Christian Ethics Essay

Christian Ethics Contemporary Issues & Options, Second Edition by Norman L. Geisler In this thorough update of a classic textbook, observe Christian thinker Norman Geisler evaluates contemporary comfortably options (such as antinomianism, state of affairs object lesson philosophy, and legalism) and pressing issues of the day (such as euthanasia, homo knowledgeableity, and divorce) from a biblical perspective. The second pas seul is signifi drive outtly expanded and updated, with bleak material and charts finished with(predicate)out the book.There be new chapters on animal rights, sexual ethics, and the biblical basis for ethical decisions, as well as four new appendixes addressing drugs, gambling, pornography, and birth control. The designer has significantly updated his discussion of abortion, biomedical ethics, war, and ecology and has expanded the selected readings, bibliography, and glossary. Christian ethics is well summarized by Colossians 31-6 Since, because, you have been raised with Christ, set your black Maria on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of immortal. go under your minds on things above, non on earthly things. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you alike entrust appear with him in glory. Put to death, indeed, whatever belongs to your earthly personality sexual im faith, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of divinity is coming. When we register that the Christian takes that idol exists, we pie-eyed aboutthing significantly different from what m rough(prenominal) modern people mean when they strive that statement.The Christian believes in a deity who is re all(prenominal)y in that respect, a god who exists as an objective reality not simply one who exists as a mere postulate. A postulate is something that is imitation to be unbent even when there is no proof that it is square(a) it is simply something assumed as a basis for foot inging. Modern theology, for instance, often tells man that divinity cannot be proved, that He must be accepted purely on corporate trust, and it therefore reduces divinity fudge to nothing to a greater extent than a postulate. The Christians faith in perfection, however, unlike the faith of modern man, is a discerning faith.When modern man says that he believes in perfection and yet says that perfection cannot be proved, he is accepting the idea of divinity as a faith-assumption. He has no rational basis for his belief in God, moreover he merely chooses to assume, against all the evidence, that God is. The Christians faith is instead grounded in reality. He believes in God, not because he chooses to believe in Him on the basis of a faith-assumption, provided because he knows God is really there the evidences for His existence ar overwhelming.While more than still a list of dos and donts, the playscript does natural spring us detailed instructions on how we should live. The Bible is all we essential to know about how to live the Christian life. However, the Bible does not explicitly spoil every land site we will face in our lives. How then is it competent for the all the ethical dilemmas we face? That is where Christian ethics becomes in. perception defines ethics as a set of moral principles, the ask of morality.Therefore, Christian ethics would be the principles derived from the Christian faith by which we act. While Gods Word may not cover every situation we face throughout our lives, its principles give us the standards by which we must deliver ourselves in those situations where there argon no explicit instructions. The experimental condition Christian ethics, as I shall use it, means a systematic study of the way of life exemplified and taught by delivery boy, applied to the manifold problems and decisions of kind-hearted existence.It therefore denudations its base in the last of these frames of reference, and in the new(preno minal) five notwithstanding as they are consistent with the sixth and exist as applications or implications of the moral insights of deliveryman. This is not to claim that we have a perfect understand of the life and dogmas of Jesus, for historical scholarship has make it clear that the records we have in the Gospels reflect not only what Jesus was and did and said, but also what the early Church believed about him.Still less is it to claim that whatsoever fallible gentle mind can enter so to the full into the divine-human consciousness of Jesus as to say without error what his judgment would be in every concrete case of contemporary decision, It is only to patronize that we have an adequate, a dependable, and an indispensable guide to Christian action in what we know of Jesus and in what through him we know of God. No some other guide, however important and useful, is either adequate, or so dependable, or so indispensable.The Bible does not say anything explicitly about th e use of guilty drugs,yet based on the principles we learn through Scripture we can know that it is wrong. For one thing, the Bible tells us (1 Corinthians 619-20) that the body