Situational Ethics

The Jews during the Inter-testament period had a great division.

1. Those who believed you worshiped God by using your mind, centered on understanding His word.

2. Those who believed you worshiped God by using your heart, centering on letting the Spirit speak to you.

Any time you teach unbiblical and unbalanced view it will produce disaster in the next generation.

When they reject God’s word. God allows them to believe a lie.

The Jews moved from the Biblical teaching to a false Religion

They placed the emphases on salvation by works.

Only Jews could be saved, and only if you keep all the laws, But they changed the laws.

Throughout history we have repeated this error again and again just in different forms.

The dark ages came about because of this teaching again in the church.

Today we have the same division.

1. Those of us who would say the word of God is the absolute authority

2. Those of us who would say the Spirit spoke to me.

All thru history there has been a battle:

Unless we understand the history of the Past, HIS Story, the story of JC and the battles that have been fought and many lost we will not understand what is going on today.

We will repeat the same mistakes

The study of the NT is import to know how to present the gospel in a Secular world. Read. Luke 1:1-4 Acts. 1:1-3

We live in a Secular, Global, Post-Christian, Pluralistic age.

18th Century The Bible was Killed, Higher criticism (Graph Wellhoushen destroyed the Bible)

19th Century God was Killed. Science became god; There is no supernatural, no angels, no demons

20th Century Man was Killed Life has no meaning, no purpose to life

We live in a Secular anti absolute age.

Secular is opposite of Religious

J.C. is not in stage center, he is not even allowed on the stage. You may cures his name but not mention it in prayer or in honor. You can speak of Allah, or Buddha, or other religions but not of J.C.

The secular age did not start with Michael Angelo because he painted nudes according to Tim LaHay.

IN THE 18 TH. CENTURY = THE AGE OF REASON = the Battle of the Bible.

The battle of Nature VS the Bible

The Bible of nature was substituted for the Bible of God’s Word.

Thomas Pain popular book = claimed to do away with revelation and you therefore have the age of reason.

You discover morality by looking at nature, what more do you need than that.

They were sure they didn’t need the Bible; Human nature would lead them to truth.

The destruction of the churches in Europe. Why go to church if you are told from the pulpit that the Bible is not God’s book. God is only the making of weak men. God did not make man we evolved. Weak men made god because they had a need. The Bible contains errors and contradictions.

IN THE 19 CENT THEY KILLED GOD

Darwinism. The big animals eat little ones. The survival of the fittest.

Nietzsche “The anti-Christ” He claimed man must be opposite Christ

Christ appeals to the lowly, the weak, the needs, we must be strong.

THE 20TH CENT = THE DEATH OF MAN, THE DEATH OF TRUTH

If man is just an animal= then act like an animal

There are more inhumanities to man in this cent. Than any other

Man as no worth, except what man decides

A baby is a glob of cells to be destroyed if it is the wrong sex of might interfere with the parent’s pleasure.

The murderer is of worth-he can’t help it he is the way he is its society’s fault he is a social animal and acts that way because the way his environment raised him, he needs another chance.

In order to establish the value of man you need God the creator’s view.

If there is no God, then as Shakespeare said “history is a tale told by an idiot.”

Existential despair= Indifference, Indifference to social problems of others, indifference to truth because truth is subjective, every person has to find their own truth and your truth is different than my truth.

The late 1800’s the view was man is evolving and man will bring in a 1000 years of perfection. There will be no wars, The League of nations will prevent future wars. In every way and every day man is getting better and better.

We do not need God we have science and it will solve all our problems.

WW I destroyed that myth

Man went from optimism to despair.

The secular man today believes there are no answers. Only opinion.

But he is confronted by various options. He is overwhelmed by isms.

Scientific rationalism, Atheism, Marxism, cultism, Eastern mysticism, Islam, Zen, Hinduism.

No one is wrong. No act is wrong, what ever

What produced Situational Ethics?

Incorrect Theological emphsis.

The father of Situational Ethics was Joseph Fletcher

God loves you and you are to love one another.
We do not need God’s law. We are to live by the law of love.
Ill. Women in prison get pregnant by a guard and is thus able to go home to her husband and family, therefore it was not sin because what she did had the greatest good for the greatest number of people.
The 1960’s free love free sex no commitment movement
No one can tell you what is right for you or wrong for you
Every person does that which is right in his own eyes
Do not judge, “Judge not lest you be judged”

Without love you have a form of anarchy

Result there is no standard but love

This was the result of the Liberal movement pushing one doctrine and one of God’s Characteristics to extreme.

