Ethics and Morality

I've always regarded 'ethics' as a 'Christian' field and have always associated it with 'morality'. However, I came across a few instances in which ethics have driven people to justify acts which were obviously contrary to the will of God i.e. morally wrong. This led me to seek a few answers which I have summarized below...

Ethics is defined as 'that branch of philosophy dealing with values relating to human conduct, with respect to the rightness and wrongness of certain actions and to the goodness and badness of the motives and ends of such actions'.
Morality is defined as 'conformity to the rules of right conduct.'

Don't you see the difference? Morality refers to an unchanging set of rules as to what IS right and what IS wrong, regardless of the society, culture, situation or era. However ethics is based on perception. Ethics weigh the pros and the cons of an issue or action from a human point of view - this balance may sometimes lead to a 'morally wrong' decision.

As Christians, we're not to focus on the 'ethics' of an issue, but its 'morality'. We ought not to weigh up its advantages and disadvantages i.e approach it with 'worldly wisdom' but focus on the truth explicitly stated in the word of God. The truth is unchanging, inerrant and infallible as it is from God - God makes the rules - however, we determine ethics, and if you haven't already noticed, we make mistakes!

When Blessings Become Idols

Recently, God has been reminding me about the real value of the things in my life. It is a lesson that He has taught me many times, but I still haven't grasped it!

What are blessings?

Friends, family, material success, are all blessings that God has lavished upon us. While the world may view these everyday things with indifference, the Christian very well knows they're good gifts that God alone can give. Israel experienced this like no other nation ever has; victorious battles against nations double their size, prosperity during the most parched of times, name it!

Blessings are the little things in life we long and pray for. The privileges that embellish our lives to make it that one bit sweeter. 

Why does God bless us?

Psalm 103:17 But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him, and His righteousness unto children's children 

Psalm 1 Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in path of sinners...

...well you get the gist! Numerous verses in the Bible answer the above question...the list would practically be endless!

He is a good God. He loves those who fear and seek Him and thus bestows His grace and mercy on them. We cannot earn blessings, we neither deserve them; He blesses purely because He loves. The purpose of the blessings He bestows are to lead us to trust Him on everything else with a spirit of gratitude i.e. bring us closer to Him.

Where does the problem arise?

The spirit of complacency? Self sufficiency? Pride?

Back to Israel...in the book of 'Hosea', we see what often happens to our hearts when we are blessed. Although Israel enjoyed God's mercies, goodness and riches, they lost their focus - they drifted away from God. The very things that were designed to bring them closer to Him had become a hindrance as they forgot where these originate from. Anything that comes between us and God is an 'idol', thus the blessing is now an 'idol'. Israel turned her back to the one true God and sought worthless idols and the help of fellow nations, instead of God.

[Food for thought: I can't help but relate it to creation. The created world around us, nature in all its splendor, has been 'designed' to bring us closer to God by reminding us of His presence. However, sadly, humanity uses that very blessing to deny His existence.]

God's Solution

What follows in Hosea is a beautiful love story; a King seeking His worthless adulterous wife just because He loves her. (Read Hosea 10)

How does He do it?

He does it by taking away the 'blessings'. It might seem harsh, however isn't it harsher for Him to leave us in our sinful, Godless state that is headed for hell?

My friend Bea put it this way...

A father gives his son a toy because he loves him. It makes the father happy to see his son play and enjoy the gift. However, eventually, the son ONLY plays with his toy. He stops spending time with the father. The gift now has become a hindrance. In desperate measure to nurture his relationship with his son, the father will have to remove the toy! He doesn't want to, but has to, because of what is more important.

It is right to be grateful for the blessings God has placed in our life. Let us cherish them. However, let us ensure that we ALWAYS remember that they are 'good gifts' given to us by the Father. Blessings are temporary, however God alone can give us lasting peace and joy. Make sure you don't place the blessings before God Himself; remember that He'll do anything to get His place in your life (even if that means removing the blessing).
This is an area that I struggle with, but I know that God will empower me to overcome it. Let us put God first and make sure we don't turn His blessings into our idols.

Did Jesus Rise From the Dead? - Luke Watkins

Biblical accounts supported by unbiased historical logic and facts, reiterate the inerrant, infallible and divine nature of the Bible, accentuating the authenticity of the message portrayed. My friend, Luke Watkins, presented a talk titled 'Did Jesus Rise From the Dead?' - it was very impressive and based its case entirely on historical facts. I have thus requested to reproduce his work (below) on my blog, as I feel it can benefit many - not only those who are earnestly seeking the truth, but also those who are faced with theological conversations and arguments.

