Thinking Out Loud with Alan Shlemon - It All Comes Back to God

Episode Date: March 5, 2018

Alan talks about how every apologetic subject comes back to God and that often times it’s more prudent to discuss God’s existence rather than a secondary issue. Download the mp3...

There's a reason the Bible begins the way it does. Notice the very first verse in Genesis 1.1. It says, In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now notice, God is there before anything begins. He starts it all. Without him there would be nothing. The universe and everything in it is his kingdom.

He's the king and it's his domain. Now, the rest of the Bible that follows from that verse is predicated on the idea that there is a God. Every creature is his. Every natural law is his. Every moral truth is his. And without him, we have no foundation for our theology, our ethics, or our values. And so everything can be traced back to him. Now, notice this has significant implications for what we believe. Nothing makes sense without

first acknowledging God exists and has made all things. And remembering that can help us better understand discussions with people who don't share our religious convictions. Now, I often find myself talking to skeptics about morality, and they are astonished that I would uphold certain sexual ethics, for example. And so, in one sense, I can understand their bewilderment, right? Biblical morality can appear archaic or unnecessarily limiting if it just seems to be without just cause. If there's a God who made us, though, then his moral rules are timeless, relevant, and justified. And this is why it's often pointless to try to justify a sexual ethic on its own merit

when talking to a skeptic or non-believer. If you want to show that the ethic is good, you can predicate its reasonableness on the existence of God. And that's because all things come back to God. And let me offer you a few examples of what I'm talking about. So take the subject of abortion, for example. Christians believe that abortion is a serious moral crime because it kills an innocent human being. Now, many non-Christians believe abortion is morally permissible, and they're mystified as to the reason why we would hold our view. But if you think about it, abortion is wrong because

there's a God who says human life is intrinsically valuable. Therefore, the wrongness of abortion is ultimately grounded in the existence of God. Without Genesis 1-1, there's no God, no one is made in his image, and there's nothing wrong with killing an innocent human being. And as you can see with abortion, or really any other bioethical issue, it all comes back to God. Take another example, the subject of homosexuality. Here again, Christians believe that homosexual behavior is a sin. Now, most people in our society, however, vigorously disagree with us. And so conversations on this subject can result in this, I don't know, fruitless back and forth.

We say, well, homosexuality is wrong. And they say, no, it's not. And we say, yes, it is. No, it's not. And you just kind of go back and forth. But this matter, though, also comes back to God. See, one could ask this. If you believed there was a God who created and designed us, who invented sex for men and women, and communicated his plan to humanity, would it matter to you what he said about homosexuality?

Now, if you ask this and they don't agree, then no discussion about the morality of homosexual behavior will matter. After all, they don't even grant that the God who made us, even if they believed in him, would have the authority to guide their thinking on the subject. If, however, they believe it would matter what God said if he existed, then perhaps a discussion about God would be logically prior to a discussion about what he said about sex or homosexuality. The point I'm making here is that our sexual ethics are ultimately predicated on God's existence. If there is no God, then there are no morals to tell us how to conduct sexual expression. Again, it all comes back to God. And I'll just give you one final example on the topic of whether Jesus is the only way. Now, the Christian claim here is that Jesus is the only way to heaven,

and this claim is offensive to many non-Christians. And we're told it's arrogant to suggest that other religions aren't also legitimate paths to God. Now, notice the claim that Jesus is the only way is not a man-made claim. Christians didn't think of it. It was actually Jesus who boldly proclaimed in John 14, 6, he said, I'm the way and the truth and life. No one comes to the father except through me. So Christians are just simply following his teaching. As you can see, even the exclusiveness of Jesus comes back to God. If there's only one God, then he alone determines the terms to enter heaven. If he decides that everyone must be pardoned and the only way to receive a pardon is to become Jesus's disciple, then that becomes the

only way to heaven. If there were another God, then perhaps there would be other terms. But since only one God exists, there's only one way. Now, recognizing that our beliefs and values all come back to God reminds us that he is our foundation. It all starts with the first verse, in the beginning, God, and then all things follow from there. Now, there are also some practical ramifications, because sometimes we get

distracted by the details of our faith when we're talking to people who don't share our convictions and we end up debating secondary issues and I don't mean unimportant ones but we end up debating secondary issues. Instead sometimes we need to back up and talk about the more foundational belief that there's a God and everything is ultimately grounded in him.