To many Christians the study of ethics may seem to be a somewhat academic or even unnecessary pursuit, and an explanation of this book’s purpose may be in order. Ethics, though not a study of Scripture per se, is very much a scriptural topic for study, especially as it concerns itself with Christian ethics which is entirely rooted in and developed from the Word of God. It is a study that, when properly examined, can enrich, uplift, strengthen, and enlighten every Christian, raising him up to a fuller and more comprehensive understanding of what Christianity is all about.
Being a scriptural study, ethics is therefore not a topic for discussion only for the intellectually elite within the Lord’s church but is — or ought to be — a subject open to every Christian. Too often books on Christian ethics tend to cater more to the theologian and practiced ethicist, and while such works are often quite good and necessary for the defense of the Christian position, they sometimes cause the subject of ethics to appear beyond the pale of the average layman. It is the hope of this author that this book may present a serious examination of and explanation for our Christian ethics in such a way as to render the subject accessible to every interested disciple of our Lord. It is hoped that this treatment will be neither overly academic nor shallow, but rather that it may offer a comprehensive scrutiny of Christian morality in such a manner as to be meaningful to the student and scholar alike.
Before we begin, however, it is important that we all understand just what we mean when we talk about ethics in general and Christian ethics in particular. Properly defined, ethics deals with the branch of philosophy that is concerned with values which relate to human conduct, with respect to the rightness and wrongness of certain actions and to the goodness and badness of the motives and ends of those actions. Ethics thus concerns the system of moral principles and the rules of conduct by which men live and act. Although many people feel that the study of ethics is an esoteric pursuit, an exercise of the mind to be engaged in by the intellectually elite, it is in fact the most basic discipline known to mankind. It is basic because it is that which governs every man’s actions, be he Christian, Hindu, agnostic, or atheist. The rules by which a man lives, the principles upon which he bases his decisions to act, constitute his system of ethics.
There are, of course, many different systems of ethics by which mankind has chosen to live. Many of these systems have names that may seem unfamiliar to many readers, names that give the impression that this book is not for the average person. But though the names may seem long and unnecessarily elaborate, the systems they represent are most likely familiar to every reader, whether the systems’ proper names are immediately recognizable or not. In fact, most people who live on this planet probably live by a system of ethics they would not recognize by name.
In the course of this work we intend to look briefly at the predominant systems of ethics practiced by members of our current society, but primarily we
will look at these within the context of our own Christian system of behavior so that we may see how these human systems relate to our own system of ethics. Although we will discuss several of these man-made systems, sometimes in detail, our central focus will remain that system by which we as Christians are to live and make our decisions, the system that is derived from the holy, inspired Word of God — Christian ethics. One might ask that since most of those who would choose to read this book already are Christians or are at least people who choose to live by the Judeo-Christian ethic, why should we devote so much effort to elaborating our topic? No doubt most of us know and likely agree that we get our direction from Scripture and that Scripture gives us certain rules to live by. We might cite, for example, St. Paul’s statement to St. Timothy that “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work” (II Timothy 3:16, 17). In light of such a statement one might ask, Why go into an analysis of our system? Why not just let Scripture speak for itself?
Such an attitude might be fine if it were true that Scripture gave us rules to govern every waking moment of our lives. In fact, however, it does not. But before we assume this should in any way minimize the position of Scripture in the Christian’s life, let us first set about to define a few terms.
When we say that Scripture provides rules to govern all aspects of a Christian’s life, if we are speaking in everyday language most likely we would be understood correctly. However, ethically speaking, we have to be a little more careful with our use of certain words and must define our terms carefully. Properly speaking, a rule is a law, a command, a directive that is very concrete. An example of a rule would be “Do not get drunk” or “Pay your taxes.” These are rules, specific guidelines that are absolute and about which there can be no discussion.
In Scripture we find the Decalogue a perfect example of divinely given rules which spell out in unequivocally concrete terms God’s will regarding certain areas of human conduct. Likewise, much of the Old Law consisted of hard-and-fast rules that dealt with both ceremonial and social behavior. Although the New Testament is far less legalistic in these respects, there are examples of rules to be found there too, such as the command not to commit sexual immorality (I Corinthians 10:8) and the command to pay our taxes (Romans 13:6). If the Bible spoke thusly about every facet of our lives, there would be no need to study Christian ethics. Everything would be clear-cut and unquestionable: We either would choose to follow the rules, or we would not.