It is possible to make a case for the resurrection of Jesus even if we totally ignore the Bible, and use only historical and often non-Christian documents as evidence. To make our case we must consider four points:

1. The death of Jesus

2. The burial of Jesus

3. The empty tomb

4. The eyewitnesses

The Death of Jesus

To prove that Jesus was resurrected, a good place to start is to prove that He died. Josephus, a first century Roman Jewish historian wrote:

‘When Pilate, upon hearing him accused by men of the highest standing amongst us, had condemned him to be crucified’.

Tacitus, a second century Roman historian and senator wrote:

‘Christus... suffered the extreme penalty [ie crucifixion] during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of out procurators, Pontius Pilatus’.

These along with other sources make it fairly clear that Jesus existed, and was condemned to crucifixion by Pontius Pilate. In spite of this, some people claim that Jesus may have survived crucifixion. This is a fairly weak argument. It requires Jesus to have been beaten and whipped with a flagrum, an ordeal so painful that many died in the process - indeed Jesus was in so much pain afterwards that He was unable to carry His Cross up the hill. It then requires Him to be crucified, whilst wearing a crown of thorns, by a professional crucifixion team who, not only had they done this countless times before, but risked being put to death themselves if a victim survived. It requires Him to then survive a spear in the side (most likely into the heart), again by a professional execution team, and to have been transported to the tomb, where He woke up and managed to unwrap Himself from heavy cloths soaked in spices, which almost certainly would have suffocated Him had He still been alive. He then had to move a stone so heavy it took a team of Romans to roll into place, then overpower between two and fourteen hardened, trained and armed roman soldiers, and then run off and appear to his disciples.

However, some may cite Josephus’ account of a man who survived crucifixion. It is important to note that this man was one of three who were friends of Josephus. Upon seeing their execution he asked the roman governor, Titus, to take them down, and all three of them received the best medical attention of the day. Only one of them survived, and that was with medical attention and without having a spear thrust into his side.

The Burial of Jesus

Joseph of Arimathea, a wealthy member of the Jewish Sanhedrin, obtained Jesus’ body from Pilate for burial in Joseph’s own tomb. We know this from all four Gospels, but we can be fairly sure this is true as it is unlikely that the disciples would have invented the story that Jesus was buried by a well known person, whom people knew and check the account with. It’s especially unlikely it was invented seeing as he was a member of the Sanhedrin, who sentenced Jesus to death, so would have every reason to rebuke the disciples account if it were not true.

According to the record He was buried in Joseph’s private tomb, and his burial was witnessed by the women from Galilee and the two Marys. The tomb was new, so there could be no confusion about the body. It is also highly unlikely that the location of the tomb was lost. It was in Joseph of Arimathea’s private garden, and with the burial being witnessed by both Joseph and Joanna, wife of Chuza, the manager of Herod’s household. With such important and intelligent people involved, it is unlikely that the location of the tomb was confused.

Finally, Jesus was wrapped in burial cloths containing up to 25kg of spices. If Jesus were alive then He almost certainly would have been suffocated by the cloths, and if He hadn’t been it is highly unlikely that He would have been able to unwrap Himself from them in His post-crucifixion state. The tomb was secured by Joseph by a large disc shaped stone that fitted into a groove in the side of the tomb. Fairly easy to roll into place, but requiring several men to roll away. The Jewish leaders had the stone officially sealed, and had a number of guards placed at the entrance of the tomb. This seems extremely likely, for a start the Jewish authorities circulated a story about the guards falling asleep when Jesus’ body went missing - which if anything proves there were guards and proves the tomb was empty. It also makes sense as something the authorities would do, they were very nervous about any claims that Jesus might not be dead.

The Empty Tomb

All four of the Gospels agree that the tomb was found empty when the Christian women came early in the morning on the first day of the week, so as to finish encasing Jesus’ body in spices. The gospels also agree that the disciples, upon investigating the women’s claims, also found the tomb empty. From this we gather that when early Christians talked of the resurrection of Jesus, they meant He had been genuinely resurrected in the same body - not a new and unconnected body. This is important as some theologians argue that Christian reports of the resurrection may be no more than mystical accounts of a spiritual resurrection - we know from the Gospels and from historical evidence that this is not what Christians claimed.

Next, what is interesting about the empty tomb is that the first people who told the world that the tomb was empty were the Jewish authorities - the last people who wanted it to be the case!

