What Does the Bible Say About Morality #2?

Arnie and Fred begin this episode on what the Bible says about morality, by noting that morality is not determined by philosophers and their philosophizing. So-called deep thinkers in every culture possess the same human desires and emotions as other people. So, they tend to approve or condemn moral principles according to their own interests. We move on to discuss the fact that morality is not religiously decreed. Canaanite religion in the Old Testament offered human sacrifices as part of their worship. Abortion today is seen in much the same light as being no problem.  The phallic cult included fornication, incest, sodomy, bestiality and other immoral activities. We discuss what is commanded in the Qur'an that are clearly immoral from God's standards. We talk about some of what the Catholic Church did during the Crusades that were a part of that religion at the time. Many denominations today accept certain behavior as a part of their religion that is clearly wrong. We next note that morality is not legislated or enforced by government and look at what the apostles said about that. We discuss several instances that our own government has done in this regard. We also note that morality is not ordered by judicial fiat even though in our society we find it being done. We look at that situation. We close this episode out by discussing the fact that God is the Author and Determiner of morality and moral character is unique to mankind. We discuss why this is the case by examining some Bible passages that teach us this fact. We will have to finish this part of the episode in the next one. Take about 30-minutes to listen in on our discussion. Have your Bible handy so you can verify what we are saying. There is a transcript of this Buzzsprout episode provided for your convenience.

Transcript

Fred Gosnell: 0:00

This is a presentation of the Woodland church of Christ meeting at 3370 Broad Street in Sumter, South Carolina. We meet for worship on Sunday at ten thirty am and five thirty pm we meet for bible study at nine thirty am on Sunday and seven pm on Wednesday. If you have questions or comments on this lesson, you may email them to Fred Gosnell at fgosnell@ftc-i.net or to Arnie Granke at agranke440718@twc.com.

Arnie: 0:31

Good afternoon. This is Arnie Granke and Fred Gosnell with the church of Christ at Woodland in Sumter, South Carolina. And this is what does the Bible say. We're, Fred and I were talking about the subject of morality in in our last session, and the idea we spoke about, the idea that morality is not of human origin. And a lot of people seem to think that that that's the case. But morality is is not individually decided. Each individual can't come up with his own morality and be right. He might want to do that, but, but he certainly won't be what genuine morality is and it's not legislated by either the majority or a minority. There's not a small group somewhere that have the authority to to come up with with what is moral and what is not moral. And that's where we where we had to stop because we ran out of ran out of time. Fred, what's another, what's another way that people think that morality comes into existence?

Fred Gosnell: 1:51

Well, a lot of times, you know, you'd go to the go to the library, bookstore, you could buy all these books about from written by various philosophers, deep thinkers. And there's those kind of men in every culture. And

Arnie: 2:09

Deep thinkers or deep stinkers?

Fred Gosnell: 2:11

Either one. And but of course, these people have the same human desires everybody else does, same emotions as other people. But, but they, they tend to approve or condemn moral principles according to their their own interests. So, you know, Paul. Paul says something in Colossians, two eight. He gives us a warning there. He says, Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. Of course, the world has a certain philosophy, but morality is not determined by philosophy. We've already talked about God's the one that determines morality. And then Paul in First Corinthians, 1, 20 to 27 there, he says, Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For after that, in the wisdom of God, the world, by wisdom, knew not God. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews, a stumbling block unto the Greeks, foolishness, but unto them, which are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God, because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For you see your calling brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh. Not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty. Of course, the the world looks at, looks at the Bible looks at the truth as something foolish, written by a bunch of old men back 1000s of years ago, and it's just foolish things. They're not as valuable and as wise as what we think. Of course, Paul was before the wise men of Athens one time, and spent some time speaking to them about the gospel. And of course, they called Paul a seed picker, you know, like a bird's picking up little seeds here and there. But, but Paul talks about the difference between the truth, God's word and and the world, the way the world looks at God's word. You know, people in the world think they're smarter than what God has to say. And so the morality that God specifies is not, God specifies the morality not philosophers, not not the philosophies of men. And of course, Paul warns us about that. If you're going to follow some other man that writes a good book and you think, hey, that's good, and I think I'll do what he says, then you're following the wrong guide. You know we have to follow what God has to say and the morality that he specifies.