But the truth is that Scripture does not tell us everything about everything. Even under the Old Law in which so many facets of human conduct was governed by scriptural rules, there yet remained a large number of areas of conduct unaddressed by specific guidelines. Because of this, the Pharisees attempted to compile rule books that would outwardly regulate every hour of the Hebrew day and would cover every conceivable situation that could ever arise. As we know from the New Testament, Jesus stood solidly opposed to such legalism as that exhibited by the self-righteous Pharisees, because He knew that true morality comes from a man’s heart and not from the outward adherence to a list of do’s and don’t’s. For this reason Scripture does not always give us clear-cut examples of what we should and should not do in every situation. It does not speak specifically to many questions in human life. If one searches a Bible concordance, for instance, one will not find passages of Scripture that mention abortion or masturbation or genetic engineering or even passages that give precise, unequivocal answers to many of the questions regarding marriage and divorce. In these matters, which fall into what we often refer to as “grey areas,” we have to rely on the guidance of the Church and reason out for ourselves, with the Lord’s help, to discover what our answers to these questions should be.
But God has not left us directionless in these grey areas. If we go back to our former statement that Scripture provides rules that govern all aspects of a Christian’s life and understand that term in the everyday sense of the word “rule,” then we would be correct. If we understand “rule” to mean principle (which is the correct word, ethically speaking), then we could see that Scripture does in fact give us principles to govern every aspect of our lives, even the grey areas. As St. Paul said to St. Timothy, “All scripture ... is profitable ... for every good work.” His statement was not that Scripture gives us all the rules to determine for us all the decisions of our lives, but that the precepts it provides are profitable in allowing us access to the truth so that, even in the areas of life in which a specific rule cannot be appealed to, we nevertheless may be fully equipped to know how we ought to glorify God in our conduct.
In the example cited earlier concerning the biblical prohibition against drunkenness, we find that not only in this case does Scripture provide us with a rule but (which is more important in our study) that there is behind that rule an underlying principle. This is significant because, by and large, the New Testament does not speak to us in terms of rules so much as it speaks to us through a number of divine principles. From these principles and the direction of the Holy Fathers of the Church, we are to work out our answers to the various questions in life. But because we often are called upon to answer for ourselves does not imply that we are without direction in choosing our course of action. These biblical principles themselves serve as directives for us in determining our proper responses to the numerous ambiguities of life. It is up to us in many cases to use the abilities God has given us to reason, study, and determine for ourselves what He expects of us in given situations. Though of course we may seek guidance of our spiritual fathers, the decisions ultimately lie with us individually, and it is greatly reassuring knowing that God has not left us directionless.
In saying all this, however, we do not intend to imply that we should attempt to free ourselves from spiritual guidance and rely only upon our own resources. What we are saying is that we must not expect to find concrete answers to all our ethical questions in Scripture or Canon Law. God did not intend for His Word to take the place of our own spiritual development. He expects us to utilize our intellect in the formation of our moral and ethical decisions. It is not as though we must suspend the normal thinking process when we approach our ethical choices in light of the Christian religion, but we are instead to exercise our intellectual faculties while being guided by divine principles.
Jesus told the multitudes in St. Luke 12:54-57 that since they were able to determine from the evidence available to them what the weather would be like, they also should be able to judge for themselves what is right. Likewise St. Paul in I Corinthians 11:13 instructed the Christians at Corinth to “use their heads,” so to speak, and judge for themselves about the question of whether a woman was to pray with her head uncovered. We might also look to St. Paul’s example in Acts 24:25 where it states that he reasoned with Felix about righteousness, self-control, and the judgment to come; or in I Corinthians 14:15 where he says that he will pray and sing not with the spirit alone but also with the mind; or in Romans 7:25 where he says that with the mind he serves the law or God; or in Romans 14:5 where he instructs every Christian to be fully convinced in his own mind. Our minds were created by God and are to be used in His service. Christianity, unlike so many of the world’s religions, is a rational religion. It does not ask us to bypass the mind, but instead asks us to utilize our minds in the greater service of our God.
This is a very important point, because the spirit of
anti-intellectualism has been very prevalent in many Christian circles in recent decades. Many religious groups have stressed the importance of the Christian “experience” to the degree that the rational process has been rendered practically taboo. But when we reject the mind and the rational process then we also must reject authentic Christianity, because it demands the use of our minds as well as our spirits. Without rational constraint we are left with nothing more than a religion of superstitious vagaries. As Elton Trueblood has said, “However bad some arid intellectualism has been, anti-intellectualism is worse, since it provides no antidote to either superstition of wish-thinking.”1 Had God not expected us to use our minds in His service He surely would have given us that neat list of do’s and don’t’s asked for by so many people today. But the fact is He wants all of us, not just a part; He wants our minds as well as the rest of us to serve Him. Therefore He addresses most issues not with rules but with principles, and from these principles we are determine the proper response.
