In many of our societal debates between Christians and the world we work hard to keep religion out of the debate. We want, for instance, to demonstrate that there is a God, but since the audience is not convinced of the Bible, we'll try to do it without reference to the Bible. We want to defend marriage, but since we understand that the world is not Christian, we do it without referencing God. In this latter, then, we'll try to demonstrate that "marriage means something" without demonstrating that it means something to God, because our world is not much concerned about what God thinks on the subject. So we keep God out of it and try to make our point without referencing Him. And it's easy to see why. All you have to do in a secular discussion is say, "Well, God says ..." and no one is listening anymore. The idea is, "Sure, your God, maybe, but that has no bearing on us."
I'm not sure of the value or wisdom of such an approach. And I don't plan to solve that here. What I am looking at is the danger to us when we do it. Think about it.
When we try to demonstrate that "Marriage has had a longstanding, traditional definition for millennia," for instance, we keep God out of it because they don't care what He thinks on the subject. However, the question is do we? The question is whether or not we recognize the truth. The truth is that marriage is (briefly) defined in the Bible as the union of two people put together by God. It's not true for Christians. It's true for everyone. So when an unbeliever weds an unbeliever, they are two people "whom God has joined" (Matt 19:6). Trying to wrench apart a union put together by God is just as devastating to one who doesn't believe it's true as one who does ... because it's true. The danger to us, then, is that we forget the point.
Pick a point, any point. We wish to defend the unborn against murder. Do we do it by saying, "We are made in the image of God and as His image bearers have value?" Or do we do it by explaining how illogical it is?
The problem on one hand, you see, is that the world is trying to build values on sand. No God; just whatever suits them. And then they try to apply their self-made values on everyone. Without cause. And we? We end up with the problem on the other hand. We're the ones with a reason for our values. God is the Originator. And we try to keep Him out of it.
The truth is that the truth is not dependent upon belief. "We don't believe in God" makes no difference to the question. He is. That's all there is to it. "We don't believe that it's all about God" doesn't really matter to the question. It is. That's all there is to it. We can try to have opinions supported by science and logic and all, and that's a good thing, but the bottom line is that God cannot be left out of it. He's the point. Any attempt on our part to acquiesce to His enemies to try to make our argument is simply ignoring the truth. And we're not relying on argument to make the point. That would be God's job.
3 comments:
It seems as if there is some agreement between those who try to argue a Christian perspective from logic, and those who ignore logic in order to accommodate their cognitive dissonance. God should be left out of the discussion.
Good luck with that by the way, for who try.
I suppose it makes sense from a secular perspective. "Your best argument should come from acceptable evidence and logic from both sides." But that discards 1) the biblical assurance that we will be hated by the world and 2) the biblical certainty that God is not left out of the equation. In a world governed by secular arguments, secular arguments make sense. We live in a world governed by God, so ...
Actually, one needn't bring up God at all. They'll surely do it for you, as they assume that all opposition to whatever it is they support is religiously based. It's easier to dismiss the religious as superstitious nuts than to argue against the legitimate secular points. At that point, I will offer to argue from that perspective if that's what they want to do, but then remind them that I never mentioned God in the first place. That forces them to focus on the secular arguments they believe do not exist in opposition to their position. From there they usually try to delete my comments, block my comments or just cast aspersions on me personally. That's unfortunate, as I'd prefer they stay legitimately engaged until one of us is persuaded from each of our positions to that of the other. Doesn't usually get that far.
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