Monday, January 7, 2013

being good without God

A favorite quote I have heard numerous times from non believers is that you can be good without God. Or a variation on that is, "atheists have morals too".

These thoughts are not really antithetical to Biblical teachings. Take Matt 5:47 where Jesus speaks of the love the heathens or Gentiles have for one another, enough to salute their own kind at least, an act of civility.

This thought continued in Romans 2:14 where Paul speaks of the law being written on the heart of the Gentile so that he knows the law even when the law (Mosaic law) was not revealed to the Gentiles. They do it by nature, God given knowledge to every man to know what is right and wrong, at least to some degree.

So when someone claims that they can "be good without God", they are in fact agreeing in part with Scripture. They are not in agreement with a non belief in God. To make a statement where you say you are good without a moral law giver such as God ,you yourself define what is good. In that case everyone does good because it is a sliding scale according to a person's thoughts and feelings as to what is good or bad. But also everyone does bad according to someone else. So you are both good and bad without God, depending on to whom it is you are talking.

The secular position makes it tough to judge history as right or wrong or say the Old Testament and God's actions as being right or wrong. Who is to say what is right? If you judge history you must agree to a standard, one that always existed and still exists today. A standard of right or wrong that is known, has been revealed and is there for us to judge others by. But this is not correct secular thinking. There is no absolute right or wrong, there cannot be, yet you will run across websites like the evil bible.com which completely judges scriptures as being wrong, or evil.

You cannot say slavery or racism as being wrong only that you prefer it not to exist. But why does it enrage many secularist? Because it is wrong. It was wrong then, it is wrong now, there is a standard of right and wrong by which to judge and that is not made up by human minds or hearts.

OK, why don't we just accept the way things are? Why do we try to make things better? where did we get the idea of "better"? Why don't we accept our lot as slaves, or as poor people or as someone who is oppressed? Why strive for something,,,better? Because we have eternity in our hearts (Ecc. 3:11). Because God created us for doing good and for enjoying good things. We know things are not perfect, but how did we come across the idea of what perfect is? It is written on our hearts. Not just the Christian heart, but in every heart. Every one pines for what they were created for and people in general have a desire to be good and to do good. This does not mean they are good. A desire to be rich doesn't put a single dollar in my bank account. You can desire to be good without God, but being such requires a divine intervention.