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Broken Barometers

SERIES: The Clash of Cultures #1 of 5

2006-01-29

PRODUCTION #: 1001

SPEAKERS: Shawn Boonstra, Mark Finley,

Have you ever ordered something from a mail order catalog? If you have, you know how excitedly you anticipated its arrival. You could certainly identify with Marge. In 1938 when barometers were still fairly rare, she ordered one. When it was delivered, she enthusiastically opened it only to have her hopes dashed. It was broken.

It registered "severe hurricane warning." That was simply impossible. No major hurricane had hit Long Island, New York, in more than a half a century.

Disgusted, Marge packed up the barometer and sent it back to the company requesting another one to be sent immediately.

On her way to the post office, she didn't notice the darkening sky, the gentle drops of rain that were beginning to fall and the increased tempo of the wind.

Maybe, just maybe, the barometer wasn't broken after all. And maybe there is a vital truth in this story for 21st century men and women living in an age when almost anything goes.

In 1938, the most powerful hurricane ever to hit the east coast of America slammed into Long Island and continued up the East Coast. The winds topped 180 miles an hour. Salt spray was carried by the fierce winds from Long Island over 400 miles to Montpelier, Vermont.

Property damage was 300 million dollars. (That's about 15 billion in today's dollars.) Hundreds of lives were lost.

Marge mailed back a barometer that was a harbinger of a coming destruction. She rejected the warning.

Barometers generally don't lie. They don't give opinions. They reveal facts. They clearly, accurately record the rise and fall of atmospheric pressure. They are not influenced by someone else's ideas or opinions. They simply tell it as it is.

To reject the barometer's warning is to reject the state of things as they are.

Is it possible that our society is in danger of rejecting God's moral barometer? Could it be that this generation has a mistaken idea of right and wrong?

According to a recent survey by George Barna and his Barna Research group of Americans known as Gen-Xers, most of them boycott the idea of absolute truth.

Here is the staggering reality regarding our nation?s future generation of leaders: "Seventy-five percent of adults and teens reject the concept of absolute moral truth."

In other words, there is no right or wrong. In this vein, right or wrong is what you think in your mind.

Joseph Fletcher in his book, Situation Ethics, popularized this view 40 years ago among American University students.

His view was simply this: "Adultery, lying, stealing or the breaking of any one of the 10 Commandments," he said, "is not necessarily and always wrong. If the situation is right, the act may be right."

Over half of all teenagers today say that lying is sometimes necessary, not merely convenient, common, understandable or acceptable, but necessary.

This leads us to a basic and fundamental question. Are we facing a "Clash of Cultures?" Is the moral barometer of the 21st century broken? And if it is, how can it be fixed?

What is essentially wrong with the idea that everyone must determine right for themselves?

Is everything a blur on the moral radar screen?

What is the basis for morality in our post-modern world?

Today, Shawn and I will tackle some of these tough questions

MARK: Shawn, I am glad we can share the program today.

SHAWN: I am glad to be here, Mark.

MARK: This is an exciting topic.

SHAWN: I love it.

MARK: Let's begin with this question: What is the fundamental fallacy in the idea that right and wrong is a matter of opinion, what do you think?

SHAWN: Well Mark, let me tell you what has bothered me about that, personally. That is the concept that I was taught in university, that we cannot determine what is absolutely right and absolutely wrong because that would be judgmental.

If that is correct, then how do I know what is right and wrong? And when somebody says to me, "Shawn, there is no such thing as absolutely right or absolutely wrong," how can I even evaluate that statement if there is no such thing as right or wrong?

The Bible says that there is a way that seems right to a man, but the end leads to destruction. It tells me that we seem to understand things, but we don't have complete knowledge, which is what we would need to be able to determine what is right and wrong for ourselves.

Look what is happening to society as a result of that belief. Have you noticed?

