Right or Wrong: Who Decides?

Right or Wrong: Who Decides?

“…but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart.” Ephesians 6:6 A friend facing a moral dilemma recently said to me “I am struggling with my decision, but I want to do the right thing”. As we talked together in an attempt to work through the issue, I asked the question, “Do the right thing by whose standards?” This seems to be the key question as we face many of the difficult decisions of life and attempt to do what is right. “Do the right thing by whose standards” is the question. It is not that there is a lack of standards. Standards abound all around us. Everyone has their standards because everyone believes in moral absolutes. Meaning that everyone has a point where they declare what they believe to be right and wrong. At some point everyone will say “that is wrong” and in so doing they declare what is for them a moral absolute. The issue isn’t whether or not people believe in moral absolutes, the issue is who gets to decide what the moral absolutes are. That was the issue in the Garden of Eden and it is the issue today. A key distinction of being a Christian is that we affirm the fact that God gets to decide what is right and wrong and, in turn, we get to obey. To do otherwise is to expect to have a relationship with God on our terms as opposed to His. Something He is not anxious to do. As Followers of Jesus Christ we must not succumb to the pressure from the world...
Why Did God Create an Unjust World?

Why Did God Create an Unjust World?

“Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like Me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure.” Isaiah 46:9-10 If you assume that God created the world, you cannot be convinced that He is just by looking at what He created. Assuming that I am correct in this observation, why did He do this? Remember, all relationships require reciprocity, and reciprocity requires the exercising of the will. You cannot have a relationship with a robot or a manikin. He created people in order to have a relationship with them, and because He is the Creator, and they are the created ones, submission to His will is essential for the relationship to exist. God created all people with a desire for autonomy. This desire was not the product of their sin, but the reason they sinned. If He had not created them with a desire for autonomy, they could not have chosen to have a relationship with Him. Having been given the choice, they rejected Him in their quest for autonomy. The heart of your relationship with God centers around the question of who you think should decide what is good and evil,1 what is in your best interest and what is contrary to your best interest. If God senses that you do not believe in the core of your being that He alone should define good and evil, He will not have a...