Why did God choose to arrange things this way? Why did He not simply give us a collection of absolute rules to govern our lives, much as He did for the Israelites of old? One reason is just as we have discussed: He made us to be rational, thinking beings, and He desires us to use these abilities in our service to Him. But beyond that He also wants our obedience to Him to be voluntary, given to Him from a free heart. Rather than having us all walk about like automata simply following an endless list of rules and regulations (which can be done without emotional content, as the Pharisees clearly demonstrated), God desires instead a loving response to His directives. Just as we expect our children to grow beyond the simple obedience to household rules to the place where they begin to obey our directives out of love and understanding, so God desires that mankind grow beyond the legalistic precepts of the Old Law (which served as man’s schoolmaster) to the place where we all obey His directives out of love and out of a true desire to do the right.
Furthermore, we as Christians are not called to conform to some arbitrary legal code set up as an external standard of behavior, but instead we are called to liberty in grace. We are not bound by law as a means to salvation, but we have received salvation through grace as a gift. Having thus received this gift from God, we are asked only for a loving response — a response that comes out of gratitude and not out of a sense of legal obligation. God does not desire a legalistic obedience to a set of rules, but the opening of our hearts to His will. As the prophet Micah put it, “He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8). Though there are many different approaches to ethics in general, there are principally only three major approaches used by most religious people today to determine their version of or their ideas about Christian ethics. Although one might find any number of variations on these approaches within the religious community, the three most prevalent methods as are follows.
The teleological approach. This approach uses the expected result of one’s actions as the basis for determining whether an action itself is right or wrong. To a teleologist it is the intent of the action and not the action itself that establishes its ethical validity. For example, a teleological ethicist might use the familiar phrase “the end justifies the means.” This is an approach that is better known by the popular name of “situation ethics.”
The contextual approach. Contextual ethicists attempt to determine right and wrong on the basis of the context in which a given situation presents itself. This approach is similar to that used by situationists, who say that the rightness or wrongness of an action is determined exclusively by the situation. The main difference between contextualism and situationism is that some contextualists will recognize rules whereas the situationist recognizes none. Unlike the situationist, the contextualist may adhere to conventional concepts of right and wrong in normal, everyday situations, but he would say that under abnormal circumstances those standards no longer apply and one is left to determine one’s course of action and to decide right and wrong on the basis of the situation’s context.
The rules approach. There are two types of rules approach held by Christians today: (a) the strict rules approach, and (b) the summary rules approach. The Christian who adheres to a strict rules approach recognizes that there are certain ethical standards that are inviolable regardless of the circumstance. Although he may admit that there are abnormal situations in which these standards or rules seem inapplicable, he nonetheless endeavors to uphold those standards and he makes his ethical decisions based on these standards. Similarly, the Christian who adheres to a summary rules approach recognizes the same or similar standards, but he believes that under certain conditions the standards can be broken. Both these approaches differ from the situationist approach, which recognizes no rules at all; the situationist approaches every situation — normal and abnormal — prepared to violate everything.
We will be operating in this book on the strict rules approach (also sometimes called the rules-deontological approach). In terms of Christian ethics, this means that we will be recognizing that right and wrong are to be determined not by context or intent, but by means of divinely given ethical directives. These directives are to be found in the Scriptures and the teachings of the Church Fathers, and it is on the basis of these directives that we are to learn to determine right and wrong in all situations. The objective of this study is threefold:
Our first objective is to lay a solid foundation by going back to the starting place of our Christian ethics: God. In this part of our study we shall be looking at the fundamentals, the things that most of us already believe and accept as true. In one sense these fundamentals are very elementary, because they are the most basic doctrines that a Christian may know. But precisely because they are so basic and fundamental we often fail to think about them properly — at least we fail to think of them in the context in which we should our as often as we should. So what we shall endeavor to do in this book is to reflect upon these fundamentals truths on which we base our entire Christian lives and to look at them in such a way that they become revitalized within us. In so doing it is hoped that we will be able to understand better why we do what we do and why we believe what we believe in the realm of ethics and morals. If we can understand these things we will be better able to understand our entire system of morality and be better equipped to make responsible and ethical decisions.
