Moral Truth and Absolutes...

Where does morality come from? This is a question that begs to be asked, especially in this frenetic Post-Mod society. There is an effort these days to rush forward and embrace everything Post-Mod as new, edgy and cool. Even the Church is falling all over itself to market itself to this upcoming generation. One of the things we are doing wrong is attempting to overlay the Post-Mods with what is being called the Emerging Church. This often leads to our watering down the teachings of Jesus in order to make room for a variety of beliefs. If the Church is changing (and I think it is), and if the modern Evangelical Movement is on the way out (and I think it is), what we are left with is what is being called the Emerging Church (for lack of a better name right now). What we often fail to see is that this movement is not ours, but God's. It is the Post-Mod that needs to be immersed into God's emerging Church. When we see it this way, we are working alongside our creator in reaching this incredibly diverse group of spiritual young people who often have a "drifty" sense of absolutes and moral truth, and introducing them to the amazing, mysterious unchanging morality of Jesus...

So I ask again... What does morality come from?

I would say that is it clear; our morality comes to us from our Creator. The very terms right, wrong, good, and evil have to stem from something. There must be a moral compass that tells us why something is right rather than wrong, good rather than evil. As long as we understand that this moral starting point is God we can then see the relevance of the terms, if we believe we are the ones who create this moral beginning, than we are doomed to fail since it is immoral man who is attempting to set a moral code. Those who say that there is no God and therefore no absolute moral truth, have nothing to base morality on; if we do not base our moral principles on God than we are simply basing them on preferences.

Sooner or later we find that everyone has absolute truths, even those who say that there aren’t any. When someone comes to me and says that there are no absolute truths in this world, I simply ask them “are you absolutely sure?” By making the statement they are implying that there are no truths except the ones they seem to hold to on any given day. The final question that can be asked of all those who attempt to apply moral truths and absolutes of their own without the guiding hand of God is; “says who?” Where is the basis for their decision; where is the foundation of their argument. This is the same argument that is used so successfully against the evolutionists, if not God than whom? C.S. Lewis discusses this in his book, The Abolition of Man, when he talks about subjectivism. He asks when talking about the authors of the Green Book; “values in whose eyes? Necessary for what? Progressing towards what? Affecting what?” He tells us that there are many who try to debunk traditional values, and yet inside themselves have values that they feel are untouchable to debunking. These values that they have are of course absolutes to them. (I will continue this discussion in upcoming posts)