Commentary: The Cultural Moral Norm

Truth: Relative or Absolute
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Given 29-Jul-17; 11 minutes

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Many Americans (especially the Millennials) have rejected the concept of moral absolutes and have embraced the treacherous notion that truth is relative, totally a matter of personal experience and cultural preference, similar to the state of affairs in ancient Israel, as related at the conclusion of the book of Judges. Shockingly, two-thirds of the American populace believe truth is relative, while only one-third believe in absolute standards, mostly from the ranks of the aging baby boomers. Where there are no norms or absolutes, there are no guarantees of salvation, but instead an eradication of Christ's saving power, a misinterpretation of laws, and a sinister erosion of morality. Mainstream Christianity, turning grace into licentiousness, has promoted a narcissistic worship of the self. Those who are wise in their own eyes have less hope than a blatant fool. Paradoxically, the fool rejects the wisdom of God (the Gospel) as foolishness, but the 'foolishness' of God is far above the 'wisdom' of the world. Only those who humbly heed God's counsel are wise.


transcript:

Recent research from the Barna Group reveals that many American adults admit they are uncertain about how to determine right from wrong. Is truth relative or is it absolute?

According to 57% of American adults, knowing what is right or wrong is a matter of personal experience. Seventy-four percent of Millennials (born 1984-2002) agree strongly or somewhat with the statement, “Whatever is right for your life or works best for you is the only truth you can know,” compared to only 38 percent of Elders (born 1945 or earlier).

A sizable number of Americans see morality as a matter of cultural consensus. Sixty-five percent of all American adults agree either strongly or somewhat that “every culture must determine what is acceptable morality for its people.” Millennials are more likely to strongly agree with this view than Elders, Boomers (born 1946-1964) or Gen-Xers (born 1965-1983).

Notice how conflicted and confused people are in this nation: While most American adults agree that culture plays some role in establishing moral norms, 59% also agree “the Bible provides us with absolute moral truths which are the same for all people in all situations, without exception.” That sounds like the exact opposite of all the statistics I just read.

In Deuteronomy 12:8, God emphasizes that He expects rejection of their worldly ways:

Deuteronomy 12:8 "You shall not at all do as we are doing here today—every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes—"

The context there is God’s command to do exactly as He says. In a word, obedience.

Two-thirds of American adults either believe moral truth is relative to circumstances or have not given it much thought. About one-third, on the other hand, believes moral truth is absolute. Half of Millennials are more likely than other age cohorts to say moral truth is relative. Boomers are most likely to say moral truth is absolute, while Elders are more likely than other age groups to admit they have never thought about it.

Americans are both concerned about the nation’s moral condition and confused about morality itself. As Christian moral norms are discarded, what, if anything, is taking their place?

Barna's research reveals the degree to which Americans pledge allegiance to the “morality of self-fulfillment,” a new moral code that, as David Kinnaman, President of Barna argues, has all but replaced Christianity as the culture’s moral norm.

"The highest good, according to our society, is 'finding yourself' and then living by 'what’s right for you,'" says David Kinnaman, in his book, Good Faith: Being a Christian When Society Thinks You’re Irrelevant and Extreme. I am going to give you a quote from that book:

There is a tremendous amount of individualism in today’s society, and that’s reflected in the church too. Millions of Christians have grafted New Age dogma onto their spiritual person.

When we peel back the layers, we find that many Christians are using the way of Jesus to pursue the way of self . . .. While we wring our hands about secularism spreading through culture, a majority of churchgoing Christians have embraced corrupt, me-centered theology….

Most believe that the Bible is the source of moral norms that transcend a person’s culture, and that those moral truths are absolute rather than relative to circumstances. Yet, at the same time, solid majorities ascribe to five of the six tenets of the new moral code.

Absolute confusion.

The apostle Paul was confronted with resistance against God’s absolute truth in Athens, where he showed the people that the Eternal, Creator God is the One they are looking for but do not know. A similar world view prevails today. Notice the similarity to our society today:

Acts 17:18-23 Then certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him [Paul]. And some said, "What does this babbler want to say?" Others said, "He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods," because he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection. And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, "May we know what this new doctrine is of which you speak? For you are bringing some strange things to our ears. Therefore we want to know what these things mean." For all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing. [Itching ears, just like today.] Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, "Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you.

Mainstream Christianity actually worships a false Christ, yet the real One is unknown to them today.

When God is thought of as being abstract with NO absolutes, the reason for worshipping Him is destroyed. When there are no absolutes, there are no guarantees of salvation and eternal life.

Everyone on earth has been given the knowledge that there is a God who made all human beings. But from Adam on down through the history of mankind to today, the knowledge of the one true God has been superseded by a plethora of false gods, as most people do what is “right in their own eyes.” The number one god today in society is the human—themselves. Humanism is their religion

Proverbs 14:12 There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.

The effect of moral and religious relativity today has reduced the absolutes of the salvation provided by God through Jesus Christ to a degradation of and even an eradication of Christ's saving power.

Relativism is a tool of Satan used to distort revelation and separate God from His people by the misinterpretation and misapplication of biblical laws, statutes, and principles; and changing them into forms and theologies that are seemingly not offensive. This results in the erosion of morality, ethics, and spiritual standards.

The apostle Paul says that the natural mind cannot understand the things of the Spirit, but rejects them. God’s absolute truth seems foolish to it.

Proverbs 26:12 Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.

After 11 verses describing the terrible state of the fool, this verse becomes a forceful punch line: Even more hopeless than the situation of the fool is the situation of the stubbornly unteachable person, who is wise in his own eyes.

In the first chapter of I Corinthians, Paul makes free use of two quotations from Isaiah (Isaiah 29:14; 33:18) to show that mere human wisdom is bound to fail. He cites the undeniable fact that for all its “wisdom,” the world has never found God and is still blindly seeking some new salvation.

That very desire to search was instilled in people by God to reveal to people their own helplessness; and so, to prepare the way for their acceptance of Him who is the one true way at some future time.

I Corinthians 1:18-20 For the message of the cross [that is, the gospel] is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent." Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?

The art of rhetorical persuasion was highly valued in the Greco-Roman world, and professional orators frequented large cities like Corinth, giving impressive displays of their ability to entertain and instruct in religious areas.

Paul’s proclamation of the gospel failed to measure up to their standards. This failure, however, served to place the spotlight on the power of the message itself, because the Holy Spirit so empowered Paul’s words that they awakened faith in Christ and changed some people’s hearts and lives at the time.

I Corinthians 1:21-25 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

God is saving His church by the very words that the world believes are foolishness. Can anyone be more insane than to believe that the wisdom of God is foolishness? That is the mental condition of everyone who rejects God’s way of life! We receive an abundance of spiritual blessings because we heed God’s words.

I leave you with this one final scripture of wisdom:

Proverbs 12:15 The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but he who heeds [especially God’s] counsel is wise.

MGC/aws/dcg





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