Man has a purpose related to his
nature as a being created in God’s image. The book of Job and Ephesians
3:9
–11 and 6:12
make our purpose in the struggle between good and evil clear, and show
that our conduct is of paramount importance in this struggle. The
unique makeup of human beings is defined in terms not of the natural,
material body, but in terms of a spiritual body no longer limited by
the physical world in which we live.
Hopefully I have grown to the point where I do not want to disappoint
my heavenly Father, and I am not living morally just because I do not
want to get zapped. Fear only goes so far in motivating people to
change their behavior. The fact is that if I commit an immoral act I am
doing so in violation of the standard that I have chosen to live by. I
have no rationalization I can go through to justify the act I
committed. My moral standards do not change, because the biblical
standards are very clear and have not changed down through the ages.
Humans may try to rationalize away what God has told us, but our
conduct and our choices are clearly defined if we really follow the
Christian system.
My father was an atheist, and he was a very moral man. I asked my
father one time why he was so moral, realizing that he was an atheist
and a follower of secular humanism, having studied under John Dewey at
Columbia University in getting his Ph.D. He thought about it for a
while and finally said “I guess it was the way I was raised.” He was
raised by parents who were godly people. In fact, his biological father
was a minister. In essence it was his religious indoctrination as a
child that caused him to be uncomfortable with the philosophy that he
had verbally taken on as an adult. His actual behavior was shaped
primarily by his childhood association with God’s word. Many atheists
live moral lives. Many religious people do not. The question is not
whether someone is a good person or a bad person. The question is one
of world views, and what we can logically defend as a relevant, working
guide to how we live.
Atheism has no such guide. Common sense and study show us the truism of
2
Timothy 3:16 –17 which tells us that all scripture is given by
inspiration of God, and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting
and training in righteousness, so that the man or woman of God may be
complete and thoroughly equipped for life.
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Does God Exist?, MayJun11.