In early America, issues of right and wrong, good and evil, were distinctly black and white. Gray areas were scarce, and most people viewed middle-of-the-road positions and compromises as signs of weakness and indecision. Strong leadership and commitment to high standards were deeply valued. However, in an age of compromise, the distinction between right and wrong has blurred. Moral and ethical matters, now often resolved by consensus, sink to the level of the lowest common belief, driven by self-interest. Even in the medical profession, the historic Hippocratic Oath, which once set a clear standard, is considered outdated, leaving no consistent ethical guideline for doctors to follow.

Standards of right and wrong are crucial for maintaining order and harmony in any society. Without proper standards, chaos and confusion reign, as seen in the lack of unified standards across nations in religion, government, and human rights over the past 6,000 years. This discord has led to war, prejudice, suspicion, hatred, perversion, greed, abuse, dishonesty, and a complete breakdown of the moral system worldwide. The root cause of this turmoil is mankind's rejection of the right way to live as set forth by God. The world often prioritizes monetary gain over living by right standards, lacking the motivation to adhere to them. However, a time is coming when Jesus Christ will impose His standards and values upon mankind, ensuring that all will learn to live by them. Until that day, the people of God must maintain and live by these standards in a society that is rapidly deteriorating. God's standards, rooted in the Ten Commandments, form the solid base from which all other principles emanate. These commandments dictate that God and His laws must always come first in our lives, shaping how we deal with each other, the environment, and every aspect of living. The commandments guide us to keep God as the foremost priority, avoiding idols that could lead us away from Him, respecting His name in all we think, do, and speak, and keeping the Sabbath holy as a day of rest and a memorial of creation. Honoring parents establishes a right relationship with them and, by extension, with God. The standards also prohibit taking life, emphasizing the control of anger to prevent hatred and strife. They call for fidelity in relationships, which would eliminate broken homes and ensure stable families. Respecting others' property by not stealing fosters trust and eliminates the need for locks and alarms. Truthfulness, as opposed to bearing false witness, promotes character and trust, paving the way for peace. Lastly, not coveting prevents idolatry and conflict, fostering peace by keeping God as the central focus. Living by these standards now prepares us for a future role in the Kingdom of God, where we will teach these principles to a world blind to them. Despite the current chaos and confusion, and the temptation to relax these standards, we must press on toward perfection, striving for holiness and righteousness in all we do. God expects us to overcome, to change from our nature to His, making His way of life our habitual way of living. As we grow in this, our ability to discern good and evil strengthens, preparing us for the responsibilities we will bear in teaching and guiding others in the World Tomorrow.

In the critical arena of setting standards of spirituality and morality, the government and academia have assumed control, leading to a profound shift in the nation's ethical foundation. The dominant religion now is humanism, where man rejects the existence and role of the Creator God, taking on that authority for himself. Initially, he dictates only to himself, but soon extends this authority to others, defining what is moral based on personal belief. A significant portion of the current government adheres to this humanist perspective, as evidenced by court decisions that reflect their doctrines. Consequently, practices such as infanticide, commonly termed abortion, are ongoing, and murder is permitted under the Constitution. Similarly, homosexuality, gay marriage, and feminist ideals—often a veiled hatred of men presented as liberty for women—are upheld as morally good and free, despite their potential to undermine family life. The nation's leaders are immorally destroying the country and its people through crippling indebtedness, essentially stealing while labeling it as beneficial. Any tenuous connection the governing administration might have to God bears no resemblance to true moral standards or even common sense. The foundational documents of this nation, though carnally sound, do not constitute a covenant with God, and His moral standards are absent from them. Basic prohibitions against murder, theft, lying, and adultery are nowhere explicitly stated in the Constitution, leaving the door of immorality ajar from the outset. Now, that door is nearly wide open, and the nation is sliding into moral decay at the behest of humanistic leadership.

