The Moral God

Welcome to the most recent installment of the series, “You’ve Got Me All Wrong”! This is a tough series both for the speaker and the audience in that there is obviously more to tackle than time allows on a Sunday morning. As I have done, I encourage each of you to let your curiosity lead you to deeper thought and reading on the subjects … I would begin with God’s Word before I considered what others may have to say on each subject. Below, I have quoted a few thought-provoking authors who may get your journey started on a moral argument for God’s existence.

“The wicked, in his haughtiness, does not seek Him. There is no God in all his schemes,” Psalm 10:4 (NASB).

“But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. 2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, slanderers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, 4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 holding to a form of godliness although they have denied its power; avoid such people as these. 6 For among them are those who slip into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses, 7 always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. 8 Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men of depraved mind, worthless in regard to the faith. 9 But they will not make further progress; for their foolishness will be obvious to all, just as was that also of Jannes and Jambres”, 2 Timothy 3:1-6, NASB).

“In thinking back to when I was not a Christian, I often felt a sense of indignation when people would cheat on their exams or when some jerk would bully a kid in my class. Watching the news at night, I’d respond with disgust when a criminal would rob a person or threaten that person’s life, especially when the victim wasn’t able to defend themselves, such as an elderly lady. I would think: That just isn’t right. People shouldn’t do those kinds of things. Conversely, I’d affix a value judgement of goodness to a situation when someone returned a wallet full of money to its owner or when people gave time to work at a homeless shelter. Yet, from where did I derive this sense of right and wrong? Was it just because of my culture and upbringing that I felt these things shouldn’t be so? Would I have different views if I were raised somewhere else or were these kinds of things always right and wrong?,” Mary Jo Sharp, 2020.

                “The (assertion) that almost everyone recognizes that they innately know what’s right and wrong is a significant piece of evidence for God’s existence. This is called the moral argument. The moral argument makes the case that (1) objective moral values exist (that is, there are things that are right or wrong for all people, regardless of anyone’s personal opinion) and that (2) the existence of these objective moral values implies the existence of a moral authority (such as God)”, Natasha Crain, 2017.

                “You may come to know about objective morality in many different ways: from parents, teachers, society, your conscience, etc. ... And you know it while denying God exists. But that’s like saying you can know what a book says while denying there’s an author. Of course you can do that, but there would be no book to know unless there was an author,” Frank Turek, 2014.

                “In ancient times it was understood that there was a transcendent moral order outside the self, built in to the fabric of the universe. If you violated the metaphysical order there were consequences just as severe as if you violated physical reality … Modernity reversed this,” Timothy Keller, 2009.

Resources

Craig, William Lane, (Blog), 2013, #349 The Moral Argument for God.

Crain, Natasha, 2017, Talking with Your Kids About God.

Jeffrey, Anne, 2021, God and Morality.

Keller, Timothy, 2009, The Reason for God.

“Rationalwingnut” (blog), 2022, The Argument for God from Morality: C. S. Lewis’ Argument                 Condensed.

Sharp, Mary Jo, 2020, A Beginner’s Guide to the Moral Argument.

“The Council of Trent,” ND, YouTube, “The Best Argument for God’s Existence.”

Turek, Frank, 2014, Stealing from God.