The Heart of The Objections
Many individuals in the modern era believe themselves to be in the role of judge and jury upon God through their rejection of Christianity by condemning God’s moral standards. Old Testament passages are ripped out of their context and claimed to exhibit reprehensible ethical dictates. Critics will often point to the accounts of the Israelites being commanded to conquer wicked nations as an illustration of what they believe to be horrific morality at play. At other points, those levying their assault against Christianity attempt to show how it is out of step with modern morality. Because Christians, based upon God’s Word, do not accept the LGBTQ+ agenda, then Scripture is often labeled as outdated with current moral standards. Many who have bought into the positions of theological liberalism or atheistic secularism label the Bible as being full of hate speech and immoral counsel.
Nonetheless, many Christians are left with their head spinning suffering dizziness from such objections. When someone asserts an objection like saying the bible condones rape (INSERT ARTICLE LINK HERE), many believers are unsure of how to respond confusedly wondering how such an objection against Scripture could even be made. Yet, we must ask what is at the heart of these objections? Why is it that individuals seek to bring moral objections against Scripture? Simply put, the heart of these complaints is that the person is living according to a faulty moral standard trying to act as a judge upon the Scripture for not agreeing with their definition of morality. However, it should not be shocking that the Word of God would disagree with fallen man’s concept of morals. The question is whose standard will we live by?
Divine Versus Human Standards
Mankind living according to their own ways has never faired well since the only standard of true morality is grounded in God. As one example, take the 20th Century when various humans decided to set up the most godless governmental system known to man in Communism and Marxism, over one hundred million innocent people paid the price of their lives. Another illustration is found in the issue of abortion where over 60-million humans have been murdered in the United States after the court ruling of Roe V. Wade. That is not a global figure, that is only America. Whenever the moral standard of God and man conflict, it is not God who is in error, but man.
How then shall we engage those criticizing the morality of Scripture? We should ask one simple question, “by what standard?” By what standard are you trying to determine what is good as opposed to that which is evil? Whatever foundation they are standing upon, so long as it is not Scripture, will have inconsistencies reducing itself to absurdity. Since true morality is based upon the character of God, and because the Bible is His special revelation, then those seeking to base morality according to the whims of their opinions will be incorrect and inconsistent in their thinking. Our entire goal on this point is to contrast sinful man’s standard of morality with the divine standard. It will not take long to unravel the inconsistencies in human thought as opposed to the infallible ways of God.1
Fleshing It Out In The Real World
It is one step to specify the action we need to take when dealing with objections of this vein against Christianity, yet it is obviously quite a bit more difficult to respond to individuals asserting these positions in real-time. As I am sure you know, dear reader, the intensity heats up a bit when you are having to give the answers in a conversation with friends, family, or even a complete stranger. Therefore, let’s give an example on this issue to help put an active illustration on this concept.
Let’s say that you are out at the coffee shop one day minding your own business. All you are doing is sitting in the corner drinking a nice, dark cup of coffee while reading your Bible. The next thing you know someone sits down at the table in front of you, you glance up and smile politely. They nod back and ask how you could read such an immoral book of ancient fabrications. A little caught off-guard, you ask this person what in the world they are talking about? They decide to toss what they believe to be a hard question your way. Sitting back grimly smiling, our local coffee shop troublemaker asks, “how could you believe in a book that oppresses transgender and homosexual individuals?”
Now, there are really only two options for you at this point. Option one: hurriedly grab all of your possessions scurrying out the door immediately. Option two: give a response of some kind. I am guessing most of us want to be able to remain seated pursuing option two, so let’s look at that route. The clearest way to begin responding would be to start with the doctrine of creation. Since God is the One who created everything, then it is His prerogative to determine what is moral and what is not. Seeing as He created humanity exclusively male and female (Genesis 1:27), and homosexuality is sin according to God (1 Corinthians 6:9), thus it would be wrong of you to hold a different moral standard than God. At this point, we have proclaimed the truth of Christianity and given the basic foundation for our standard of morality, namely God. We want to now lob a question towards our newfound Bible-attacking coffee shop intruder in order to begin to undermine his ethical standard. We ask him, what do you believe is the right moral view of sexuality?
He looks intently thoughtful for a second, then answers back that all sexual identities should be counted as equal and not oppressed by ancient myths and traditions. A bit defiantly, the man takes a sip of coffee, then expresses that no one has the right to impose their morality on another. Realizing that he just left an ideological hole big enough to drive a semi-truck through, you respectfully ask him if he thinks pedophiles and rapists should be allowed to practice their sexual desires on others? Or, should instances of incest be allowed? The man, reeling a little bit, says that no he does not, and begins to realize the inconsistency of his position.
At this point, you press in and begin to share the Gospel with him explaining how it is by the grace of God alone we are saved and the Bible is God’s special revelation to humanity. You have disarmed the teeth of his objection by showing the inconsistency of his own standard. He wanted to say that all sexual beliefs and practices should be allowed, but then quickly contradicted that statement when pressed with specific examples. This man was fine with transgenderism and homosexuality, but not pedophilia, incest, and rape. Giving him a consistent answer and showing his own lack of consistency allowed you to enter into a deeper conversation around the Gospel and point him to Christ.
Thinking About The Conversation
Now, I know that most likely there would be little nuances thrown into a conversation such as this one. For example, the individual might ask you about specific passages, how the Old Testament laws about homosexuality relate to the New Covenant, and so forth. Yet, the fundamental aspect of the answer I gave in the above conversation can still very easily be utilized even in deeper and more nuanced discussions. Our objective is to turn the tables on the unbeliever. They think that they have the moral high ground over Scripture, what we want to demonstrate to them is the consistency of the Bible and how they are left with an inconsistent position!
Many individuals will be initially caught off guard when hearing a moral objection against Christianity. The important aspect to remember is that when such an assertion comes our way we must seek to be faithful to Christ by demonstrating the inconsistencies of the unbelieving standards for morality. The heart of rejecting the Bible is a man promoting the idea he thinks he can judge God, that is blatant folly for the creature to believe he can pass judgment on the Eternal Creator. So, Christian friend, don’t be put into a state of disarray in such moments, instead respond with respect and boldness to the unbeliever showing them the truth of Christianity. Undoubtedly, this unwavering response upon Scripture is the one we are called to give by God!
Sources
1 Note: I would contend the two main steps in a biblical defense of the faith are to proclaim the truth of Christianity demonstrating its consistency and show the inconsistency of the unbelieving worldview. Check out this sermon of mine on Colossians 2 for further development of this approach: https://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=121821329562033
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