is a temple of the Holy Spirit and that we should honor God with it Knowing what drugs do to our bodiesthe harm they cause to various organswe know that by utilize them we would be destroying the temple of the Holy Spirit. That is certainly not honoring to God. The Bible also tells us that we are to follow the authorities that God Himself has fix into place (Romans 131).Given the criminal nature of the drugs, by utilize them we are not submitting to the authorities but are rebelling against them. Does this mean if illegal drugs were legalized it would be ok? Not without violating the first principle. By using the principles we find in Scripture, Christians can determine the ethical course for any prone situation. In some cases it will be simple, like the rules for Christian sustentation we find in Colo ssians, chapter 3. In other cases, however, we need to do a little digging. The best way to do that is to beg over Gods Word.The Holy Spirit indwells every believer, and part of His role is teaching us how to live But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will convey in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you ( outhouse 1426) As for you, the anointing you received from him corpse in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not mouldjust as it has taught you, remain in him (1 John 227) So, when we pray over Scripture, the Spirit will guide us and teach us.He will show us the principles we need to stand on for any given situation. While Gods Word does not cover every situation we will face in our lives, it is all sufficient for living a Christian life. For most things, we can simply con what the Bible says and follow the proper course base d on that. In ethical questions where Scripture does not give explicit instructions, we need to belief for principles that can be applied to the situation. We must pray over His Word, and impolite ourselves to His Spirit. The Spirit will teach us and guide us through the Bible to find the principles on which we need to stand so we may live as a Christian should.Ethics is the study of good and evil, right and wrong. Biblical Christian ethics is inseparable from theology because it is grounded in the book of facts of God. The task of Christian ethics, then, is to determine what conforms to Gods character and what does not. Francis Schaeffer justifys the uniqueness of Christian ethics One of the distinctions of the Judeo-Christian God is that not all things are the same to Him. That at first may ripe rather trivial, but in reality it is one of the most sonorous things one can say about the JudeoChristian God.He exists He has a character and not all things are the same to Him. we ll-nigh things conform to His character, and some are opposed to His character. Muslims believe that moral norms are arbitrary, a product of Gods decree, and therefore can tack as God chooses. Marxists and Secular Humanists rely almost exclusively on their economic or naturalistic philosophy to determine ethics. Postmodernists argue for a morality based on shared community value and cosmic Humanists assume that everyone acts morally by following inner truth set(p) on an individual basis.Christians, on the other hand, believe that moral norms come from Gods nature or essence. Rather than believing in some puffing fancy bound to societys dynamical whims, as Christians we are committed to a specific moral wander revealed to us through both general and special revelation. ?We know that Gods ethical order is the only true source of morality, and, in fact, the only possible morality, there can be no other. The human mind, says C. S. Lewis, has no more power of inventing a new value than of imagining a new primary color, or, indeed, of creating a new sun and a new sky for it to course in.For the Christian, the moral order is as real as the physical ordersome would say even more real. The Apostle capital of Minnesota says the physical order is temporary, but the order not seen is eternal (2 Corinthians 418). This eternal moral order is a reflection of the character and nature of God Himself. Christian ethics, in one good sense, is simply an expansion of a moral order that is generally revealed to everyone. Despite some disagreement regarding the morality of specific actions, Calvin D. Linton comments on the consistency of the moral code within all people everywhere .. . There is a basic pattern of similarity among ethical codes. such things as murder, lying, adultery, cowardice are, for example, almost always condemned. The universality of the ethical sense itself (the oughtness of conduct), and the similarities within the codes of diverse cultures indicate a common moral inheritance for all mankind which materialism or naturalism cannot explain. 