The Moral Argument

Intro

Everyone has questions about God and the existence of God.

Jedidiah asked the other night how we can know God exists

Apologetics seeks to answer those questions.

What is apologetics?

1 Peter 3:15 “but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,”

defense - apologia

The Argument

If God does not exist, objective moral values and duties do not exist.

Objective moral values and duties do exist.

Therefore, God exists.

Objective moral values and duties

Values is concerned with whether something is good or bad

Duties is concerned with whether something is right or wrong

Would it be good for someone to be a doctor? Of course, but does that mean a person should become a doctor? The value of a doctor is good, but it is not necessarily your duty to become a doctor.

Objective is to say something is good or bad, right or wrong, independent of what anyone else believes.

The Holocaust would still be evil even if Nazi Germany had won the war and brainwashed everyone to believe they were right.

There is an overall sense of morality.

If a band of thieves started going through the city, destroying property, and taking what they wanted then we would all agree that is bad. We would get away so we wouldn’t be victimized.

If morality is simply an evolutionary process for our survival then we may not agree with the band of thieves but we wouldn’t think they were acting poorly. They would simply be acting different then we want to act.

Today, in our society the big word is justice. We have all kinds of modifiers to for justice except for Godly or Biblical. Why would people have a sense of justice? Why would people have a desire for justice? Because we were made in the image of God and His law is on our hearts.

What we can all agree on is that the world is not as it should be. Why? Why do we have a sense of what should be? Because there are objective moral values and duties.

The sense of morality is as real as our physical senses

If someone were to push you to the ground, your physical senses would know you were pushed to the ground, and your moral senses would enraged by the hostility.

Not everyone agrees on what morals are right and wrong

In the Western world we would agree that slavery is bad. In the Hindu world slavery is a result of karma and they had it coming.

Either way, people in both places agree there is a higher sense of morality they are appealing to.

Objective morality exists, therefore God exists

Our sense of morality transcends our time and place, it is higher than, it is above.

These morals are not created by us, because we cannot achieve them, but they are given by God.

Furthermore, the ideal morals, that senses attest to, are from God’s character

Love is good because God is love

Justice is good because God is just

Mercy is good because God is merciful

If objective morality points to God then we should follow God

Maybe we don’t fully understand His ways, but He is the Moral Arbiter, not us

The Biblical Case

Romans 1:18–25 ESV

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

“By their unrighteousness suppress the truth”

This is why nothing makes sense coming from the world, they ignore truth

The baby in the womb is not a baby, it’s a fetus. So, why do they want to get rid of it?

Lesbian and gay say there is a difference between men and women, Trans says there is not a difference between men and women yet they are trapped in a different body

You must be inclusive, to be inclusive you have to exclude all those who are not inclusive so you can be inclusive

Is God a moral monster?

This helps prove objective morality although it is meant to disprove God

On the one hand God should stop evil, on the other hand God is wrong for stopping evil

I will put my trust in God who sent His Son to die for my sins

Romans goes on to say no one has an excuse

They didn’t want to choose God so He gave them over to their evil intentions

They have a law written on their hearts, Romans 2:14 “For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law.”

Our moral sense points to God, although it can be manipulated, we have to make the choice to follow it or suppress the truth

So What

Strengthen your faith in God

Help you speak to others who have questions

Equip you to stand firm in a society that is so morally corrupt

Mark 8:38 “For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”