David Holwick       P                                        [Morality.pco]
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
May 6, 1990

COMMUNION


                     "ARE MORALS ABSOLUTE?"             Deuteronomy 5:4-22



    I. Decay of moral standards in Western society.

        A. Appropriate words in Isaiah 5:20 -

             "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil,
               who put darkness for light and light for darkness."

        B. Decay of morals in 20th century.

            1) Changes in Roxbury township.

                a) More police.
                b) More crime.
                c) Unthinkable is now commonplace.

        C. Any hope for civilization, or sign that fall is imminent,
              like fall of Roman Empire?


   II. Abandonment of absolutes.

        A. Absolutes are old-fashioned.

            1) It is arrogant to say you have the truth.
            2) What about millions who disagree with you?  Whole societies.
            3) Life is complex - there are no simple answers.


        B. Everything has become "relative."

            1) Do what you think is right in any given situation.

            2) Principle has crept into many ethical systems.

                a) Joseph Fletcher is a key proponent.  He writes:


               Is adultery wrong?
               One can only respond, "I don't know.  Maybe.  Give me a case.
                  Describe a real situation."
               Or perhaps somebody will ask if a man should ever lie to his
                  wife, or desert his family, or fail to report some income
                      in his tax return.
               Again the answer cannot be an answer, it can only be another
                  question.
                                                                      #1166

            3) Every situation is unique.
                a) All is grey, not black and white.


        C. Spheres of change.

            1) Media.

                a) Signs of change.

                    1> Adultery is an everyday subject in mass media.
                    2> Phil Donahue and gays who marry and adopt.
                        A> Newsweek article on future family.  Pro-gay.

                    3> Calls to mind Daniels desciption of the Antichrist:

                       "He will speak against the Most High and oppress his
                        saints and try to change the set times and the laws."
                                                                Daniel 7:25


                b) Change-makers:

                Ted Turner is the outspoken chairman of Turner Broadcasting
                     System and creator of CNN.
                At a recent National Newspaper Association meeting in
                   Atlanta, Turner said the Ten Commandments were outmoded.
                As far as he was concerned they are not relevant to current
                   global problems.
                Turner said, "I bet nobody here even pays much attention
                   to 'em, because they are too old."
                "Commandments are out."

                To fill the gap, Turner offered his own
                       "Ten Voluntary Initiatives."
                They include:  to help the poor, to love and respect
                   planet Earth, and to limit families to two children.

                He also called Christianity a religion for losers.
                                                                      #1081

            2) Schools.

               Dr. Gerald Grant did a 25 year study of Nottingham High
                  School in Syracuse, New York.
               Harvard University Press published his book, which he
                  called, "The World We Created At Hamilton High."
               In 1953 the students had high achievement and social
                  conformity.
               Today the principal has a full-time bodyguard, school
                  closings due to violence are common and drugs and sex
                      are sold on school grounds.

               On one visit Dr. Grant noticed a teacher who was visibly
                  upset - a group of students had verbally assaulted her.
               Had she reported the incident?
                  No, she said.  "It wouldn't have done any good."
               "Why not?" Grant asked.
                  "I didn't have any witnesses."

               To Grant this summed up what is wrong in our schools.
                  Moral benchmarks have crumbled.
                  Teachers and students are equals.
               Nottingham High's drug counselor claims to be unqualified
                  to tell students what is right and wrong.
               Teachers do not try to tell students how to live.
                                                                      #654

        D. Apology to America's Parents:

           Dr. W. R. Coulson, one of the founders of value-free education,
              recently said he is sorry for the way this philosophy has
                 affected the nation's youth.

           He stated:
           "Youthful experimentation with sex, alcohol, and drugs - has been
               shown to follow value-free education quite predictably.
           "We now know that after these classes, students become more prone
               to give in to temptation than if they'd never been enrolled.
           Moral absolutes are routed."
                                                                      #1019

  III. The necessity for absolutes.

        A. Grey areas?  Grey is combination of black and white.

            1) Take away black and white, and grey ceases to exist.
            2) An ethical system based on relativity breaks down.

        B. Implications of relative ethics.

            1) Sin usually justified, conventional morality put down.

            2) Our souls tell us this is wrong.    (KKK murder)

            I have vivid memories of a photograph I saw years ago.
            It appeared in a newspaper during the racial turmoil that
               swept the United States in the 1960's.

            The picture is of a black American with his hands tied
               behind his back.
            A chain was looped around his neck and fastened to a tree
               limb.
            As he hung there, members of the Klan took a butane torch
               and burned the initials KKK into his chest.
            They kept burning him, slowly, until he died.

            As a Christian, I feel that what they did was wrong.

            If situation ethics is true, then what they did might be wrong.
               Or it might be O.K.  It all depends.
                                                                   #1167

        C. Everyone believes in some absolute.


   IV. The Bible and absolute morality.

        A. Ten Commandments are well-known example.

            1) Definite ideas about how to live.

        B. Principles behind God's Law:

            1) It gives us a perfect standard to live by.

            2) It convinces us that we are imperfect - we fail to keep it.
                a) Sin is shown for what it really is.
                b) Martin Luther and the Law as a mirror of our wrinkles.

            3) Made-up ethical systems are ones we can keep.
                a) God's Law smashes our self-righteousness.
                b) Luther:  "The law is a whip that drives us to the Cross."


    V. Jesus and Salvation.

        A. God expects perfection.

            1) Only way to earn way into heaven.
            2) Jesus was only perfect man.
            3) On our own, all of us are lost.

        B. But Jesus didn't just earn his own way into heaven.

            1) His blood on cross can wash each of us, make us worthy.
            2) We can't do this, but God can.

        C. Trust in Jesus for your personal salvation.

            1) Have you made the decision?



               ***************************************************


    I. Ethical systems.

        A. Option #1:  Based on God.
            1) God reveals through the Bible how he wants us to live.
            2) He lays down absolutes.

        B. Option #2:  speculative ethics.
            1) You have to figure it all out on your own.


   II. Relativism.

        A. Yet Christians must be careful not to be simplistic with ethics.

            1) Areas of grey exist in most human situations.

            2) But non-believers push the grey to both ends, so that
                 black and white no longer exist.


  III. What we believe affects how we live.


   IV. Carl Henry, an American Baptist theologian:
        A. We are exposed to different systems every day.
        B. Often we don't recognize these systems.

            1) Therefore we don't know how to respond.
            2) Many Christians get sucked into this mindset.


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