MARK: I really have. You know, Shawn, I think that that belief is predicated on this thought: that every human mind can accurately evaluate what is right and what is wrong. And, as the Bible says in Jeremiah 17, verse nine, "The heart is deceitful and above all things desperately wicked." Then the filter through which I am evaluating right and wrong becomes my own mind, and I assume that I am able to make perfect moral decisions. But if my nature has fallen without Jesus Christ, it is very difficult to determine what's right and wrong.

Let me give you a specific example that comes to mind, and I fully recognize that the modern world that we live in wants to reject the concept of the fallen nature. People do not want to say, "Hey, my nature is fallen." We want to assume that God lives within us and that we have the perfect ability to determine right and wrong.

But if that is true, why are Americans so outraged at the World Trade Center and the Twin Towers attack? The people who flew those airplanes actually believed that they were morally right in killing innocent people. Why are we so outraged when Hitler killed 6 million Jews if there is no right and no wrong?

SHAWN: Right, there is no basis for that outrage, you say?

MARK: Exactly, they say, "I am outraged at it, because I believe that there is right and there is wrong and that act was purely wrong."

SHAWN: So if I could set my moral values and can decide what is right for me, if on some early Sunday morning, my neighbor decides to go out and cut wood and that bothers me, I could shoot him because I value my peace and quiet more than his life, and who is to say that's wrong?

MARK: Sure, exactly! If a man is not happy in his home, if he is not feeling content with his wife, then if there is no right and no wrong, what would be wrong with going out and having an extramarital affair? Because everything is a moral blur. So the question then becomes, what is really the result of no right or wrong in our society? Where has this led our society?

SHAWN: Right. You know what I have seen happening is that the moral boundaries disappear. The very structure of civilization dissolves because who is to say what is right or wrong? If you and I don't have a clear understanding of where boundaries are, I could come into your home and take your television set, because for me that's right. I need a television and you have two.

You know, so there is no guarantee that we even have civil society.

MARK: But Shawn, where would the absolute moral standard come from? If the moral standard does not come in from within my mind, and you know the Bible says, "He who trusts in his own heart is a fool," in Proverbs, where does the moral standard come from?

SHAWN: The book of Proverbs says, "There is a way that seems right to a man." We have to look outside of human beings then. We have to look to something or someone that does have perfect understanding, a perfect empirical knowledge. The Bible reveals that in God.

You know, God speaks of Himself in absolute terms, doesn't He?

MARK: He does. One of the favorite passages in Scripture on this subject is Psalm 111. The 111th Psalm, to me, summarizes the relevance of God's law particularly. God reveals absolute truth in His own character, in His own nature. God Himself is truth and that truth is revealed in His Word. And specifically, God's law reveals relevance to every generation and every society.

And in Psalm 111, verse seven, the Bible says (Psalm 111:7):

"The works of His hands are verity, [that is truth] and justice. All His precepts are sure. They stand fast forever and ever."

So, the Psalmist, in speaking of God's law, points out that the law of God is an eternal revelation of the character of God and is increasingly relevant to every generation.

So, for example, the law that says, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me," in an age of materialism, where material values have become god, it speaks positively of placing our priority on the things of eternity in heaven.

The law that says, "Thou shalt not kill," goes far beyond the physical act of killing. It deals with the respect for human life. So God's law provides some moral and objective standards.

It seems to me that God's law is like a mirror. In fact, the Bible reveals that doesn't it?

SHAWN: The book of James.

MARK: The book of James. And you look in this mirror and you see that your face is reflected as dirty. Now I could be out working on my car and come in the house. My wife says, "Hey Mark, there's oil on the end of your nose and on your cheek." And I could say, "No, there isn't," and rip the mirror off the wall and stomp on it. That is not going to solve the problem, though.

SHAWN: It does not change who you are.

MARK: When you begin to talk about the law of God, you know the Bible also says, "By the law is the knowledge of sin." (Romans 3:20)

It also says, sin is the transgression, the breaking of God's law.

SHAWN: First John 3, verse four.

MARK: So sin is not something just in our minds. It is the breaking of an absolute moral standard that God has given to govern behavior. But is it ever right to break that standard? Would you think that lying is ever right?

