5 Days Of Exploring Doubt With The Logic Of GodSample

Right Where We Are Wrong

Plato once remarked that he was grateful to be born a Greek and not a barbarian, a free man and not a slave, a man and not a woman, and most of all, to have been born in the age of Socrates.

Do you feel, like I, a twinge of discomfort in hearing this? For his sentiment reveals two of our perennial struggles: to find a philosophy by which to live and to correct the prejudices with which we live. One would think the connection between the two is too obvious to miss and the fact that one informs the other ought to stare each of us in the face. Yet if history has taught us anything, it is that we learn very little from the past, and we do not pause either to justify what we believe or to make sure that doctrine and conduct have a life-giving connection. That which God has joined together let no person put asunder.

I was once asked to speak at a conference on ethics at a certain university I’ll leave unnamed. I dared to present the bankruptcy of humanistic theories both rationally and practically and contrasted them with the biblical basis for ethics. After the presentation, there was silence for a long while. Then one professor said to me, “All this theory sounds good, but the real question is, how do I get my students to be ethical, to not cheat on their exams, to tell the truth?”

I was thrilled at the question for, in fact, that was the point of the whole talk. But I was not prepared for what followed.

After the question-and-answer session, a student came up and presented me with a real dilemma. Here’s what she said: “I was asked to come to your lecture today by my professor. The expectation was that I would disagree with you and so write a paper saying that. But after listening to your talk, I found myself agreeing with you and now have a serious problem. If I write in defense of your position, I will probably be given a very low grade, if not failed. On the other hand, she said if I disagree with you I am sure to get a high grade. My problem is the challenge to tell the truth and risk failure.”

Rather puzzled, I looked at her and I said, “Did your professor come to the forum?”

There was silence and then came the answer. “Yes,” she said, rather softly.

“Who was it?” I asked.

“The one who asked you the question about getting away from the theory to the bottom line of how to get students to not cheat and to tell the truth.”

Do you believe that? I was dumbfounded. Is there any doubt why many a college student has failed to link thought with life and lives as a bundle of contradictions when taught by ethicists who have severed the heart from the head and still hope to live?

To this end Paul warned Timothy to cherish the Scripture, for it made him “wise unto salvation” (2 Timothy 3:15 KJV) and to “watch [his] life and doctrine closely” (1 Timothy 4:16). The Scriptures are meaningful and personal because they are true, and not true just because we can wrest them to advantage or manipulate them into personal meaning. Meaning and application can be prostituted at the altar of self- gratification, but truth will stand in history when all human dissenters have said their last.

G. K. Chesterton said it well: “We do not really want a religion that is right where we are right. What we want is a religion that is right where we are wrong.” Only the Word of God provides that corrective. That warning comes to both skeptic and believer alike.

You see, God corrects us not because of appearances but because of His character. Goodness points us not to theory but to the purpose of life.