Question is God’s main Characteristic Love? Or Mercy? Or Holiness?

With their emphases on love you have no standard, no fences.

Nothing is every right or wrong, it all depends.

Out of this came Liberation Theology

Social Justice

They took Jesus words and comments about the poor to extreme

The emphasis was Jesus loves the poor, and the rich stand in judgment.

God is on the side of the poor.

Therefore the rich are to help the poor so they may rise up against their oppressors and overthrow them.

The result is care but no repentance, no standard

Fundamentalism with to the other extreme, Not much fun, not much mental, too much hell.

Fundamentalism has the proper content by irrelevant no one listens because they condemn and separate.

Evangelicals are on the slippery slope.

They are headed down the same path with seeker sensitive service, ministering to the felt needs.

Felt needs are or the most part are pagan sensual needs.

We want to make people feel comfortable and meet their needs.

Jesus becomes a commodity to sell and give away.

Jesus can meet your every need.

What ever your problem Jesus has an answer if you just come to come to him.

The Psy office has replaced the confession booth.

You do not have sins that need confessing, you have syndromes that need analysis and understanding.

Your personal needs are what are most important.

Seeker sensitive service.

You can not make Jesus into a commodity

NO! NO! A Thousand times NO. Jesus is to be Worshiped,

We are called to bow before him as Lord and King. We chose to become citizens of His kingdom and serve Him. He does not exist to serve us.

We exist to serve Him.

The NT is there to show us that he is not an ordinary person. He is God Incarnate.

He is King Jesus, who came to set up His Kingdom, But His kingdom is different.

Today we live in a post-Christian or postmodern world. Postmodernism is a worldview characterized by the belief that truth is created rather than discovered. The chart below reveals how today’s post-Christian world stands in direct contrast to Biblical Christianity.

| | ! Former Definition

| ! Today’s Definition

|

| ! Tolerance

| Accept others without agreeing with or sharing their beliefs or lifestyle choices | Accepting that every individual’s beliefs, values, lifestyles and truth claims are equal. |

| ! Respect

| Giving due consideration to others | Wholeheartedly approving of other’s beliefs or lifestyle choices. |

| ! Acceptance

| Embracing people for who they are, not necessarily for what they say or do | Endorsing and praising others for their beliefs and lifestyle choices. |

| ! Moral Judgments

| Certain things are morally right and wrong, as determined by God | We have no right to judge another person’s view or behavior. |

| ! Personal Preference

| Preferences of color, food, clothing, style, hobbies, etc, are personally determined | Preference of sexual behaviors, values systems, & beliefs are personally determined. |

| ! Personal Rights

| Everyone has the right to be treated justly under the law | Everyone has the right to do what they believe is right |

| ! Freedom

| Being free to do what you know you ought to do | Being able to do anything you want to do |

| ! Truth

| An absolute standard of right and wrong. | Whatever is right for you |

The present issue of Inclusive, in relationship to Homosexual relationships.

Tribute newspaper Sunday Aug 10 Section AA “The new Gospel of Inclusion.”

“God is love, He doesn’t care about the gender of the people we love.”

Thus the church should bless same-sex partnerships so everyone feels included.”

“…The three historic bulwarks, tradition and reason- are crumbling in the face of the gospel of inclusion and affirmation.”

They do not generally jettison Scripture outright. Instead, they radically reinterpret it, using techniques imported directly from American’s postmodern universities.

Reason is the last casualty of the gospel if inclusion. The new gospel subordinates thinking to “feeling.” As a result, its adherents show little concern that approval of homosexual acts render the church’s multifaceted doctrine on marriage and sexuality largely incoherent.

The Rev. Kendall Harmon of South Carolina has described same-sex unions as “relationships in search of a theology.”) Inclusion’s disciples have little interest in doctrinal consistency. Instead, they are content to proclaim vaguely “God is doing something new,” and urge other Christians to have faith, because the Holy Spirit is leading the charge.

The gospel of inclusion preaches a reconstructed, therapeutic Jesus, who accepts us exactly as we are.

Traditional Christianity, however, holds that Jesus calls us to repentance of sins, and to transformation through a new life lived in accordance with God’s will.

The gospel of inclusion has little place for repentance or transformation. Thus, it has little place for the central feature of Christianity; Christ’s cross, which brings redemption through suffering. This new gospel may be appealing, for it permits its adherents to “divinize” their own, largely secular agenda. But in a Christian church, it cannot easily coexist with the gospel of Christ.