It is therefore important that we not only know what we believe but also why we believe. Too often many Christians seem satisfied simply to believe, as though faith alone were enough. Some even go so far as to discredit the arguments of those who attempt to give objective reasons for their faith, citing as their defense II Corinthians 5:7 which says that we walk by faith and not by sight. But those who appeal to this verse in an attempt to find a biblical sanction for blind faith absent any intellectual context grossly misuse the passage. St. Paul is not saying in this verse that there is no rationality behind our religion, nor is he denying the importance of objective evidence in the formation and sustenance of our faith. To accept the notion that these were St. Paul’s intentions would be to admit that he contradicted himself in numerous other passages. For example, it was on the basis of the objective evidence of God’s existence that St. Paul could condemn the unrighteous men in his epistle to the Romans. There he writes: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest to them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse” (Romans 1:18-20). These men stood condemned because they knew God — the evidence was overwhelming — but they suppressed the knowledge of God. Christian faith is not, as some tend to think, belief in what we know isn’t true; Christian faith is belief in what we know to be true. It is vitally important to us in this study to know both what we believe and why we believe, for it is only on this basis that we will be able to apply the precepts we learn, and it is only on this basis that we will be able to help others understand what we believe.
In using the phrase “we believe,” we do not mean to imply that by the end of this book everyone is expected to believe exactly the same as everyone else on every conceivable subject. There will never be a time in this world when even all faithful Christians will agree entirely on all points. But we should all share the same foundation, and we should all be basing our decisions on the same criteria. This does not mean that we will all reach the exact same conclusions in all areas because not everything in life can be divided simply into categories of right and wrong. Sometimes there can be more than one right in a given circumstance. Sometimes there can be a decision in which we must choose between what is good and what is better. Sometimes we encounter a situation in which every alternative appears to be wrong. When we meet these situations we must have a solid foundation from which to form our decisions and determine our course of action. This is the explanation of our rules approach. As Christians we approach all situations in life with a set of ethical principles that have been divinely revealed, and on the basis of these principles we are able, through the process of prayer and reasoning, to come to an answer.
In order to be able to do this, we shall need to establish a good, solid grasp of our foundation. Once this is done we will be better able to make legitimate ethical decisions and to organize our lives so that they will be in harmony with the fundamental truths of God. It is hoped that as we proceed in this study we will begin to see that it is one thing to believe a given way on a particular subject, and that it is another to understand why we believe that way. It may make all the difference in the world for us to learn that whereas we have been acting in a certain manner in the past because we believed there was a rule that demanded such behavior, in reality there is only a scriptural directive that we ought rather to follow out of love instead of duty.
The second part of our objective is to learn how to make decisions on the basis of what and why we believe. The grey areas of life are numerous, and they seem to be growing every day, often as a result of our myriad technological advances. Consequently the call to make ethical choices in this ever-changing world grows more every day. About certain of these grey areas many of us have reached our own decisions already. Some may feel that it is wrong, for instance, to drink alcoholic beverages. Many believe that smoking, dancing, and attending the cinema are wrong types of behavior for a Christian to exhibit. Quite a number are very likely unsure what they think about such things as genetic engineering, artificial insemination, and many other questionable areas of medical technology. It is of vital importance to note that on none of these issues does Scripture give a concise, unequivocal rule. But because Scripture doesn’t mention these things specifically does not mean that we are to be neutral on these issues. (It is impossible to be neutral on any ethical issue.) We must learn to base our decisions about these and all other issue upon biblical principles and upon the absolute foundation we hope to examine in this text.
The third objective in this study of ethics is designed to enable us to help others in the formation of their ethical decisions, especially the young Christian and the new convert. If there ever was a time when the need to help the youthful Christian and the new convert fresh out of the world was present, the time is now. The basic foundation of the Judeo-Christian ethic that has governed the overall code of civilized behavior for so long has virtually eroded away. With no solid ground on which to stand, our younger generation is drifting aimlessly in a world they perceive to be without meaning. The empty philosophies of the world are assaulting them on every hand, from the textbooks in school to the music on the radio to the movies in the cinema. It is impossible in this day and age for a person not to be exposed to, and to some degree influenced by, modern philosophy. The young are particularly susceptible to current philosophical trends and are quite vulnerable if they are not sure from the start what they are about. The young Christian must live in a world that recognizes relative values, and he must endure tremendous pressure from all sides to conform to current standards of behavior. Simply having grown up “in church” is not the answer. There must be substance to his religious experience, and there must be a rational basis for the beliefs he has been told to uphold.
