Confusing Voices

Confusing voices. That's how I summarized the 2nd chapter in Dr. Greg Bahnsen's book, By This Standard: The Authority of God's Law Today. 

Photo Credit:
http://www.layevangelism.com/qreference/united%20states%20of%20america/justiceliftsthenations.htm

After proving that all of life is ethical that calls for a moral standard, Dr. Bahnsen shared the various moral standards humanity has been using since the ancient Greco-Roman era up to the present time. The State under Caesar was considered supreme over ethical matters during the rule of the Roman Empire. During the Medieval period, two moral standards were recognized: the Bible and human reason. The Bible was used for religious ethics, and reason based on natural law for natural ethics. However, during this period, the Bible's authority was actually superseded by the Church under the leadership of the Pope. In the time of Reformation, the Bible was acknowledged as the final court of appeal in matters of faith and practice. The Puritans followed this standard in all spheres of human life. They even took biblical law as their norm for civil laws. "The attitude of the Reformers and Puritans is nicely summarized in Robert Paul's painting which hangs in the Supreme Court Building, Lausanne, Switzerland; it is entitled 'Justice Instructing the Judges' and portrays Justice pointing her sword to a book labeled 'The Law of God' " (p. 16). Unfortunately, with the advent of the Enlightenment, the standard of morality shifted to "human laws fostered by independent reason and experience" (p.17). The new standard is now "found within man or his community. Bishop Butler located it in man's conscience, Kant in man's reason, and Hegel in the Absolute state" (ibid.).

Contemporary moralities no longer acknowledge the Bible as the norm. It is dismissed as "outdated, ignorant, unreasonable, prejudicial, undemocratic, and impractical" (ibid.). The outcome of this rejection "in Western culture is the tension between an unrestrained, tyrannical state on the one hand and the liberated, unrestrained individual on the other. Statism and anarchy pull against each other. The immoral policies of the state are matched by the immoral lives of its citizens" (ibid.).

Theologians no longer believe in " 'Thus saith the Lord' " (p.18). The favorite phrase these days is " 'it seems to me (or us)' " (ibid.). See the following statements that illustrate the contemporary moralities:

• "God is teaching us that we must live as men who can get along very well without Him." - Bonhoeffer

• "The proclamation of imperatives backed by divine authority is not very persuasive today." - Wolfhart Pannenberg 

• "There is no room in morality for commands, whether they are the father's, the schoolmaster's or the priest's. There is still not room for them when they are God's commands." - Graeme de Graaff 

• "Law ethics is still the enemy." - Joseph Fletcher 

• "I thank God that as a reformed Christian I worship a God of grace and not a God of rules." - Anonymous

Source: Bahnsen, G. L. (1985). By This Standard: The Authority of God's Law Today. Tyler, Texas: Institute for Christian Economics.