Matthew 28: 11 - While the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened. 12 When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, 13 telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.’ 14 If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” 15 So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day.

Although some argue about the authenticity of this story, saying that it may have been a myth created later, this is unlikely to be the case. We know that it was probably published around 60 AD, and it also has all the marks of being created for circulation among Jews (as indeed does the entire Gospel of Matthew). It would have been circulated around Jerusalem and beyond, so if it was a myth then people could easily check for themselves by checking the tomb to see if it’s empty or not. Assuming the story is true, then the only reason the Jewish authorities would have circulated the story if it was indeed true that the tomb was empty. If it hadn’t been, then they could simply have produced the body and Christianity would have been crushed there and then - Jesus was a celebrity after all.

However, what if the story is true, what if the guards did fall asleep? Well, it’s scarcely conceivable that the authorities would have trusted such a sensitive job to guards who would fall asleep on the job. We know there were up to 14 guards, so the idea that they all fell asleep at once makes this even more unlikely. And in any case, if they had fallen asleep then how would they have known what happened, and been able to identify the disciples as the culprits? This propaganda by the Jewish authorities is extremely compelling evidence for the empty tomb, they simply had absolutely no conceivable reason to lie about the tomb being empty if it wasn’t.

As a side note, an inscription found in the nineteenth century, dating to AD 30-40, contains the ‘Edict of Nazareth’ which proclaimed robbery or desecration of a tomb to be punishable by the death penalty. Historians believe that something pretty unusual must have happened around this time for such a severe edict to be issued - perhaps the robbery of Joseph’s tomb?

Next, we can consider the disciples explanation of the empty tomb. It cannot be emphasised enough how important this point is. These disciples died excruciating deaths, and most of them were Jews of the highest moral character. Is it really conceivable that they came up with the worlds most elaborate conspiracy theory, and died excruciating deaths for this belief? Well, people die for things they believe in all the time, a disbeliever might say - look at suicide bombers. But that’s exactly the point! People die for things they believe in, not lies they concocted.

Finally, the people involved make it even more unlikely that the disciples made up the story. The Gospels describe women, the two Marys and Salome. Seeing as women couldn’t even testify in a court at this time, it’s highly unlikely that if the story was made up that women would have been chosen as the first witnesses - it’s rather an embarrassing fact, which the disciples probably only put in because it was true.

As a final note, we can consider the physical evidence at the tomb, such as the grave cloths. Grave robbing was common in the ancient world, however the idea that Jesus’ tomb was robbed seems incredibly unlikely. Ignoring the armed guards outside, there is no reason for tomb robbers to have stolen Jesus’ body but to leave the grave cloths which were soaked in extremely valuable spices. Even if for some strange reason the tomb robbers had just wanted the body, then there’s no real reason for them to go to all the trouble of unwrapping Jesus’ body before taking it.

It is important to remember this third point very well. In the words of the historian, Sir Norman Anderson, “The empty tomb, then, forms a veritable rock on which all rationalistic theories of the resurrection dash themselves in vain.”

The Eyewitnesses

Christians did not, however, just assert that the tomb was empty. They claimed that Jesus had risen from the dead, and that they had seen, spoke to and even eaten with Him. Seeing as Jesus appeared to over 500 people it is almost certain that people believed there to be resurrection appearances - when Paul references them He encourages people to go and check with these people. However, atheists might say that these people had hallucinations. There are four reasons this is unlikely:

•   Hallucinations usually appear to people of an imaginative temperament, but all the disciples were very different - from fishermen to tax collectors.
•   Hallucinations tend to be of expected events, however the disciples did not expect to see Jesus - many of them were in hiding for example.
•   Hallucinations tend to occur over a prolonged period, either increasing or decreasing. However Christ’s appearances occurred frequently over a period of 40 days then abruptly stopped. This is not consistent with normal hallucinations.
•   Most importantly, many people saw Jesus at the same time on different instances. This would require a mass hallucination, which is absolutely not possible. By its nature a hallucination is in the mind, and so there is no way for someone else to share the experience. For 500 people to experience the same thing from a collective hallucination is absurd, as collective hallucinations have never been recorded. For one person, Jesus might be floating on a cloud, for another, he might be riding a donkey - however everyone saw the same thing! 

C. S. Lewis also makes the perceptive remark that:

“Any theory of hallucination falls down on the fact that on three separate occasions the hallucination was not immediately recognized as Jesus.” (Luke 24:13, John 20:15, 21:4)

Finally:

•  Saul's transformation to Paul on the road to Damascus.
•  Many eyewitnesses named, so they could be checked by people
•  Close but not exact testimonies.
•  Resurrection predicted in the Old Testament.

