit of the rule of imperfect men.”  (The Time is at Hand, Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, 1909 edition p. 76)

That’s a false prophet. (See also https://answersaz.com/1914-2/ for more on Watchtower Predictions)

Be careful, though.  The temptation to identify everyone as a false teacher is great.  Don’t let it get a hold on you.  Just because someone teaches something you disagree with is not evidence of false teaching.  In Matthew 18:15-17, Jesus lays out just how you should address any differences whether doctrinal or personal:

Matthew 18:15-17 (ESV)
¹⁵  “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.
¹⁶  But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.
¹⁷  If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.

You may be wrong and falsely accusing someone when all they did was misspeak or make a mistake.  You may also be wrong yourself.  Jesus set up a great system here.  Use it.

In the last blog, we looked at moral relativism which teaches that all moral systems are equal.  In other words, if I think it’s immoral to pick my nose in public but you think it’s okay, then I have no right to criticize you for your public nose-picking.  Of course, public nose-picking isn’t the problem.  It’s when we get to more important issues like abortion, war, murder, and such.  Then moral standards truly become an issue.  Is there an absolute standard, or as philosophers like to call it, an objective standard for morality?

Greg Koukl of Stand To Reason (str.org) tells the story of asking people at random whether it was wrong to torture babies for the fun of it.  He often got a response something like, “Well, I wouldn’t do it myself, but I don’t know if I could call it ‘wrong'”.  This should be frightening to us all.  Someone’s moral standard is so low as to not condemn the torturing of infants for no reason than sadism is terrifying.

So, the question arises, “From what source, then, do we get our moral standard?”  There are only three major possible sources.

1.  Personal standards – Someone’s moral standard is one they’ve set for themselves.  Some might think so long as it’s not hurting anyone, it’s moral, or whatever benefits me is moral.  Ted Bundy, the serial killer, used to discuss what he was about to do to his victims before killing them.  His argument was that personal moral standards were all he had to go by, and since his standard was that it was okay to kill someone if it benefited him, even if it was just to make him happy, it was moral.  This of course, would cause chaos as we all live by our own standards.
2. Cultural or societal standards – Cultural standards are that a culture or society can set its own moral standards.  It’s more than just saying, “What’s legal is what’s moral.”  It’s more what is tolerated is moral.  We see this in the United States today.  We believe all moral standards should be tolerated.  Of course, the definition of “tolerance” has been changed from allowing a particular standard to exist to acceptance then allowance, and now to endorsement.  Morality based on a society or culture would mean we would need to accept Nazism since it was a cultural and societal norm.  Abortion has become this in our American culture today.  Because it is accepted by many is not evidence of morality.  Killing babies for your own personal freedom is destructive to our society.  We value each other less as life becomes cheap.
3. A Higher Source – We need to seek morality from a higher source, and evidence shows that that Higher Source has proved to be that moral standard.  Certain universal/objective moral standards exist.  Every culture on earth sees torturing infants for the fun of it as immoral.  From the lowly isolated tribesmen to the great industrial countries, it is held to be immoral to torture babies for the fun of it.  This standard was not inherited from other cultures.  The isolated tribes believed it long before modern man touched their cultures.  So, where would this universal moral standard come from?  From some outside Source able to influence all morally sensitive creatures on earth. 

So, there are objective/absolute standards.  We cannot successfully create our own either as individuals or as a society.  For people to exist successfully, moral standards agreed upon by all except the deviants must be adhered to.  We cannot be the highest moral entities since morality cannot rest upon us.  To believe we are would be more than presumptuous, it would be self-deluding.  There is a Source higher than man which sets the moral standard.

Since objective moral  standards are, by nature, an organization of values, then we must believe moral standards come from an Agency and have not risen accidentally.  That Agent need not be omnipresent, omnipotent, etc., but It must just be at a higher level than we are and able to heavily influence all mankind as a whole.

Relativism is something we face every day in America.  Relativism is the idea that all points of view are equally valid.  It comes in many forms.   General relativism is the most familiar: “There are no absolutes”.  Moral relativism is another: “Who are you to say it’s wrong to have an abortion?”.  The third major form is cultural relativism, “All cultures are equally moral and valid.”

We think it’s a new thing, but really, it’s been around for nearly as long as man has walked the earth. 

Judges 17:6 (ESV) ⁶  In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

We do it all the time ourselves.  We value our own viewpoint against God’s commands.  We call that sin.

Relativism is seldom taught as valid in philosophy classes anymore because it has been pointed out that all three major forms of relativism are self-refuting like saying, “I can’t write a word of English.”  That notion is false on its face.  If you’ve written a sentence in English, it’s obvious you can write a word of English.

