Week 5 Christian Ethics Class

Tim met with the students for the Christian Ethics session last evening. The class subject addressed objections to situation ethics found so pervasively in modern society. The specifics are too technical to present here, but objection to situation ethics is fundamentally based against the arrogance of modern man to attempt to establish an ethic without the objective revelation of God. Society is permeated at every level with a purposeful rejection of an ethic based in the reality of the character of God. This rejection, then, permits a man-based conception of ethics. Unfortunately, this leaves mankind with a huge problem because man in finite, thus limited in his ability to distinguish right from wrong in many situations. He/she just does not have all the faculties and data to determine properly in every situation. Instead, he/she many times will chose to determine what is right based on what seems to be selfishly beneficial. It is also very subjective, thus relative to a person's opinion to what is right or wrong. This means that society is left without absolute standards to determine moral circumstances. It's back to the conclusion of Judges: "Every man did that which was right in his own eyes." And we realize that what was being revealed there was the absolute chaos and wreck Israel had become (and would further deteriorate) because of their rejection of the standard of authority God had ordained. Relative, or situation ethics, ultimately destroy a society. There cannot even be true justice since every person's concept of what is right or wrong would be personal and independent of any moral standard. But the arrogant person lobbying for ethics in society at every level without absolutes, and therefore nor pattern for justice, would be outraged to be discriminated against, slandered, violated, robbed, or worse. At this point he/she wants to dispense with relativism and situationism and scream an appeal to a standard of objective justice.
Well sorry to get carried away, but our classes are stimulating for students and teacher as well.
Kolya, one of our students brought a guest with him last evening We were delighted to have Natalia, a co-worker of Kolya's at the Nehemiah Christian Center. Natalia teaches English. We pray that more interested Christians will become curious and involved in our classes.