Let's suppose that, during the days of the Holocaust with Hitler, I am trying to shelter a Jew and somebody comes in and asks me if a Jew is there. Is lying ever right?

SHAWN: Right, and of course, those kinds of questions were always pitched at us as students in university. And one thing that I want to point out is that if we spend all of our time dwelling on the exceptions to the rule, sometimes we can get lost in the muddy water.

But let's say that we are in that situation where I am trying to protect the life of somebody and I look to God's law and want to find out what is right and what is wrong. I read the Commandment. It says, "Thou shalt not bear false witness against your neighbor."

God is weighing the human heart. He is weighing motives and we live in an imperfect world. We live in a sinful world where there are evil forces working very hard against us. And we need to be able to balance every thing that is going on and take the best decision in a bad scenario.

There is an example of this in the Bible. In Exodus, chapter one, Pharaoh has told the midwives to kill every male Hebrew child. And he is outraged when he discovers that it is not happening. The midwives have refused to do this; it is murder. They will not do this. But the reason they give is, "Boy, these Hebrew women are tough women working in the fields. Those children come too quick for us to get there."

Now, that may have been true, but they did not reveal the entire truth, to protect those women. The Bible says in Exodus, chapter one, that God honored those midwives for the decision they made.

Is it always wrong to tell a lie? I would suggest that as Christians we need to look for the honest and true way every time. But when we make a decision in a bad scenario in a sinful world, God weighs the motives of the heart. What are we trying to do? Are we selfishly trying to cover our tracks and protect ourselves or are we doing the best we know how to protect and guard somebody else?

And I think God weighs those motives, don't you?

MARK: I really do. You know, I faced this in Rwanda recently. I was sitting down with the president of a Christian University in Rwanda and I asked him what kind of questions the students were asking. Now, if you remember, in 1994 Rwanda faced a tremendous, horrendous genocide where over 800,000 people were killed in a period of 100 days. Bodies were piled in the streets, and dogs ate the flesh of the bodies. The rivers were clogged with bodies. It was just a horrendous situation.

The Hutus and the Tutsis were the tribes involved. The Hutus were the majority tribe and the Tutsis were the minority tribe. There was a battle, ethnic cleansing the majority called it.

I asked the president of this Christian University, "What question do your students ask you more than any other?"

And he said, "My students ask me this question, 'When a Hutu man lied to the Hutu militia to protect his Tutsi wives, was that contrary to the will of God?"'

I would like to approach that, Shawn, from two perspectives. One is, that God's ultimate plan in the Bible is honesty and integrity.

SHAWN: Absolutely.

MARK: It is not lying and not dishonesty. But there are very unique, very exceptional, very rare situations where you have a hierarchy of values. And in that hierarchy of values, the value of human life to protect a life from murder is of higher value in that instance. And so, there may be situations that are less than ideal.

It is not ideal, but there may be circumstances where that, in God's eyes, is the lesser of two evils. And so I think we have to leave some of those kinds of things with God. It is possible at times that we, from a western perspective, can say, "Oh, I would never do that." But we are not in that situation. And so I think we have to, as you have pointed out, leave the motives of the heart with God.

SHAWN: You know, Mark, I have noticed that in these situations like the Hebrew midwives and Rahab, in the Bible, saying the Israelite men were not in her home. You do not have a statement anywhere where God says, "Good for you, you misrepresented the situation." He is honoring motives and He leaves that alone, because He knows that a fallible human being is doing the best they can to honor God in that situation.

MARK: Shawn, we talked about the Ten Commandments as God's eternal moral standard. But really, isn't that legalism? Aren't the Ten Commandments a little irrelevant? Don't they restrict your freedom?

SHAWN: You know, Mark, that is a great question. I have a lot of people tell me, "Those Ten Commandments, anybody that wants to live by God's moral requirements, that is legalism." This is how I feel about it. I have two small children, a one-year-old and a four-year-old. And I restrict their freedom, just a little bit. I put a fence around the backyard and I fence them in.