Too often adults seem to content themselves with simply telling our young people what to believe without explaining to them why they should believe it. This works, of course, through their youngest years; but all youngsters reach a point at which they begin to question everything they have been taught. This “cynical period” generally occurs during the early and midteen years. Although this can be a terribly trying time for parent and child alike, it is a natural development in the course of maturity and is (as much as we may think otherwise) a good thing. God made us to be inquisitive and questioning beings — to be rational, thinking, free moral agents. This is simply the period in a young person’s life when he must begin to learn the reasons behind the things he’s been taught. When properly exercised, this God-given ability enables the individual to discern truth from error and right from wrong. But unless a solid working base is developed in the young mind, because of the world and because of man’s natural bent toward rebelliousness when the young Christian fails to see the base upon which his beliefs solidly rest he will abandon those beliefs — as many have already done and as many others continue to do every day.
Only a person who has chosen a hermit’s life could deny that such has been happening with our young Christians the last few decades. The problem is not peculiar to any particular faith, denomination, or nationality but is a worldwide decay. Francis Schaeffer, the late internationally known scholar and theologian, observed that
For too long we have failed to give our youngsters the proper base and framework from which they are to build their lives. This writer can well remember a period in his own life when a great deal of emphasis was being placed on youth in Christian service. During his teen years churches all across the nation were holding youth rallies and were sponsoring a wide variety of special activities for young Christians in an effort to secure them to the faith. All of these things were fine and good in so far as they went. But there was a common weakness running through the majority of these programs, and that was a lack of substance. At most of these rallies, for instance, panel discussions would be held in which questions handed in by the youngsters were answered by a panel of ministers or teachers. Most of the time the handling of these questions was the same: The youngsters were told what they ought to think, but rarely were they taught why.
It is admitted that in this writer’s experience most of the answers given at these rallies were correct. A few were not. But without the proper foundation — without the proper criteria with which to judge the validity of these answers — how were the young people to know the good answers from the bad? Jesus told His disciples to beware of false prophets who disguise themselves in sheep’s clothing (St. Matthew 7:15-20), and St. John warned believers to test the spirits to see whether they were of God (I John 4:1). Unless we possess and exercise the proper criteria with which to test the spirits and expose false prophets, how are we to identify them?
When people — and young people particularly — are simply told what to believe instead of being shown why they are to believe it, they often go away saying, “I know that’s the Church’s position, but I don’t see anything wrong with my interpretation of the matter.” Young people especially are disposed to look at things from a naïve pragmatic point of view and to say that so long as a given action doesn’t hurt anyone, and especially if that action gives pleasure to oneself or someone else, then there is nothing wrong with it. It is for this reason, and because we have not given them the proper framework from which to judge their actions, that many of our Christian teenagers actively participate in premarital sex and engage in occasional drunkenness or drug-induced highs without guilt. Because of our failure, many of our teenagers do these things and honestly, sincerely believe there is nothing wrong with them and that condemnation of such behavior is an anachronistic holdover from an earlier time. Granted, these same young people have been taught since their first day in Church that one should not engage in these things, but because they were given a rule without substance the prohibition seems to them merely an outmoded carryover from the Puritan ethic. They therefore determine their actions and decisions on the basis of a pragmatic or existential approach rather than on a rules approach to morality. As a result we have a great percentage of our young people leaving the Church, and even many of those who stay continue to practice immorality (and believe it morally acceptable) simply because they are operating from the wrong base. We older Christians, many of whom grew up in an age when we called wrong wrong (even though many of us did the same things as our younger counterparts) sometimes have the tendency to label today’s youngsters as “bad kids.” But if we could examine their thinking we would find that in many cases we’re not dealing so much with bad kids as we are with good kids who are operating on a bad base.
It is hoped that this book may help not only us as adults in ordering our lives according to the norms we find in Scripture, but also that it may help us show the young Christian and the new convert that our religion is not just a legal code of arbitrary do’s and don’t’s that are to be accepted on blind faith.