Arnie: 5:07

Well, you know when, when we're thinking about these, these deep thinkers that you, that you mentioned there, we have to understand that even philosophers have the same human desires and emotions as other people. They might be thought of as being wiser than, than, than everybody else, but they they had a tendency to approve or condemn various moral principles according to their own interests and according to their own their own desires. And and in a in a manner of thinking, there's a tendency for philosophy and religion to be very close together. One bleeds over into the other, and and vice vice versa. So we ought to also consider the fact, I think, then, that that morality is not, is not necessarily decreed on the basis of of religion. Take, for example, Deuteronomy, chapter chapter 12, and and there was, there was a practice among the Canaanites of of human sacrifice and and in Deuteronomy, 12 and beginning in verse two, You shall not utterly destroy all the places wherein The nations which he shall possess, You SHALL all utterly destroy all the places wherein the nations which you shall possess, serve their gods, upon the high mountains, upon the hills, under every green tree, you shall overthrow their altars, break their pillars and burn their groves with fire. Ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods and destroy the names of them out of out of that place. And you know very much, like if we want to use as an illustration of human sacrifice. Think, think about abortion today, and that's been on again off again. Somebody has tried to put an end to that. Somebody else insists that it's got to be got to be done. Well, those are human beings that are being killed. They're not dogs and cats, no chickens involved in in that. And every every cell that are that they're destroying is a human, human cell. And those that think that way, that think that that's appropriate, really, are referring to what you might call the phallic cult. The phallic cult included whatever people wanted, whatever, whatever they desired to do, fornication, incest, sodomy, bestiality and and that kind of thing is described in a lot of Bible passages. One of those passages is in is in Leviticus. Leviticus chapter 18. First five verses of that chapter, The Lord spake unto, the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them, I am the Lord your God. After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein you dwelt, shall you not do and after the doings of the land of Canaan, where it whither I bring you, you shall not do. Where they were and where they were going. Both were, were evil, evil locations. Neither shall you walk in their ordinances. You shall do my judgments and keep mine ordinances to walk therein. I am the Lord your God. You shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, which, if a man do, he shall live in them. I am. I am the Lord. So so God's pretty clear about about those, those things, and like I say, religion and philosophy tend to bleed in one into the other, and and vice versa, and they certainly aren't suitable for trying to fulfill what God has commanded and what God has forbidden as well.

Fred Gosnell: 10:04

Yes. And of course, it doesn't take much, you know. If you examine some of the various religions around the world, for instance, we'll start with with with Islam. And of course, in Islam, murder and rape and kidnapping and enslavement, all of those things are commanded in in the Quran. So so their religion tells them that those things are okay to do. Of course, it's all justified, because they their their command is to make the Quran the rule, the reach it's rule for the world, for a worldwide religion. The Roman Catholics back in the 11th century, 11th to the 16th century, they were, what the Muslims had done to them for several 100 years, the Catholics did the same thing. They returned the similar horrors on Muslims in Turkey and in the Levant. Then Roman Catholics, years ago, 12th and 19th century, they that they tortured people, they murdered people. Some, some of the people that translated the the Bible into English were tortured and killed because of what they did, and, you know, burning at the stake during the Inquisition back in 12 to 19th century. So, so. And you know, religious denominations today do a lot of things. They justify based on their particular religion, teach things that are contrary to what the Bible says. So So morality is not religiously decreed. It doesn't there's only one decree that decrees certain morality, and those are decrees that come from God, not from the human religions.

Arnie: 11:58

And that's what the Bible teaches, as a matter of of fact, we can, we can we can add that, that thought there. It's not, morality is not legislated by government. It's not enforceable by government. There, there are some things that the government allows or disallows and and they may try to enforce, enforce that but, but it's not because it's moral. It's because that's what the government wants and and doesn't want those that are that are in power. If you look in in Acts chapter four, remember that the the apostles were imprisoned for preaching and for healing. There was a there was a the religious hierarchy were the ones who did that. The Jews did that not because what they were teaching was evil. It was because that's not what they believed and not what they wanted, wanted to hear. But in Acts, chapter four and verse 19, Peter and John answered, said unto them, Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, Judge ye. And that was exactly the point that they should have made. It's God who is the author of what's right and wrong, not a group of people, some committee or some some people that think that they're authoritarian, will tell you what they want you to do, and then the next group that has an opposite point of view will tell you what they want to do, so that whatever is right and wrong keeps keeps changing back and forth. You see the same thing that was one day that that Peter and John were put in prison. They were let out by an angel. And then in Acts, chapter five, verse 29 they they wind up back before the Sanhedrin again, Peter and the other apostles answered, and they said, We ought to obey God rather than men. And that's exactly right. That's that's where, where morality is determined, with God and not not with other men.

