MY MIND WAS TOO ACTIVE

I had difficulty sleeping last night. I was reorganising my data folder which I collected from all over the place when I lost my original data from my external hard drive. I mean it was not difficult or stressful yet I was unable to sleep. I decided to go surfing on my computer. Maybe I should be praying instead. 

Actually I have been troubled internally - like my “stomach” don’t agree! I was struggling with some of the discussions, debates, and articles flying around. It is not the articles or discussions per se that I am troubled BUT the stark reality of the unsurmountable task of trying to reasonably and plausibly able to explain the existence of God, the problem of evil, meaning of life, and morality from a Christian worldview without being too emotional, too defensive and too weak in the argument.

I am confronted with the fact that I am still very poorly equipped to handle such loaded questions of my faith, my beliefs and worldview. I felt so inadequate to handle the philosophical brickbats from people who are not only knowledgeable but armed to the teeth with text-book answers and questions to counteract Religion in general and Christianity in particular. I think I need to take serious courses on Philosophy 101, Critical Thinking, and Apologetics 101. There may not be many vocal people who boldly speak aloud for the world to hear their questions, their doubts, and their struggles BUT there are certainly many young people out there who are quietly asking the same questions over and over again. Some may search and seek for answers from the Internet, books, and what not. There’s always the possibility of seeking the wrong place and ended up with a skewed worldview OR in the right place and discover the beauty of truth.

The thing that I drag the most has been the tough enquiries by these skeptics about the Bible, Genesis account, and the existence of God. They have all the right questions to corner us with our backs against the wall. I am not saying that they are vicious, evil or conniving BUT that they are always so prepared compared to the Christians. I know we do have the answer but we have to study hard to show ourselves approved unto God and to be able to give an answer of the hope that is found in Christ.

I am encouraging myself to search the Scriptures, research other literatures, and listen carefully to what the people out there is saying, is questioning and challenging our Christian faith. We must be prepared. We are living in a fast changing culture - a global culture that is connected through the Internet and Media. We cannot assume that people are ignorant and naive anymore. The wast world out there wants answers - it better be convincing. If we say we have the Truth - Jesus the Ultimate Truth - then we better be prepared to help them understand by rationally engaging them and presenting the One True God and Saviour Jesus Christ.

BLATANTLY UNACCEPTABLE BEHAVIOUR SUDDENLY BECOME MORALLY JUSTIFIABLE

Human being is a strange creature of all of God’s creation. We are supposed to be the most intelligent of all of God’s good earth BUT we can also be the most silly of all of creation.

We argue to prove and justify our sins. We appeal to emotions, to some “goodness” in our actions to justify our lack of reason for doing a wrong thing. We leave God out of the equation when we want to prove our choice is the right one, our fight is honourable, and our sinful practices is fine.

Recently i had an encounter with a woman who is having an affair with a married man. One of her reasons for getting into this relationship is the fact that the man have 4 grown children who are all in their thirties so it’s alright to have this adulterous relationship. The simple explanation is that because they are all grown ups they will not be affected by this sinful relationship. They are well able to handle it emotionally, and take care of themselves. What a reason!

The other reason is that the man is very good to her especially during the time after her own husband passed away. She was alone and lonely, and this man helped her, did a lot of things for her, and so it’s alright to have him come into her house to live with her. She even pride herself for not asking the man to leave his wife. In fact he praised the man for always running back to his wife and children to buy dinner for them. Oh wow…what a husband and a father. That makes it alright for her to have the relationship.

Another classic example of a morality based on this: the end justifies the means. He is good to me at the point of my need so it’s okay for me to live in with him even if he’s a married man. Human being, given what they lust after, what they desire selfishly, will give all kinds of reasons - will even fight tooth and nail with anyone who objected to the relationship.

I remembered someone one shared with me this illustration:

Child : But Mum, it’s only a white lie!

Mother : But Son, God is coloured blind!

A sin is a sin. There is no sin that is harmless! Our personal worldview will at the end forces us to make a decision based on it. Just like this woman in the story her first statement to me was that as far as she’s concerned life is NOT black and white meaning it’s grey - hard to discern, difficult to decide what is right or wrong. With this kind of view of life no wonder she was able to live in sin with a “pure conscience” as she claimed in front of me. 

DOES THE END JUSTIFY THE MEANS?

The impervious handling of God’s Word for one’s life is intrinsic to one’s personal belief. There is no room for error therefore no room for private interpretation. So where do we go to get the correct answers to cement our faith and to secure our future in eternity? In Christendom today we have such liberty for any individual to handle the Bible for themselves that we ended up with so many views, so many presuppositions, and so many premises even to a single theological issue. What about moral issues? Your guess is better than mine!!

I believe that the Church at large is going through a moral crisis. There are so many issues that require some form of moral juggling and theologizing. Hopefully we can get out of this moral maze with some form of satisfactory moral decisions. And quite frankly, we are in a quandary, in a predicament! I always believe that we are to be counter-cultural and not pander to the constant seismic shift of modern culture around us today!

Let me explain what I mean by highlighting the seismic shift in moral, ethical, and ideas as a result of the rise of modern culture – a popular culture influenced greatly by secularism, privatization, and individualism.

Take for example the moral values 30 years ago and now and you would realize that it has shifted tremendously. Those of us from the 70 eras would understand that vulgarity in TV and movies were greatly a “no fly zone” but today it is so common that even Christians are vulgar in their thoughts, jokes, and words. Talking about movies vulgarity has become a common feature. Christian parents no longer squirm at vulgarity even in front of their children! What does that tells us about moral values? Those who hold to statistical morality would say that because majority of the people seem not to be embarrassed by it or be “affected’ by it then it must be okay. Christian morality is not so much what is but rather what ought to be! This “ought-ness” hinges to a higher moral law – one given by the ultimate Moral Law Giver God Himself!

What about the marriage institution? What about the issue of the sanctity of life? How about the theology of suffering – often being replaced by those who advocate the “future grace” position or the preachers of the prosperity gospel? On a side note; our theological premise on suffering would mold our view on morality, hell, sickness, pain, heaven, problem of evil, eschatology and even about God! What about God’s universal law? What about science, this world, human dignity, and the love of God? The list of questions is unending for sure!

My question is: Does the end justify the means in our moral conscience? Just thinking.