Now, does that make me a legalistic parent or does it make me a dictator? I don't think so. They are four and one and I know if they wander past that fence into a busy road, they might be run down by a car. I am giving a guardrail, not a straitjacket. A guardrail is not legalism. It is an act of love. It is an act of concern.

There is a passage in Deuteronomy, chapter five, right after the Ten Commandments had been read, where God gives His opinion on His moral guidelines for His children.

It is in Deuteronomy, chapter five and verse 29. Here is what God says about His children. He says (Deuteronomy 5:29):

 "Oh that there were such a heart in them that they would fear Me and keep all of My Commandments always."

Why? "That it might be well with them and their children forever." Here is the heart of love in God saying, "I want to do my best for you. I don't want you to live in fear, so thou shalt not murder. My rule says your neighbor is not going to break into your house in the night and murder you or your family. My rule says that you can sleep comfortably at night because your neighbor is not going to come and steal your possessions."

It is an act of love. God puts a guardrail around life. He is not trying to put us in a straitjacket to ruin our fun anymore than me keeping my children from a hot stove is trying to ruin their fun.

MARK: In actual fact, the Ten Commandments are codified love.

SHAWN: I think so.

MARK: You see, if you summarize the whole law, it is based on one word, love.

SHAWN: I think so.

MARK: The first four Commandments tell us how to love God. The second table of the law, the last six, tell us how to love our fellow man.

If you want to know how to love God, you look at the first four Commandments. You want to know how to love your fellow man, you look at the last six.

I can't be truly loving if I steal from my fellow man. If I am angry toward him and want to murder him, I cannot be truly loving at all.

It kind of reminds me, we were talking about the legalism of the law. Is the law restricting your freedom? In my international travel, I have been to many countries where they don't have stop signs or stop lights. You come to those intersections, and you are speeding through, and there are oxcarts, trucks, buses and jeeps on the road.

I mean, you take your life in your hands and you say, "I can't wait till I get back to the United States or western Europe and the order and the discipline." 

I think there is some order and discipline still on our highways. At least we have some stop lights and stop signs. But chaos reigns when there is no law.

SHAWN: Maybe that is why, in the book of James, he refers to God's moral requirements as the law of liberty, because we are not truly free unless there are some boundaries. You know, there are those that I have run across that say, "Ah, keeping God's laws, that's legalistic."

They don't feel that way when it comes to others keeping them. They would like their neighbor not to kill, steal or commit adultery. It's just they feel that, "I would like to do what I want." But that is not liberty. Doing what you want is not liberty.

MARK: Doesn't the law present such a high standard today, though? Is it possible for anybody to keep God's law?

SHAWN: That is a great question, Mark. It's one, I think, that every human being has struggled with, even the apostle Paul struggled with it. You read Romans, chapter seven and he says, "I would love to keep God's law, but there is this old nature, this sinful nature, that I make mistakes and I stumble and I fall." So it is easy to become discouraged.

Our nature as sinful human beings is not to do everything perfectly. We have become self-centered and selfish, and God's law is selfless and full of love. And so we face a little struggle.

But, you know, there is good news. There is hope. We do not have to succumb to that sinful human nature if God holds our hands.

Listen to this promise that He gives us in the tenth chapter of the book of Hebrews. Here is what God says He does for us, if we turn our hearts to Him, if we give Him the reins to our life. It is Hebrews 10 and verse 16. It says (Hebrews 10:16):

"This is the covenant I will make with them after those days," says the Lord. "I will put my laws into their hearts and in their minds will I write them."

God says, I once etched my laws in stone. He says, but I will take my finger, that same finger that wrote in stone, and I will reach into your mind and I will write my laws there. Hold My hand. The more time you spend with Me, the more you will become like Me and learn to love the things that I love.