Credits - John Lennox (much of the research material)

Dear friend, who hopes in the works you do

yes, I am here to talk to you,

your life is empty headed for a blind end,

I want to warn you, because I love you friend

We all have sinned and fallen short of God's glory

we try to get back on track but forget about His mercy.

Aimlessly relying on goodness, charity and magnanimity,

all we'll ever reap is heaven's eternal enmity

God desires not a slave but a friend

He wants not discipline but love, till the end.

Don't get me wrong, 'good works' are needed,

not first, but emerging from the faith primarily seeded.

Didn't He say that His grace was enough?

You are constantly fooled that eternal life is tough!

God longs not for anything you have got,

all He desires, is a sincere and open heart.

Hasn't He already settled your case?

By paying the greatest price, wiping the shame off your face?

When He has taken your place to ease the pain,

all your frantic deeds look great, but are all in vain

Confession of sins and acceptance of His love,

is all that is required to secure your place above.

Now friend, ponder on what I've been saying,

quit your striving, let's commence the praying.

Are you 'unashamed' of the 'tricky bits' of Christianity?

This is an issue dear to my heart. Coming into contact with so many Christians, who profess their faith, yet refuse to adhere to all of God's holy, moral law, I feel the need to write about this once more, to accentuate the seriousness of it all...

Most Christians would proudly advertise their faith by saying they're Christians. However, seldom do they gladly, shamelessly discuss the values the Bible holds and advocates. What else, there are some who even hold a distorted doctrinal view - a compromised, contemporary set of rules, far from and contrary to the Word of God. 

These are some of the core things people seem to have a problem with:

• Eternal Condemnation: While they would happily agree that a mass murderer would end up in hell, they will find the aspect of a 'non-Christian' or even an 'unsaved-Christian' ending up in hell, questionable - albeit the Bible is clear that 'we all have sinned and fallen short of God's glory' and that we all deserve hell, only Jesus' blood can save us; He is the ONLY way to Heaven. Good works amount to NOTHING in eternity, if they were not the RESULT of SALVATION! Their argument is, 'You're out of your mind, God is a God of love, He'll forgive them and let them go. He won't punish them in such a manner.' 
• Acknowledging Something as 'Sin': The Bible clearly defines what is and is not 'sin' for us, obviously only if we take the time to look. Surprisingly, this is something that many struggle on. Why? Primarily, because the 'world's' definition of what is 'sin', has been transforming ever since secularism and materialism have been on the rise - if we make the rules, obviously we're going to justify our actions, thus, just because something is 'common' or 'allowed' or supported by consensus, it doesn't automatically become right. We don't want to look strange by supporting some archaic views, do we?
• God HATES Sin: Society often claims we 'hate sinners'...note, I DID NOT say 'God hates sinners', I said, 'God hates sin'...and He does. The Bible reiterates this fact throughout its 66 books, 1189 chapters and 31240 verses, innumerable times. When God hates something He rebukes it and demands it to be changed - obviously, those who wish to control their lives are unhappy about this truth, thus protest...and sadly, some Christians support them or do the same.

'Yes, He is indeed a loving God, but He loves what is good and will not tolerate what is evil. It's not because He is impatient or intolerant in a human sense, but because He is blazing with purity, holiness and righteousness. Evil is simply not compatible with His nature; it is completely foreign to Him...If we truly belong to God, it means we must share in His heart - we much hate what He hates and love what He loves. That means hating sin, hating things that are opposed to God and God's way of living...I wonder if all too easily...we become increasingly comfortable with things God wants us to hate.'

As much as God is a 'God of love', He is also a 'God of justice'. He can't just 'overlook' sinfulness by forgiving. The price HAS to be paid. And just because He loves us, He paid the price, so that we wouldn't have to suffer.

Mark 8:38 - "If anyone is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when He comes in His Father's glory with the holy angels."

Once saved, not only are we to be proud in Christ, unashamed for Him, but also for His word, teachings and everything He stood for - no matter how strange or odd we look! We need to be '...passionate about the things God loves, and opposed to the things God will not tolerate.' We're called to '...radical, counter cultural, uncomfortable ways of living.' (Quoted from The Good Book Company's 'Exploring Identity' Study)

Are you going to fear a temporary, worldly rejection and shame by forfeiting a greater, eternal honor, not only for you but others around you? I pray that you answer that question with a confident "NO!" Choose wisely!