"Situation Ethics versus Biblical Morality"

Two seeming straight lines which appear parallel that are even a millionth of a degree in difference, if followed far enough will eventually be miles and miles apart.  The same is true of what might appear to be simple and similar pathways as one makes life’s choices.  When such choices are pushed out to their logical end points where does one arrive?  Is that the place you want to be?  Fortunately, even if one finds themselves in such a situation there is hope!

The following is adapted from a post by a Russian Orthodox Abbott...

“Situation Ethics versus Biblical Morality”*

(In part)

“Situation ethics has become the norm for our times, having replaced the biblical ethics of past generations. In situation ethics as long as no one is hurt one can do as one pleases. Taking drugs, watching pornography and aborting the unborn child, all can come under the flag of situation ethics.

The (Church) Fathers knew that even the secret sins committed by people had an effect on the whole of the cosmos. The people who promote situation ethics would have us believe that nothing that is done in private hurts anyone. Biblical ethics tells us quite the opposite.

Love in Christ,

(Name withheld)

The Outcomes

Man is vested by God with the power to make choices but man is not vested with the power to control the outcomes.  Think for a moment about the consequences of the choices you’ve made in life. 

Some choices may have seemed slightly off track at the beginning and you knew they were wrong.  Perhaps it was, after all what is a little pleasure among friends, a small drink, a little peek, a moment of irresponsibility or any of a number of other decisions one makes.  Some seems quite innocent appearing yet were and are wrong.  Some who read this will nod in agreement that later outcomes have been most disappointing, troubling—even devastating.

Romans 1 tells the reader that God eventually is abandoned and abandons—that is God defers to a person’s choice to abandon Him.  Only God knows how many made some small choice but down range it ended in a major and catastrophic eternal failure. 

Choices!  Yet until one dies, there exists the opportunity for choosing a different pathway.  Jesus call is to all, “Come unto me all you who labor and are heavily laden and I will give you rest.”  God’s way or man’s way, at times it seems but a simple choice but the consequences are enormous and pushed out to their logical ends are eternities apart.

*Full article may be found at "Morning Offering" check blog list at right.  As well in most of my writings current cultural values are described by mores and morals as opposed to ethics which are eternal, transcendent, objective, etc. realities.

What went Wrong?

The GE CFM 56 were at idle as the KC-135R was waiting for final clearance to launch.  Soon traffic cleared the active runway and we pulled out onto the hammerhead and lined up centerline.  The aircraft commander (AC) advanced the throttles and we begin our takeoff roll.

The pilot called out airspeeds for the AC.  “S-1” came and went, then “pickle,” and finally “rotate” at which the AC pulled back on the yoke, and we went airborne.  Earlier the AC had briefed, “When we hit pickle we are going to takeoff and work our problems in the air.”  In other words, we were committed.

The names are not important.  Any of a number of them would bring up the same thought.  Yes, I admit it; I was confused—even a bit bothered.  There was the magazine publisher, the entertainer, the exotic dancer, all claimed to have become a Christian, and yet the Christian faith made no difference in their publishing, entertaining, or dancing lives.  What went wrong?

How can this be?  Isn’t a relationship with Jesus Christ supposed to change a person outlook, frame every area of one’s life, and make a difference in all one does?  Yes that is so but problems abound when faith is not the dominant influence in every facet of one’s life.   If one’s commitment to faith is anything less that total, it produces a floundering faith that does not function.

 

The point is this.  Just as that aircrew at some point in the takeoff roll was committed to launch, so too for Christianity to work, the Christian is to be totally committed.  Any less commitment will cause airplanes and Christians to crash and burn.

Choosing Reality

Not long ago, I heard about this billboard along the highway: “God is an imaginary friend—choose reality. It will be better for all of us.”

(From Our Daily Bread available at http://odb.org/2013/06/14/imaginary-friend/)

While the world would be far better off without some militant and distorted forms of “faith” for the most part people who serve and follow this “imaginary friend” have made the world a much, much better place.  In fact it is hard to imagine what the world would be like without the influence of genuine Christianity!  Placing value on human life, sexual morality, the place of women, and education, to name a few have been changed for the better by Christians. 

Alvin J. Schmidt in his book, How Christianity Changed the World tells how people who were transformed by Jesus Christ set about to make the world—their world a better place.  Sometimes it was a movement like the Abolitionist Movement or the Hospital Movement but most of the time it was as a result of people changed by Jesus Christ who set about to right wrongs. 

An example of individuals serving is that when Roman families did not want a baby because it was deformed or of the wrong gender, they would seek to dispose of the child.  Christians rescued these infants and raised them as their own children.  Even greater are the numbers of Christians who go about doing good with no notice or care about the personal costs involved.  There are many who quietly serve those in need not out of some selfish motive but simply because Christ Jesus called them to go. 

No, the billboard was wrong—reality is that without God there is no reality

at least no reality that changes people so they can then go out and change what is wrong with the world.