3 We may define this common moral heritage as anything from an attitude to a conscience, but however we define it, we are aware that some moral domineerings do exist outside ourselves.According to this universal moral code, whenever we pass judgment we are relying upon a yardstick that measures actions against an absolute set of standards. Without a standard, justice could not exist without an ethical absolute, morality could not exist. This objective, absolute standard is apparent throughout humanitys attitudes toward morality. According to a secular philosophy, we should treat all morals as relativebut in practice, even secular society treats some abstract values (such as justice, love, and courage) as consistently moral.Secular society also cringes at the Nazi holocaust, the Russian prison system of Siberian gulags, and the abuse of children. We cannot explain this phenomenon unless we acc ept the notion that certain value judgments apply universally and are somehow inherent to all mankind. Christian morality is founded on the assent that an absolute moral order exists outside of, and yet somehow is inscribed into, our very being. It is a morality flowing from the nature of the Creator through the nature of created things, not a construction of the human mind.It is part of Gods general revelation. At the core of every moral code, says Walter Lippman, there is a picture of human nature, a map of the universe, and version of hi trading floor. To human nature (of the sort conceived), in a universe (of the kind imagined), by and by a history (so understood), the rules of the code apply. 4 This moral light is what the Apostle John refers to as having been lit in the hearts of all men and womenThe true light that gives light to every man (John 19, NIV).It is what the Apostle Paul calls the meet of the law written in their hearts, their conscience (Romans 215). This m orality is not arbitrarily handed down by God to create difficulties for us. God does not make up new values according to whim. Rather, Gods innate character is holy and cannot tolerate evil or moral indifferencewhat the Bible calls sin. Look in any concord of the Bible, and it becomes apparent that one of the words, which appear most frequently, is sin. From first to last, sin is the story of mans behavior, even as salvation from sin is the broad theme of the Bible.Christianity is through and through a religion of redemption, and while the wholly gamut of salvation is not expressed in redemption from sin, this is its central core. Although, as we noted, naturalism and humanism tend to think of sin as an outmode concept and talk instead about maladjustment, insecurity, neurosis, or antisocial conduct, the term remains in the diction of Christians. But what does it mean? There is no clear agreement as to its meaning, and the ambiguity with which sin is regarded is responsible for a good deal ineffectiveness in Christian preaching and in Christian living.To some persons, and probably to the majority of ordinary Christian laymen, sin means wickedness of those standards of conduct usually accepted by the people around them. A Christian is expected not to kill, steal, lie, commit adultery or other sexual infractions, or get drunk. How faraway he can move in these directions, as in exploiting others to ones own gain, cause a shrewd deal or pursuing an advantage, stretching the truth, having a little affair, or whoop it uping in moderation, depends for most persons less on the will of God or the revelation of God in Jesus Christ than on what is and what is not done in ones community.The community, though it embraces the geographical area in which one lives, is a far more pervasive thing than this, for a community is in a large part defined by the social standards of like-minded people. For this reason conflicts as to what constitutes sin often arise between the younger and senior generations, or between ministers and their laymen, or between the people of one church building and another. Take, for example, the matter of drinking a glass of wine or beer. To some Christians this is a sin. To others, if it is done in moderation, it has no more significance than to drink a cup of coffee.Some regard it as sinful for a minister to drink, but not for a layman and still more is this disparity in evidence with regard to smoking. A Roman Catholic or an Anglican or a German Lutheran Christian is likely to take a much freer view of such indulgences than is an American Methodist. I am not at this point trying to say who is right. What this illustrates is the ambiguity that emerges when the attempt is made to define sin, or a sin, by accepted social practice. A large part of the message of Jesus was the challenging of both Pharisaic and Gentile ideas of sin by a higher law.The chief danger in defining sin by accepted social practice is not its amb iguity. This, if recognized, can be made the basis of mutual tolerance while holding to ones own convictions. Thus, Christians may sincerely differ as to the duty of the Christian to be, or not to be, a pacifist but if one forms his sound judgement only by the standards of his group and then calls it the will of God for all, God has actually been left out of the picture. This procedure constantly happens, from the most insignificant matters to the greatest, and is a major source of the perversion of Christian ethics.