GOD IS GOOD

THE UNIVERSE IS MORAL

Reality Check
No matter how hard we try to deny or forget it, we live
in a moral universe. Our story in this earth has a moral
theme.

• First... human beings, all over the earth, have the

curious idea that they ought to behave in a certain
way, and cannot really get rid of it.

• Second... they do not in fact behave in that way.

They know the Law of Nature, they break it.
Defining Terms
As worldview changes, so do the words that
mark it. Sometimes the words stay the same
but their meaning change. The word
compassion, for instance, used to signify
"suffering together with another." Today it has
morphed into a flabby "feeling of pity."
Defining Terms
In the modern sense of course, "moral"
describes a society's manners and customs.
It describes what is eternal (transcendent and
universal) and thus prescriptive of what ought
to be.
Defining Terms
Another key classical term is ethics. It comes
from the Greek ethos "character". An ethical
system is a collection of moral principles, a
system of rules for regulating social manners.
It describes the universal and eternal
standard for right and wrong.

Morality is based on an objective standard. It

comes from God.
 The Bible says that God, who is the
God: The Source
source of all morality, differs from the
of Morality gods of the nations. And because
he is different, we also must be
different.
Exodus 34:6-7
 Thus, the universe- created "good" by
God: The Source God- has a moral order. Morality is not
of Morality a human, fallible construct. It is based
on nothing less than the character of
God.

It is eternal, unchanging. More than

this, morals establish what is good
versus evil, right versus wrong,
beautiful versus vulgar, just versus
unjust, and civil versus barbaric.

They affirm God's original design for

creation and call us to uphold that
design.
The Ten Commandments (Exo.
20:1-7) bring order to society,
much as the ten words in
Genesis (1:3-29) brought order
to the physical universe. The
Ten Commandments create a
foundation for civil society.
The first four commandments
establish man's relationship
with God. We are to:
- Worship the one true God
- Honor only God (and not to
create idols)
- Keep God's name holy
- Keep the Sabbath day holy
The last six commandments establish
how we are to relate to one another in
community. We are to:
• Respect authority, especially our
parents
• Respect human life sacred
• Keep marriage sacred
• Refrain from theft
• Be truthful
• Be content with what we have
The Decalogue, then establishes the
first principles for creating a civil order,
which mistakenly assume to be a
modern invention. These commands
provide for equality before the law
(social justice), democratic institutions
(political justice), and free market
(economic justice)
Natural law, the law written into the
hearts of people, constitutes the other
way God has revealed his ways to us.
Paul said that all people, whether or not
they have access to God's specially
revealed law, have access to God's
natural law, because they are made in
God's image as moral beings and
inhabit a moral universe.
Romans 2:14-15
Using a more contemporary language,
we might say that man is morally
programmed: he has an imbedded
moral sense of right and wrong.

Critical to understanding natural law is

human conscience. Conscience refers
to our ability to pass moral judgments on
ourselves.
Moral freedom
Man was given moral freedom to make choices- significant
choices. However, secularists believe that man is a
machine, an automation, a being with no free will. All of his
choices are biologically determined.

Animists believe that man is dominated by outside forces.

Moral freedom
We face real choices and genuine consequences. Man is
the pro-active creator of history, not an inactive fatalist or a
reactive responder.

This freedom produces consequences- both good and bad-

for the world in which we live.
Moral freedom
Man's rebellion led to the coming of evil into the world in
three forms:
• Personal-moral evil
• Natural evil
• Institutional evil.
Moral freedom
Evil is not just "the absence of good" as secularists believe.
It exists independently because we invited it here.
Secularism, therefore, cannot really address the challenge
of evil.
Moral freedom
Yet we need to remember that, in a very real sense, evil is
abnormal. God did not create an evil world. He hates evil
and stand against it.
Man opened the floodgates that allowed evil to grow.
Moral freedom
Now God calls on man to fight against
it. He is to obey God and rebel against
Satan, who is temporary "god of this
world". Man is to discipline his personal
life against moral evil, challenge the
dominion of personal evil, and fight
against the ravages of natural and
institutional evil.
Consequences Rebellion against God's
of the fall moral law leads to moral
poverty, societal breakdown,
and destitution. Disbelief in
God leads to the rejection of
absolutes. People must
make up their own
standards, according to
subjective criteria.
Consequences SECULARISM'S VIEW:
of the fall Few secularists have the
courage of their
convictions. Most of them
are asking: "Is it fun?",
"Does it feel good?", "Does
it work?", "Is it efficient?", "Is
it convenient?", "Is it
comfortable?"
Consequences SECULARISM'S VIEW:
of the fall We have reduced ourselves to
small people pursuing small
things, our eyes trained on the
ground, oblivious to heaven or
hell. "It emptied the people to see
the world in moral terms, and this
turn, closes access to reality, for
reality is fundamentally moral."
Consequences of the fall
ANIMISM'S VIEW:
Animism similarly rejects the moral
order of the universe. Animists
have fled from the righteous
Creator to a multitude of gods who
act arbitrarily, on their
own inscrutable whims- the
perfect models of corrupt power.
Consequences of the
fall
ANIMISM'S VIEW:
Not only were moral absolutes absent, the
rules put in their place were purely
arbitrary. Legalism, therefore, flourished.
Codes of conduct had nothing to do with
right and wrong and everything to do with
tradition. They were enforced rigidly and
without question.
Justice The laws of the state are to be founded
on the law of God.

Secularism opens the door for freedom

without moral responsibility, the license
to do evil, which is anarchy.

By contrast, theism provides for

freedom with moral responsibility,
freedom to be good and do good.
Economics Free markets acknowledge that wealth
originates from the mind and morality,
not from the ground
Moral Development Ultimately, a society is built not by
written laws or constitutions but by
the moral choices of its members.
Its social fabric must be woven one
person, one family, one community
at a time.

Development in the physical realm

is impossible without development
in the moral realm, because the
universe is ultimately moral.
Moral Development Christ summarized the moral
development needed. He called
us to love God with all our heart,
soul, mind and strength.

Loving God is the vertical

component; loving our neighbor,
the horizontal.