November 5, 2015
“God Prefers Kind Atheists Over Hateful Christians”.
This message would have troubled me, but would have passed quickly from my mind if not for who posted it. It was not posted on a anti-Christian site, or on one the media finds popular. It was posted on a church sign. The sign of a church which is a part of a popular and well known denomination.
If the church sign did not bother me enough, the replies bothered me even more. I read the responses of many, those who praised what the sign had to say. The support of those who deny Christ, did not surprise me. But the praise of those who claimed to speak for Christ sent chills up my spine. I read the words of church leader after church leader applauding the sign, telling all how they would also be placing the message on the sign of their church.
The message is filled with so many problems, but two immediately jump out at me. First, what is a “hateful Christian”? A person who follows Christ that is also filled with hate? A believer in Christ is filled with Christ, therefore, can never be filled with hate. God’s Word tells us, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”(1 John 4:7-8). To be filled with hate, is not to be filled with Christ. There is no room in our body for both.
When Christ was asked what we must do to inherit eternal life, Christ answered that we are to love the Lord with all our heart, all our soul, all our strength, and all our mind(Luke 10:25-28). In other words, we must love God with all our being, with all our thoughts and in all our actions. Without love, we cannot know God, and we cannot experience God, for God is true love. The kindest atheist in the world cannot know true love, because they do not know God. As cannot a hateful man who claims to follow Christ, because they are not filled with the love of Christ. God knows both, but each word He speaks tells us that He prefers neither, as both reject Him. Eternity is waiting for those who love God, sadly not for those who deny Him or hate Him.
Second, the statement implies that the “kind atheist” is in higher standing. In other words, with enough kind acts, one can earn their way into heaven, and into the preference of God. Although this is a message that sells well to the masses, it is not a message that God has ever spoken. To accept this message is to deny God’s Word, and to deny the purpose for why Christ came to this earth. Our salvation depends solely upon Christ. He, alone, is our Savior from sin(John 1:29), and He is the perfecter of our faith(Hebrews 12:2). Christ did all the work! There is no work for salvation left for us to do, only acceptance.
God’s Word tells us, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that is not of yourself, it is a gift from God; not the result of works, so that no one may boast.”(Ephesians 2:8-9). Salvation is a gift, not something we can earn. And even if we could earn it, how much work would it take? And how would we ever know we had done enough? Simply put, we could not. Work can only be an outcome of our faith, not a prerequisite for it. Our work reflects Christ in us, and shows Christ to this world. True faith has Christ as its’ focus, and the work He did on our behalf(Matthew 11:28-29). We must never forget, if work was required for salvation, and salvation was not a gift, then it could never be described with the words grace and mercy(Romans 11:6).
Besides these two obvious problems, another problem also lies in the message on the church sign. A problem that has not only taken prominence in our society, but one that has slithered into the doors of our churches. A problem that is as old as time, but one that stills comes at us new everyday. A problem that answers to many names like justification, rationalization, and vindication. But a problem whose true name will always be situational ethics.
Situational ethics teach us that the morality of the act is to be determined by the situation one finds himself in. Many teach that situational ethics and moral relativism are one and the same, but they could not be more confused. Moral relativism sees no right and no wrong. Whereas situational ethics sees right and wrong as ever changing, determined by the chosen outcome of the circumstances. Ethics are therefore determined by the needs found in each situation.
Since man was formed, situational ethics has been our way of justifying our own actions. A way of placing our own thoughts and logic on an equal basis with God’s teachings. Situational ethics becomes a way for man to determine right and wrong without the wisdom of God, a way for man to decide for himself what is lawful and what is sin. In recent years, we have watched as this philosophy has found its’ way into our sanctuaries, and into our teachings, Through our willingness to compromise with the world, the Church now finds itself looking to its’ own logic to justify what is right and what is wrong.
So quickly, the Church has been willing to forget what God’s Word tells us about situational ethics. Three principles from the Bible make it clear that ethics cannot be situational. First, for situational ethics to hold true, God’s Word would have to untrue. Situational ethics would tells us that the Bible is filled with errors that man needs to correct. If God is perfect and flawless, as we believe He is, then His Word would also have to be perfect and flawless. Without error. For us to try to change even one word would mean that we were judging God, judging His perfection, and placing ourselves in a more perfect situation than the Lord. For us to do this, we have to ignore our own limitations, our own imperfections. No matter how hard we may try, we can never make ourselves more perfect than the Perfect One who created us.
Second, if God is perfect, then only He can define what is right and what is wrong. How can we better determine what is right, than the One who set all things right? Right and wrong cannot be defined by us, but only by the very nature of God. For the perfect example of this, we need only to look at God’s love. The Bible tells us that God is love(1 John 4:16), and we see that love each day in the very nature of God. We see the selflessness of His love in all He has done for us, and all He continues to do for us each day. But if we look at situational ethics, we do not see the selflessness, but the selfishness. Situations decided by what best meets our own needs. Situations determined by our own logic and our own heartlessness. Situations that answer the need of today, but fails to recognize the needs that only God can see tomorrow.
Third, situational ethics fail to recognize the sovereignty of God. Situational ethics determine and define morality by the circumstances and surroundings we find ourselves in. The Bible teaches us that morality is determined and defined by God’s sovereignty, as God not only made us, but everything around us. Only the One who has seen and commanded all, has the authority to govern all, the ability to determine and to define right and wrong.
It all comes down to one simple question, a question that has been asked throughout history. Who will set the standards by which we will live by? Will we look to God for that standard, or will we look to the world for that standard? God is the same today as He was yesterday, and will be the same tomorrow(Hebrews 13:8). The standard He sets is consistent. But the standard the world sets is every changing. What the world sees as just today, it might describe as unfit tomorrow, then might view as just again the next. It is from this ever changing standard that situational ethics feeds and grows. Under situational ethics, right and wrong becomes nothing more than personal opinion. And ultimately it leads to a place where no man can live, where no man can survive. The ultimate outcomes of situational ethics tells me, what I see as right or wrong in my personal situation, can never be denied me. Words that should sound familiar. Because like situational ethics, they are words that are as old as time.
Situational ethics takes itself back to a place in the Garden. When a serpent convinced Eve that with one bite, she would be like God. Today, we still hear that serpent speaking, seeking to convince man to just take one bite. But once bitten, it is too late to realize that the fruit was poison. Now spreading decay through our bodies, destroying our very being. Eroding the wisdom of God from within us, leaving us with nothing more than our own faulty logic, and our own failed foolishness. Leading us to behave in strange ways. Acting outside of how the One who created us, intended for us. Causing us to justify our own actions, to glorify our own sins. Leading this world to define morality without God. Leading this Church to speak words the Lord has never spoken. And leading us to to post messages on church signs the Lord has never thought.
Praying you will not put yourself in a position to ever be bitten.