Fred Gosnell: 14:43

Yeah. And, of course, several examples from from our recent history. There in March 23 in 2010 Congress passed what was called the Affordable Care Act, Obamacare. And of course, that act was government insurance, and the purpose, what they wanted to do was to require citizens to buy that insurance. Well, the problem with that insurance was it subsidizes abortion. And of course, that's, from a Bible standpoint, abortion is the murder of an innocent child. And then again, in Massachusetts, I think on 5, 17, 2004 was when they enacted, the first state that it enacted same sex marriage. Of course, in the beginning, God made them male and female, and they were the first pair, and the marriage is, according to God's morality, between a man and a woman. So government morality is not specified. It's not established by government, law or by the government. And of course, now, even now, there's states that punish businesses, business owners who refuse to condone same sex marriage. The cake maker, I think, is the most famous one that refused to make a cake for a same sex couple for their marriage, and,

Arnie: 16:26

That was a florist.

Fred Gosnell: 16:28

And there was a florist, right. And so, of course, he was finally, finally, I think they have given up on prosecuting him. But nevertheless, morality is not established by government edict. Morality is established by God, and it doesn't matter how long ago God said what he said, it's still true today, as it was when he said it in the case of marriage, in the beginning, he made them male and female, and he told them to leave father and mother and to get married. And it hasn't changed. It doesn't matter what government says. It's just as wrong now as it was when Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed for the same practices.

Arnie: 17:13

There are passages both in the Old Testament and the New Testament, you mentioned homosexuality or same sex marriage there, and whether it's males or females. There are several passages, both in the Old Testament and the New Testament, that condemn that as as being immoral and ungodly and and we're very frankly, endangerment to to the soul. So no one ought to be doing that, because the Bible says, says, not to. It's we, we sometimes think that that judges are the ones that are in a position, and that's the case there with with regard to these same sex marriage situations, these judicial fiats that they that they come up with, you get a conservative judge in there and, and he may say that that's that's inappropriate. You get a liberal judge in there. And he said, Well, yes, it is appropriate. And so you just never know, according to decisions of judges, what is, what is right and wrong, stick with the Bible and you'll be and you'll be right. I`n in the book of Ecclesiastes, though, If thou seest the oppression of the poor and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province marvel not at the matter, for he that is higher than the highest regardeth and there be higher than they. So, however judges, however high they may think that they are, God is is always higher. And again, that kind of brings us back to some some judicial decisions that the Supreme Court, for example, unconditionally legalized abortion in the Roe v Wade decision back in 1973. Well here fairly, fairly recently, the in the Supreme Court unconditionally mandated, I'm sorry I'm looking at it at a different note there. They overturned that and so, so now that's no longer, no longer applicable. Roe v Wade is is is gone. But, but there was same sex marriage was, was something else in the in the Obergefell versus Hodges case in 19, in 2015, and it hasn't been overturned so far. But, but that was a court decision and it runs contrary to what the Bible teaches there. So if you follow the court, you may not necessarily be doing what God has required you to do. You need to follow the word of God.

Fred Gosnell: 20:34

Of course, the Bible has told us, and God has told us in the Bible, that man's ways are different from God's ways. In Isaiah, 55, eight and nine. Notice, notice what God says there. He says, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways, my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. So so men seem to think that they can do whatever they want to do, and from a moral standpoint, and they will never be held accountable. And of course, the the truth of the matter is that at some point we all will be held accountable for our for our actions and and our our morality, our morals. We need to understand that God's the one that specifies what is moral and what is immoral, and those specifications are in His Word. And all we have to do is do a little study, and it's easy to find out what it is that God has specified. And Jeremiah, one verse from Jeremiah 10, verse 23 and Jeremiah says, Oh Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself. It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps. We are accountable to our Creator, and he has provided us with His guidance, written guidance in the Bible. So what does the Bible say about morality? And that's what we're talking about now.