General relativism, “There are no absolutes,” is self-refuting in that it claims there is at least one absolute: “There are no absolutes.”   A logic professor of mine was a relativist and believed there were no absolutes.  Early in the course of evening classes, he showed a form of logic which requires a particular conclusion if the premises are correctly presented.  I asked him if that was always true.  He said, “Yes.”  “Every time?”, I asked.  He said, “Yes.”  “Without exception?”, he said “Yes” getting a little frustrated by my continuing to ask the same question.  Then I said, “Then there are absolutes.”  The look on his face changed.  He realized either he was teaching us a lie, or his belief that there were no absolutes was wrong.  This took place at the beginning of a three-hour class, and he was visibly effected throughout the three hours as his worldview had been dashed.  General relativism is self-refuting.

But, what about moral relativism?  The same logical problem arises.  What moral relativism really says is that all moral standards are equally valid.  Well, in practice, it boils down to “all moral standards except mine are equal.”  My standard that all moral standards are equal is superior to those who think biblical moral standards are the standards to live by.  Since my moral standard is superior, that refutes the idea that all are equal.

The third, cultural relativism, still faces the same problem.  I had a Sociology professor that was a cultural relativist.  He would go on and on about how all cultures are equal and that we have no right to criticize other cultures.  When asked if Nazism was equal to the culture of the Jews it killed, he backed away.  He was later asked, “If all cultures are equal, what about cultures that don’t think all cultures are equal? Is a culture which believes all cultures superior to those who don’t think that.”  Of course, he saw his dilemma.

So, when someone tells us there are no absolutes or there are no basic moral values, or there is no culture that’s superior to another, just ask them the questions above and see them try to collect the pieces of their broken worldview.

Next week we’ll look at moral absolutes.  Is it truly morally wrong to steal, rape, murder, and how do we know?

The year Disneyland first opened Star Tours, my family just had to experience the ride.  In case you’re not familiar with the  attraction, it’s pretty much just a large flight simulator synced to a video appearing in the ride’s “windows”.  Of course, they’re not really windows but video screens.  But, the forces a passenger feels are so realistic and so well match the video that you become convinced you’re really in a space craft zooming through space.

How do they do this?  They can convince you certain forces are at work, acceleration, braking, banking, climbing, etc., by tipping the “craft” in various ways.  You have no true point of reference since there aren’t any real windows.  You are forced to rely upon the fake reference points the video screens give you. You see only what they want you to see.

Many false religions and Cults work much the same way.  They put you in a “box” which is isolated from the outside world.  You’re told not to associate with outsiders except, perhaps. to evangelize them.  Your friends and family within the organization become your only world.  You’re presented with an alternate reality with the organization’s evidences as the only source of information.  You’re limited solely to the resources the organization offers.  As the leadership tips, turns, and shakes your “box,” you become convinced reality is what they’re telling you, not what little you see of the outside world.  You live in a world that is nothing more than illusion.

In addition, there’s an operator working the controls trying to convince you his way is the truth.

2 Corinthians 4:3-4 (ESV)
³  And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. ⁴  In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

There are other Jesuses out there, other gospels, even other Bibles.  Those are just video screens presented to give you a biased view of the world, God, and how He works. 

2 Corinthians 11:3-4 (ESV)
³  But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.  ⁴  For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.

Sadly, the passengers in this “box” become so acclimated that they no longer can see the world for what it is.  They’re like prisoners who have been institutionalized.  They can’t live outside, so they want to stay in no matter what the cost.

Most cultists and members of false religions are sincere people following a person or organization and blindly believing all they are told.  Family members weep over them.  Friends pray for them.  Christians seek to help them see the light of Christ.  Eventually, the Holy Spirit gets through to many, and they will come out into the light of day.  Some even inspect the box and the mechanism, the organization that made them believe the deception they lived.

Our job as Christians is to love these people and show them the real world and shine God’s light on the tour they have been dedicated to. 

A friend who is an ex-cultist told me recently that she disbelieved all the stories and truths she was told and the love she was shown by Christians and others.  She was certain she knew the truth.  But, once she began to doubt she was in the truth, all those stories, all those truths, and all that love came flooding back to her mind.

She’s now a Christian trying to help other cultists find their way to the exit on a ride that, to them, seems so real. 

People come to Christ.  They might be atheists, cultists, or they just don’t have a belief, but they come to Christ.  We must never give up on them. We must also be aware of the traps that are out there and not step into the box ourselves.