“The gas chambers of Auschwitz, Treblinka, and Maidanek were ultimately prepared not in some ministry or other in Berlin, but rather at the desks and in the lecture halls of nihilistic scientists and philosophers” – Dr. Victor Frankl who survived the Holocaust
in a Nazi death camp

Your understanding of right/wrong (your ethics) is foundational to your grasp of reality (your worldview). Nihilism is the world view that rejects objective moral values and structures, literally “nothingism.” Everything is meaningless. The nihilist is a skeptic about moral traditions and obligations and does not regard them as binding. Nihilism is the driving force behind the current transgender insanity.

Skewed ethics = Distorted Worldview = Errant grasp of reality = Trouble

The Bible teaches us how to live (Ps 129:1-6; 2 Tim 3:16-17;1 Thess 4:1; 1 John 5:3, etc.) Because so much of Scripture speaks to ethical issues in both the OT and NT, it is necessary to collect, understand, and synthesize all the relevant Bible passages on a topic. Example: key passages on marriage include passages in Gen, Ex, Deut, Lev, Prov, Mal, the gospels, Rom, 1 & 2 Cor, Gal, Col, Eph, 1 Thess, 1 Tim, James, 2 Pet, Rev

Possible objections to teachbing ethical behavior from Scripture:

• Don’t offend visitors?
  • But Matt 28:20
  • The epistles are full of moral instruction for churches
  • Failure to proclaim God’s holiness and his moral standards will ultimately become a hindrance to evangelism.
• No “third use of the law”
  • Convict unbelievers and drive them to salvation
  • Restrain sin in civil society
  • Instruct believers in obedience (“few if any recognized Christian leaders today oppose this “third use” of the law”)
• The Bible is about the gospel, not how to live
  • But note 2 Tim 3:15-17

Five characteristics of the Bible that relate to Christian Ethics:

• Authority of Scripture (2 Tim 3:16)
  • Supersedes all other possible ethical sources: tradition, reason, experience, expected results, subjective impressions
  • The Bible is our only absolute authority for defining moral right and wrong.
  • People ultimately come to the conviction that the words of the Bible are God’s words only when the Holy Spirit speaks in and through the words of the Bible to their hearts and gives them an inner assurance that these are the words of our Creator speaking to us.
  • All other evidence, though significant in a preliminary way, will not match the power of hearing and recognizing the voice of our Creator himself speaking to our hearts in the very words of the Bible.
  • Our ethical authority is the text of Scripture itself, not any ideas that supposedly lie “behind” the text of Scripture.
  • “we must count it (the Bible) a higher authority than all other sources of authority in ethical discussions” – This is the position commonly affirmed by evangelical Christian ethicists.
• Infallibility of Scripture (Psalm 119:160)
  • If God is infallible, then so too will be His Word. God is truthful and perfectly reliable (John 14:6; 17:3), as is His Word (John 17:17).
  • The Bible claims complete (as opposed to partial) perfection in Psalm 12:6, Psalm 19:7, Proverbs 30:5 and many other places.
  • Infallibility concerns only the original documents (autographs.) Mistranslations, printing errors, and typos are human mistakes. However, what the biblical writers originally wrote was completely free from error or omission, as the Spirit superintended their task.
• Clarity of Scripture (Psalm 119:130)
  • Bible is able to be understood in its’ teachings of moral right and wrong
    • But not all at once
    • But not without effort
    • Through ordinary means
    • Not without a willingness to obey
    • Not without the Holy Spirit
    • Not without some misunderstanding (because of noetic effect of sin)
    • Never completely
• Necessity of Scripture (DEut 29:29)
  • The Bible is necessary for certain knowledge of moral right and wrong
  • While natural law (using human reason) has some value, the Bible alone is authoritative on moral issues
  • We should not be too surprised that ethicists who do not affirm the absolute divine authority of Scripture fail to reach agreement with Christians who do affirm it, or with each other, about a large number of ethical topics.
• Sufficiency of Scripture (2 Tim 3:16-17)
  • The sufficiency of Scripture means that Scripture contains all the words of God we need for salvation, for trusting him perfectly, and for obeying him perfectly.
  • God’s Word gives us substantial freedom regarding numerous ethical decisions! God has given us a limited number of ethical requirements in Scripture and left us with substantial freedom in areas to which the Bible is silent and does not speak.

The Holy Spirit will not empower obedience to rules that do not have God’s approval from Scripture, nor will believers generally find delight in obeying commands that do not accord with the laws of God written on their hearts.

Part 4 is here