But lest the reader be misled, this book does not have all the answers — nor does its author with it to. Such is not its purpose. Many times Christians pick up a book or go into a class study and expect the author or teacher to tell them what they should do, how they should live, and what’s right and wrong. And that’s fine, up to a point. But as we mature in Christ and and in life in general, we eventually should grow to become able to discern these things for ourselves. This is necessary not only for Christian growth but also because in many areas no one but ourselves can judge what is right and wrong, since right and wrong often are contingent upon whether a given action will violate our individual conscience (cf. Romans 14:23). What is right for one person in some cases can be wrong for another. What is art to one person may to another be an opportunity for lust. What is a fine meal for one may for another be an occasion for gluttony. In areas such as these we frequently find ourselves confronted with things that in themselves are neither right nor wrong, but about which we must make a moral choice before our God. We are ultimately responsible for our own ethical decisions, and we must learn to make these decisions for ourselves. Otherwise we become only sightless sheep following on blind, irrational faith the teachings of someone else — teachings that may be good and right, but may just as well be wrong. We must learn to recognize that we are answerable to God for our own moral choices, and we have to learn to reason things out for ourselves. That is what this book is all about. This book is designed to cover four areas, the first being the foundation or basis for our Christian ethics. As has been stated previously, Christian ethics is not based on arbitrary rules but rests on a strong foundation. We shall be looking at that foundation in detail in the Part One of this book.
From this foundation we shall progress to the second part in which we shall see the logical implications of our foundation when applied to our lives and put into action. In this section we shall discuss the meaning of true spirituality. This topic will be discussed for two reasons: first, in order that we may see our ethics in practice (can see what it means to live the Christian life); second, in order to correct some current misconceptions about the meaning of “spirituality” that have been characteristic of many contemporary religious circles.
Part Three of the book will examine briefly relativistic ethics as popularized in Joseph Fletcher’s book Situation Ethics. Though Fletcher’s work seems today somewhat dated, the system he presented forms the basis of much Western ethical thought to this day and is particularly prevalent among many Christian groups since it claims to be a religious system. Because of this claim a great many religious people have adopted this ethical model for their lives, and even some among the most conservative Christian faiths have been strongly influenced by it. While existentialism is perhaps the most influential philosophy in the lives and morals of most secular Americans today, be they religious or not, situationism is the predominating influence on most people who at least claim to be religious. Situationism is the system of ethics that teaches love as its only norm and claims that in the area of morality all things are relative. We shall examine this system to determine whether it is truly a Christian ethic or not.
Finally, after having laid our foundation (comparing it against the backdrop of contemporary philosophy), having seen the logical implications of our system once it is put into practice, and having objectively examined the highly influential ethic of situationism, we shall in Part Four look at some of the ethical questions that confront us today. These questions will be examined for a twofold purpose. In the first place they will be examined with the idea in mind that we may find answers to them. Every Christian has certain ethical dilemmas he would like to see resolved. This section of the book may assist in resolving some of these quandaries. But the primary purpose of this section will be to help demonstrate how the individual may reason out his own answers using what he has learned in the former parts of the book. Too often many of us are prone to discuss issues using our feelings and emotions as the principal determining factors in reaching our answers. While our inner feelings are, of course, important, there also must be a rational basis for our answers to the vital questions in life. These answers must be based solidly on an objective Christian foundation and on the basis of what Scripture and the Church have spoken concerning them, either explicity or implicitly. It is hoped that this section in particular, and this book in general, will help many of us grow into a fuller awareness of what our Christian lives are all about.
The Need to Study Christian Ethics
Three Approaches to Christian Ethics
The Objective of This Study
These are the ends we hope to achieve, and this book is the means by which we shall endeavor to attain those ends.
everywhere I go — both in the United States and in other countries — children of Christians are being lost to historic Christianity. This is happening not only in small groups in small geographical areas but everywhere. They are being lost because their parents are unable to understand their children, and therefore they cannot really help them in their time of need. This lack of understanding is not only on the part of individual parents, but often also of churches, Christian colleges and Christian missions. Some Christian colleges (and I am not talking of ‘liberal’ colleges) lose many of the top ten per cent of their students before they graduate. We have left the next generation naked in the face of the twentieth-century thought by which they are surrounded.2
Schaeffer goes on to point out that the responsibility rests solidly upon our shoulders to prepare our children for this philosophical onslaught. “The Holy Spirit can do what He will,” has says, “but the Bible does not separate His work from knowledge; nor does the work of the Holy Spirit remove our responsibility as parents, pastors, evangelists, missionaries or teachers.”3
The Outline of the Book
Copyright © 1983 & 2005 by Oswin Craton. All rights reserved.