Moral means conforming to standards of what is right or just in behavior. Who sets the standards of what is moral in this culture is very important. Sixty to seventy years ago it was clearly the churches and they in turn got their standards from God's Word. Today moral standards are largely set and distributed from secular universities the public school system motion picture entertainment television and perhaps the most pervasive of all because of the people involved in it is television and its newscasters. The reason why they have so much influence is because they are heard almost every day by somebody somewhere in the United States. Virtually every large media organization in the United States of America plus the motion picture industry plus music companies all of them communicating messages involving news and conduct is owned by only five corporations. Not one of them is even close to godly standards. They are driven by the profit motive. All news is shaped to conform to their editorial design. News reporting is clearly being manipulated because the media is on the same side and the same general level of selection of behavior values as those in governmental authority. In addition to that the public is pretty much on the same level as well. It is so bad that blatant persistent lying which is immoral is considered by government figures as minor and acceptable as long as the ones lying are on the same team. Where then do their standards come from. What is the source of their moral values. The answer is obvious. It is either other man or themselves.

God's people are responsible for upholding standards of right and wrong based on His laws. Priests have violated these laws and have not distinguished between the holy and the unholy nor made known the difference between the unclean and the clean. Prophets use untempered mortar to shore up morality's falling wall. Conservatives argue on the basis of tradition rather than God's law and rely on a visceral code. Both liberals and conservatives have pushed aside God's law in favor of freedom of choice as the overriding good. God's law is the vehicle that sanctifies a people and sets them apart from the ways of satan. Not autonomy but God's law must be the centerpiece of any successful civilization. By rejecting God's law liberals and conservatives alike have shown their unwillingness to stand with God.

Conscience functions as an inner witness that testifies concerning the rightness or wrongness of actions and motives, thereby serving as a person's internal moral sense. This capacity arises because the work of the law is written on human hearts, enabling even those without the written law to become a law to themselves as their conflicting thoughts accuse or excuse them. Far from acting as a dictator of beliefs, conscience operates as a responsive indicator that mirrors an individual's current values and provides the ability for accurate self-examination when those values align with divine truth. A person can live in all good conscience, as Paul claimed, when sincerity governs conduct and hypocrisy is avoided, yet such sincerity does not guarantee that actions match God's actual will. Paul himself demonstrated this distinction before conversion, sincerely pursuing what he believed right while opposing the name of Jesus, which shows that conscience reflects perceived standards rather than automatically revealing the divine standard. When values rest on God's truth, sinful activity produces guilt that prompts repentance; when they do not, sin often occurs without accompanying guilt or desire for change. Consequently, conscience bears witness to the genuine values held by the individual and cannot by itself guarantee righteous works. Even a conscience free of offense may support persecution or other deeds contrary to God's purposes if those deeds appear service to Him. Therefore God, not the human conscience, serves as the final arbiter of actions, and the conscience must remain subordinate to His law so that self-examination, decision-making, repentance, and witness remain consistent with the desire for a conscience void of offense toward God and men.

Many American adults express uncertainty about determining standards of right and wrong, with majorities viewing moral truth as relative to personal experience or cultural consensus rather than absolute. This perspective appears most strongly among younger generations, who often affirm that what works for an individual constitutes the only accessible truth, while sizable portions across age groups also hold that each culture must establish its own moral norms. At the same time, many simultaneously acknowledge that the Bible supplies unchanging moral truths applicable to all people in every situation, revealing deep internal conflict over the source and nature of moral standards. Scripture counters this relativism by commanding complete obedience to God's explicit instructions rather than allowing each person to follow whatever seems right in his own eyes. Such individualism has elevated self-fulfillment as society's dominant moral code, supplanting Christian norms and leading many, including churchgoers, to blend self-centered pursuits with elements of faith. This shift echoes ancient patterns seen when the apostle Paul addressed Athenian philosophers who worshiped unknown deities and craved novel teachings, illustrating how people today similarly replace knowledge of the true God with humanistic self-worship. As a result, absolute standards of salvation through Christ are eroded, and relativism functions to distort divine revelation, producing widespread moral and spiritual confusion. Human wisdom alone cannot discover God and instead regards the message of the cross as foolishness, yet that very message remains the power of God to save those who believe. Those who heed God's counsel thereby demonstrate true wisdom, while reliance on one's own understanding leads ultimately to death.