This was originally posted in my Yahoo! 360 blog, Oct 1, 2006:
This past week, one of the most gruesome crimes imaginable was committed by a woman. A woman cut the unborn child out of the womb of her friend, killing both and drowned her three other children, stuffing them into a washer and dryer. If the authorities know why she did this unspeakable evil, they aren't saying. She plead innocent even though she's admitted the crime to her boyfriend and the police. I'll assume our “justice” system will place her in the loony bin for a few years and then pronounce her cured. Not much justice for the victim's family in that.
As a Christian I know exactly why this crime happened. There is evil in this world, and his name is Satan. Yes, I'm one of those. The very first question that most people ask is, “How can God let such an unspeakable thing happen?” But the assumption in that question is that somehow its all God's fault. But is it? How many of us want others to make our decisions? Don't we want to exercise our right to choose? And then, what exactly are the repercussions of us making our own choices?
The fact is that we would fault God if we were not given a choice to do good or do evil. And once we, and everyone else around us, have that ability, we turn around and blame God for allowing us to have the ability to choose. Not really very fair, is it? Answer me a simple question – would it be better to allow people to choose to do right, but have the possibility that they will choose wrong, or would it be better to force us to choose right with no opportunity to choose at all?
If God wanted a bunch of robots, He would have created us with only the ability to do whatever it was that God wants us to do in the first place. Instead, He created mankind to have a relationship with Himself. But to have a relationship with some one, you have to have the ability to choose. Relationships are built on honestly, faithfulness and trust. They are built on mutual love for one another, and love is a choice. If its forced, then its not love at all. Love, then, assumes the ability to choose to exercise that emotional action.
In the garden of Eden, God told Adam (who did a very poor job of communicating what God had said to Eve) that he could eat anything he wanted in the garden except from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (did you catch that? The “knowledge of”). And Satan saw his opportunity to have a little fun with Adam and Eve.
And why was Satan in the garden in the first place? He, as an angel who had been created to minister to God as well as worship God, had been given the opportunity to choose as well. His choice was to be top dog, to take God's place. Fortunately, the created cannot usurp the creator, and Satan was kicked out of heaven, along with one third of the angels whom he had deceived. (sorry, but I simply do not understand that one either!)
God placed trust in Adam. First to communicate His will to Eve correctly, and secondly to honor His wishes. It would seem that at least Eve had made a bee-line to the only tree she wasn't supposed to eat from. And who did she find there? That's right, the fallen angel, who twisted God's words which appealed to Eve (lust of the eye, lust of the flesh and the boastful pride of life) who chose to do what she wanted, and helped her husband to disobey God as well. The end results was that they brought the knowledge of good and evil into the world, as well as death.
So, now that we know what's good and evil, shouldn't we be able to choose good over evil? Now for my second question, “As a Christian, I have a standard with which I try to live by, but if you're not a Christian, what exactly is your standard?”
I'm not exactly sure I've ever gotten an answer to that question, but I'd think an honest person would respond that they essentially do what they believe to be correct. And that's exactly what the Bible says about us too. But that's not what we're supposed to do. Bypassing the “standards” issue for the time being, whatever our choices are, there are consequences to those choices. When we choose to do what's wrong, our choices can have unexpected results. For instance, if I choose to drive while drunk, I may hit some one and kill them. Did that some one do something to me to cause their harm? No, but my wrong actions created a consequence that harmed an innocent bystander. That's what choices do, they have consequences. Right actions have or may have positive consequences, and wrong actions have or may have negative consequences. If I get mad and shot some one, that some one has a family, who will be harmed by my actions.
But if I don't have the ability to choose right and wrong, then I have no will of myself. I simply do whatever I'm programmed to do. That is not life. Mankind was create to have life, to exercise choices so that he could choose to love God of his own free will. God created us to have life, and then to be able to live it abundantly. But, by giving us a choice, God has allowed for the possibility that we will choose wrongly. (we'll talk about omniscience in the future) God doesn't cause us to do wrong, we freely choose to do that on our own. However, without a standard, how can we possibly know which decision to make?
So, back to our standards. How do we know what's right and what's wrong? It becomes a very important question because of the consequences. If my standard is “whatever I believe is right”, and your standards may conflict with mine, then whose standards are right? I may believe its right and good to kill you, but I doubt that your standards believe that. In my eyes I'm right, but it your eyes, I'm wrong. With no standard, who's correct? Wicca attempts to answer to the question by saying that basically anything is OK as long as it doesn't harm anyone else. But that standard is still based on what I personally think is correct, and so is yours, which makes truth relative. That is really another way of saying that there aren't any absolute truths at all. And if there aren't any absolutes, then neither is murder an absolute wrong, which means that its OK for me to kill you, right? Somehow I still think you would disagree with me.
Personally, this is hogwash. For the Christian, there are absolutes, its called the word of God. For the unbelievers, there aren't, and they're in chaos and don't even know it. If I have no standards, then there is no way for me to know whether my choice is truly right or wrong. I make my decision and hope for the best.
So, if you do not have any absolutes, how do you resolve this? If you are a Christian, do you live like you have absolutes?
