Most people tend to think about life in terms of categories. We have the categories of family, media, education, entertainment, government and politics, business, and religion. In living life and interacting in these various arenas, the majority of people generally don’t see a connection between them. When they are engaging entertainment, they don’t see a connection with family or business. When they engage politics, they don’t see a connection with education or religion – and so on.
But the fact is there is a connection between them all. The connection, though, is not between one category and another. Rather, there is an underlying worldview belief system that affects all categories at the same time. The beliefs people have about each of the categories is based on the underlying worldview beliefs they hold.
The Christian faith begins with the assumption that God exists and that he personally engaged the world by incarnating as a human being – Jesus Christ. It is this kind of reality that provides the possibility that there could even be such a thing as objective morality that applies in all of the categories of life mentioned above. As Christians, we believe God actually has revealed what is right and wrong, and that we can know what that is and intentionally follow it. Belief systems that do not believe God exists, or that there is no such thing as a transcendent reality, or that transcendent reality exists but is impersonal, cannot logically believe in any kind of objective morality. In order for there to be an objective moral code, there must be an objectively real moral law giver.
Naturalism is the belief system that now dominates most of the above mentioned categories in American society. This belief assumes that the natural universe is all that exists. Naturalistic beliefs are assumptions because there is no objective evidence that they are actually true. In spite of that, Naturalists believe them anyway and evaluate reality based on that assumption.
As was mentioned above, in order for any kind of objective morality to exist, there must be an objectively real moral law giver – which Naturalism dismisses out of hand. So, without the possibility of an objectively real moral code, human beings have to make up morality for themselves. This makes it automatically relativistic. With that as a starting point, morality must emerge either from personal preference, from some form of societal consensus, or from force.
- So where does that kind of moral foundation lead us? All we have to do is look at what is going on these days in society.
Family – As it relates to family we see: high divorce rates, high levels of sexual immorality (premarital as well as extramarital), abortion normalized, broken homes, high levels of single parent homes, and the like. - Media – The media, instead of serving as an information platform, has largely become a political operation.
- Education – Education, in many places, has become a propagandizing institution rather than one that actually educates students. It is focused on telling them what to think rather than teaching them how to think.
- Entertainment – The entertainment industry has normalized immoral behavior, and has a large emphasis on promoting political correctness.
- Business – Rather than being a means for promoting individual and national prosperity, much of business has either made money its god, or has become an instrument of political partisanship.
- Religion – Many churches have become part of the social justice movement, or have become mere social clubs.
As a summary expression, the lying, cheating, deceit, lack of integrity, and all of the evil tactics we see being used in society to promote political ends are exactly what you would expect from people whose morality is based on relativism. They have traded service to God and obedience to his revealed morality for the accomplishment of personal desires and advocacy for preferred political outcomes. For them, objective truth, good, and right do not exist. In every case, the ends justify the means.
Emanuel, though, does exist; objectively. He is God, and he is with us. While those who hold a naturalistic worldview like to say that Christianity can’t be true because there is no proof, the fact is there is proof – it is just that the proof is not naturalistic proof. Naturalistic proof requires Christians to demonstrate the reality of the Christian faith using empirical science. That, however is absurd. Naturalists can’t even demonstrate the truth of their own worldview using that standard; and besides there are other legitimate types of evidence. There is, of course, some empirical evidence for the truth of the Christian faith – such as textual and archeological evidence. There is also profound logical evidence. But the ultimate evidence is the objectively real personal connection believers have with God through Jesus Christ. This can be seen in every part of the world, and has existed in every time period since the coming of Christ. This is, of course, dismissed on its face by those who wish to limit evidence to naturalistic proofs, but if God really does exist, this kind of evidence actually becomes the ultimate proof. Anyone can know God if they open their life to him.
As we approach the celebration of the birth of Christ, those of us who do know him in an objectively real personal relationship are able to rejoice beyond mere hopeful desire that he exists. We do actually know him. And our interaction with him provides meaning and purpose in life that rises beyond anything that can be received any other way. Our deep desire for you at this Christmas season is that the living God who has revealed himself in Christ will be profoundly manifested in your life so that you know him as your Emanuel.
© 2018 Freddy Davis