Arnie: 21:59

Well, and then Solomon came along. Let me just mention here's another passage that fits with that. Fred Solomon said in Proverbs, chapter 14 and verse 12, There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of of death. So, so just because we think, just because we convince ourselves that whatever position it is that we are, that we're taking, is okay, that's that's alright with God. No, it's okay with you. It's not necessarily okay with with God, He hasn't approved it, and if he hasn't approved it, then we, then we need to avoid, avoid that it at all costs. Um, thinking here in terms of God being the determiner of of morality, he's put it in the Bible. It's there. It's been there for 1000s of years, and and God will not mislead us, as fellow men may either deliberately or maybe unintentionally mislead us. But if you look in the in the Old Testament, in Exodus, chapter, chapter 20. Of course, we have the what we speak of as the 10 Commandments. Let's look at those, because here are some issues of right and wrong. And I would say that that this was one of the earliest measures of what is moral and what is immoral that that man has ever had as a as a guide. Exodus 20 beginning in verse one, God spake all these words, saying, I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, thou shalt have no other gods before me. If you want to know, with regard to to to worship, what is moral and what is immoral? Well, this is a passage right here that that answers that question for you. Verse four, Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness of anything that is in the heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD thy God, am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the fathers unto the, upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me and showing mercy unto 1000s of them that love Me and keep My commandments. Verse Seven, Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh His name in vain. That's an issue of morality and immorality. The fourth commandment in in verse eight, Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work, but the seventh is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. In it, Thou shalt not do any work thou nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man servant, nor thy maid servant, nor thy cattle, nor the stranger, thy stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days, the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is and rested on the seventh day, Wherefore, The Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. Of course, that was a part of the the Old Testament in the New Testament. Now while, while Jews still can, still observe the Sabbath from the Old Testament. In the New Testament, Jesus talked about the the first day of the week and and that's the day that Christians are to are to worship God. Chapter number five, verse 12, Honor thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife. Thou shalt nor his man servant, nor his maid servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbors. That that covers all 10 of the of the commandments there. That was the original, or one of the earliest designations of what is Moral and what is immoral?

Fred Gosnell: 27:21

Yes. And of course, moral, the moral character of man is is unique to mankind. The human spirit being created in God's image. We're spiritual beings. And Genesis one verse 27 notice there says, So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him male and female. Created he them. Notice that God created man. And the word man there is is talks about mankind. So He created man in his own image, and he says he created male and female. So man includes male and female. And then in chapter five, verses one and two, there, chapter five begins. This is the book of the generations of Adam in the day that God created man in the likeness of God made he him male and female, created he them and blessed them and called their name Adam in the day when they were created. So so mankind, male and female, is created in the image of God, and not the physical image of God. We are spiritual creatures and and we are accountable to our Creator and, and it's our Creator that specifies the morality that we are to follow. Of course, he gave us free choice. We can choose to do whatever we want to do, and unfortunately, most people do, and what most people do is immoral, but God's going to hold us accountable. The morality that we are required to learn and to do is that which God specifies, just as he did there in Exodus chapter 20, in the 10 Commandments. Of course, throughout the Bible, those the morality God has always required is still the morality that people are to observe. You're not to lie, you're not to cheat, you're not to steal, you're not to bear false witness, you're not to fornicate, you're not to do all of those things still, still true today, God specifies our moral characteristics. We don't decide for ourselves.

Arnie: 29:36

It, juust as a side note to to that when, when God called, called their name in in the passage say his name, it was both Adam and Eve when he called their name Adam, that the name Adam means taken from the from the earth, or taken from the ground. That's why they got that name. So if you, if you happen to be named by your parents, Adam, and you're wondering what your name means, that's it. That's what the that's what the name meant. So both Adam and Eve were taken from, from the from the ground. Well, let's see, oh my goodness, we're we're out of time, aren't we, Fred, here, we've only got a second left, and now that one's gone. So we appreciate you listening in to us today, and we we hope that next Lord's day we can continue this train of thought, and that you'll find it helpful to to you in deciding how ought I to be, to behave, what ought to be my standard of of morality? What does the Bible say about that? And we hope that you'll have a good week.