MARK: Shawn, it is interesting. God says He will write His law in our minds and in our hearts. He writes it in our minds so we know it, and He writes it in our hearts so we love it. And so we begin obeying Him spontaneously, because Jesus has changed our life. I love that passage in Philippians, chapter four, verse 13 that says (Philippians 4:13):

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

So, although the law presents a very high ideal, Jesus presents grace to transform our hearts and change our lives and to enable us to live to that ideal.

But what about when you fail?

SHAWN: Every time we fail, say we stand at the foot of the cross and we seek Jesus and we begin to understand, it is because I broke God's law that He is hanging there, and then we stumble and fall, we look at that cross again and we feel small. We say, there is no hope for a sinner like me.

God says in the very next verse in Hebrews, chapter 10, right after, it says God will write His laws in our heart and our minds. He says, "And there their sins and iniquities I will remember no more."

He says, "I can forgive. The blood of Christ covers you when you fall." And if any man falls, it says in First John, chapter two, we have an advocate with God the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous. We have somebody who is perfect who steps in between and says, "This child is mine and I am busy working with them and they have stumbled and fallen, but that's ok. My blood covers their mistake."

MARK: God has an ideal, His law as an absolute moral standard of society. But when we fail, His grace is there to forgive us, to pick us up and to lead us back to live that obedient life.

SHAWN: What more could you ask for? A God who loves us and sets His standard that protects us, and when we stumble and fall does not push us away, but picks us up and helps us on our way again.

MARK: Amen. You know, our society is wracked with crime, ripped apart by violence and riddled with immorality.

Each year 1.7 million Americans are victims of violent injuries and over 3 million more violent crimes are reported where one victim is accosted but not injured. For every two marriages recorded in county records, there is one divorce. The growing epidemic of social problems shouts loudly that this generation is headed for moral collapse.

God has something much better for us. He said in John, chapter 10 and verse 10 (John 10:10 NKJV):

"...I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly."

Jesus came to give us life in "super abundance." He longs for us to live a life filled with incredible joy. He longs for us to be happy and fulfilled, to live productive, satisfied lives.

The Psalmist declares in chapter 16 and verse 11 (Psalm 16:11 NKJV):

"You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore."

Then He adds in Psalm, chapter 119 and verse 32 (Psalm 119:32 NKJV):

"I will run the course of Your Commandments, for You shall enlarge my heart."

Obedience to God is not narrow-minded bigotry. It does not restrict our freedom. It does not narrow our joy.

A commitment to God "enlarges our heart." It opens new vistas of incredible joy. It presents us with opportunities for amazing happiness.

Obeying God is a step of faith. It is saying, "God, I trust you. You have written the moral code of the universe. You know more about making me happy than I know about making myself happy. I surrender to your will. I leave my happiness in your hands. I choose to obey you because in obeying you I'm absolutely confident that you always have my best interests in view."

Would you like to make that commitment to God right now? Would you like to open your heart to the God of the universe as we bow our heads with Shawn as he prays?

PRAYER:
Father, what a delight to discover that we are not on our own in this world. That you have put a guardrail on the highway of life. Something to guarantee us joy and happiness. And yet today, as we look into your law, that mirror, we see that we have fallen short of your glory. We have fallen short of your standard, and we have broken your moral requirements. In our hearts, we sense that we need to make this right today. And what a relief to discover that not only have you provided that guardrail on the highway of life, you have also provided something for those that have broken it, which is each one of us.

Lord, reach into our hearts and our minds. Write your law there. Today, we promise you that we would like to hold your hand and have you guide us through life, so that we could come to the close of our lives with no regrets, but a clear picture of the love of God in our hearts. Bless each one today. Take us, we ask, and guide us through life. Keep our eyes focused on Jesus Christ. For we pray it in His beautiful name, amen.

Scriptures Used in “Broken Barometers”

"...I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly."
—John 10:10 NKJV

"You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore."
—Psalm 16:11 NKJV

"I will run the course of Your Commandments, for You shall enlarge my heart."
—Psalm 119:32 NKJV