It is an inescapable fact that we live in a moral universe, although men have constantly tried to evade this reality. At least from the time of the Greeks, and even before, there have been philosophers who sought to prove the possibility of a universal morality without God. In our day, a professor at an American college recently tried to convince his students that it was possible to have a system of ethics without a belief in God. Arguments without number have been adduced to support this position, all of them basically saying that a workable morality can simply be based on a universal consensus of right and wrong. However, this will not work. Lord Devlin, a British judge who eventually left the bench and became a strong critic of the legal system, was forced to admit, “No society has yet solved the problem of how to teach morality without religion.” A man who was commissioned some years ago by a U. S. university to try and draft a sample constitution without reference to a code of morality not only found it impossible, but almost lost his sanity in the process.
Lessons From History
Aside from any reference to God’s Word, experience shows us that any such system is doomed to failure. For many years the U.S.S.R. tried to found its empire on atheism, and we all know that it failed miserably. During the years when the Nazis were in power in Germany, morality was again redefined by a tremendous shift in thinking, as men began to view themselves in the light of philosophies espoused by those like Nietzsche and Heidegger. (Nietzsche and Heidegger were German philosophers, both of whom challenged Christianity and traditional morality.) As we say, “The rest is history.” Today the world is trying to do much the same thing based on tolerance and enlightenment; again, such a system is found wanting.
Yet even these atheistic philosophers were forced to be inconsistent. They had to recognize that not only was there a moral law within man, but that this moral law must be tied to some kind of absolute standard. Immanuel Kant (an earlier German philosopher) dismissed the ideas of God and immortality earlier in his life, but later was compelled to admit them as being necessary to ethics and morality. He was forced to admit, “From such crooked wood as that which man is made of, nothing straight can be fashioned.” In his Critique of Practical Reason he remarked, “Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and reverence ... the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me.”
Nietzsche pointed out that Christianity is a whole, and that one cannot give up faith in God and keep Christian morality. He wrote, “When one gives up the Christian faith, one pulls the right to Christian morality out from under one’s feet. The morality is by no means self-evident. Christianity is a system, a whole view of things thought out together. By breaking one main concept out of it, the faith in God, one breaks the whole. It stands or falls together.”
Conscience
If we live in a moral universe and man is a moral creature, the question arises as to why the world is not governed by good moral principles. If man cannot get away from his conscience, why is the world so amoral? As always, we find that the Word of God settles these issues for us with clarity and authority. Man is a fallen creature — a truth that he does not want to face. When he disobeyed God’s one command in the Garden of Eden, he became a sinner. He also acquired a conscience — a knowledge of good and evil. His conscience does remind him that he is a moral being, but it needs a guide. Without that guide, conscience becomes the victim of public opinion and lust. Man’s conscience cannot guide him in a right way without the light of God’s Word, just as his eyes cannot see properly without natural light. Fallen man, having rejected God and His claims, tends to make for himself a moral vacuum. Satan then makes use of man’s sinful nature to fill that vacuum with what Paul wrote in Romans 1: “Even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful” (Rom. 1:29-3129Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, 30Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: (Romans 1:29‑31)).
This is no mere theoretical saying. It has been played out many times in the history of mankind, for when man gives up God, God allows him to see the result of his foolishness. Indeed, one who had suffered much under an atheistic system made this comment in 1983: “The failings of human consciousness, deprived of its divine dimension, have been a determining factor in all the major crimes of this century.” If all this happened suddenly, it might excite a public reaction. However, the decay that arrives at this awful point may be gradual. If one generation holds to morality in religion, the second generation is often characterized by moral rigidity without the proper basis; then in the third generation there is complete moral breakdown. This process has happened more than once in the past, but today its course is being accelerated. For example, in the last few years there has been a tremendous change in the attitude of people in the West toward same-sex marriage. An article on this subject in a recent issue of Time magazine referred to this as “the swiftest change in public opinion in U.S. history.” This is only one example of a rapid moral breakdown that has affected society, not only in the U.S., but in many parts of the world.
A Moral System Without God
Many today are asking what has happened and why all this has come about. Some are ready to accept a new morality as it concerns such things as same-sex marriage, but are appalled at the corruption and violence that seems to be increasing in geometric proportions. The answer is that man is indeed still trying to work out a moral system, but without God. Of course, many of those in this position might well say that they believe in a God, but their attitude is much like those of whom David could speak: “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God” (Psa. 14:11<<To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.>> The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good. (Psalm 14:1)). They may acknowledge God in an abstract way, but refuse to admit His relevance to the way they live their lives. For many today God is viewed merely as a philanthropist who is there to facilitate their desires and pleasures, but not to be reverenced or obeyed. Secular humanism has taken over, and men are persuaded that the endpoint of everything must be the happiness of man. If God and His claims get in the way, they are simply disregarded.
Violence and Corruption
However, in spite of all this declension, man’s conscience continues to nag at him, and we can be thankful for this. Many today are sickened and revolted by the ever-increasing display of man’s fallen nature, often without regard to the consequences, even to himself. So-called “suicide bombers” are an example of this, where men (and women) are willing to sacrifice themselves in order to cause suffering and death to others. Violent acts such as armed robbery and murder are on the rise, while behind-the-scenes crimes such as Internet scams, credit card fraud, and stolen identities are becoming enormous problems for everyone, but especially financial institutions. As these things begin to affect all of society, some are beginning to look to God for answers.
We can be very thankful that one effect of the rising tide of evil is to make some consider eternal realities and recognize their responsibility toward God. On the other hand, we know from God’s Word that “evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse” (2 Tim. 3:13), and this trend will be reversed only by judgment. “When Thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness” (Isa. 26:99With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. (Isaiah 26:9)). But for those who are willing to come to Christ, He gives new life — a life that delights in righteousness. We as Christians must, of course, be continually on guard, for the tide of evil in the world does threaten to swamp us, but the Spirit of God indwelling the believer and the guidance of the Word of God enable us to rise above the conditions around us. More than this, we can look forward to spending eternity where sin can never enter. As to this world, one day there will be “new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness” (2 Peter 3:13).
W. J. Prost