This past week, one of the most gruesome crimes imaginable was committed by a woman. A woman cut the unborn child out of the womb of her friend, killing both and drowned her three other children, stuffing them into a washer and dryer. If the authorities know why she did this unspeakable evil, they aren't saying. She plead innocent even though she's admitted the crime to her boyfriend and the police. I'll assume our “justice” system will place her in the loony bin for a few years and then pronounce her cured. Not much justice for the victim's family in that.
As a Christian I know exactly why this crime happened. There is evil in this world, and his name is Satan. Yes, I'm one of those. The very first question that most people ask is, “How can God let such an unspeakable thing happen?” But the assumption in that question is that somehow its all God's fault. But is it? How many of us want others to make our decisions? Don't we want to exercise our right to choose? And then, what exactly are the repercussions of us making our own choices?
The fact is that we would fault God if we were not given a choice to do good or do evil. And once we, and everyone else around us, have that ability, we turn around and blame God for allowing us to have the ability to choose. Not really very fair, is it? Answer me a simple question – would it be better to allow people to choose to do right, but have the possibility that they will choose wrong, or would it be better to force us to choose right with no opportunity to choose at all?
If God wanted a bunch of robots, He would have created us with only the ability to do whatever it was that God wants us to do in the first place. Instead, He created mankind to have a relationship with Himself. But to have a relationship with some one, you have to have the ability to choose. Relationships are built on honestly, faithfulness and trust. They are built on mutual love for one another, and love is a choice. If its forced, then its not love at all. Love, then, assumes the ability to choose to exercise that emotional action.
In the garden of Eden, God told Adam (who did a very poor job of communicating what God had said to Eve) that he could eat anything he wanted in the garden except from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (did you catch that? The “knowledge of”). And Satan saw his opportunity to have a little fun with Adam and Eve.
And why was Satan in the garden in the first place? He, as an angel who had been created to minister to God as well as worship God, had been given the opportunity to choose as well. His choice was to be top dog, to take God's place. Fortunately, the created cannot usurp the creator, and Satan was kicked out of heaven, along with one third of the angels whom he had deceived. (sorry, but I simply do not understand that one either!)
God placed trust in Adam. First to communicate His will to Eve correctly, and secondly to honor His wishes. It would seem that at least Eve had made a bee-line to the only tree she wasn't supposed to eat from. And who did she find there? That's right, the fallen angel, who twisted God's words which appealed to Eve (lust of the eye, lust of the flesh and the boastful pride of life) who chose to do what she wanted, and helped her husband to disobey God as well. The end results was that they brought the knowledge of good and evil into the world, as well as death.
So, now that we know what's good and evil, shouldn't we be able to choose good over evil? Now for my second question, “As a Christian, I have a standard with which I try to live by, but if you're not a Christian, what exactly is your standard?”
I'm not exactly sure I've ever gotten an answer to that question, but I'd think an honest person would respond that they essentially do what they believe to be correct. And that's exactly what the Bible says about us too. But that's not what we're supposed to do. Bypassing the “standards” issue for the time being, whatever our choices are, there are consequences to those choices. When we choose to do what's wrong, our choices can have unexpected results. For instance, if I choose to drive while drunk, I may hit some one and kill them. Did that some one do something to me to cause their harm? No, but my wrong actions created a consequence that harmed an innocent bystander. That's what choices do, they have consequences. Right actions have or may have positive consequences, and wrong actions have or may have negative consequences. If I get mad and shot some one, that some one has a family, who will be harmed by my actions.
But if I don't have the ability to choose right and wrong, then I have no will of myself. I simply do whatever I'm programmed to do. That is not life. Mankind was create to have life, to exercise choices so that he could choose to love God of his own free will. God created us to have life, and then to be able to live it abundantly. But, by giving us a choice, God has allowed for the possibility that we will choose wrongly. (we'll talk about omniscience in the future) God doesn't cause us to do wrong, we freely choose to do that on our own. However, without a standard, how can we possibly know which decision to make?
So, back to our standards. How do we know what's right and what's wrong? It becomes a very important question because of the consequences. If my standard is “whatever I believe is right”, and your standards may conflict with mine, then whose standards are right? I may believe its right and good to kill you, but I doubt that your standards believe that. In my eyes I'm right, but it your eyes, I'm wrong. With no standard, who's correct? Wicca attempts to answer to the question by saying that basically anything is OK as long as it doesn't harm anyone else. But that standard is still based on what I personally think is correct, and so is yours, which makes truth relative. That is really another way of saying that there aren't any absolute truths at all. And if there aren't any absolutes, then neither is murder an absolute wrong, which means that its OK for me to kill you, right? Somehow I still think you would disagree with me.
Personally, this is hogwash. For the Christian, there are absolutes, its called the word of God. For the unbelievers, there aren't, and they're in chaos and don't even know it. If I have no standards, then there is no way for me to know whether my choice is truly right or wrong. I make my decision and hope for the best.
So, if you do not have any absolutes, how do you resolve this? If you are a Christian, do you live like you have absolutes?
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