Archive

Archive for the ‘good’ Category

Romans and the “Being Good Without God” Philosophy

January 14th, 2007

“All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”

(Romans 3:23)

The need to study Romans is tremendous. Why? One reason why Romans deserves to be studied and re-studied, is due to the resurgent philosophy of being good without God trend in the world today. Turn on any popular television talk show and you are very likely to hear about self-help, psychology, and theology, which elevates man to the position of being his own god (literally!) or, simply the non-relevance of God; or, the relativistic—that’s just your truth (Phil 2:9-11!); or, the contrived—freedom from religion, instead of freedom of religion (Col. 1:16-18).

This “Being good without God” philosophy is being advocated on many levels. A brief listing of some areas and examples of this include:

1. “Law = repression; decriminalization = freedom” (Ronald Beiner, “Foucault’s Hyper-liberalism,” Critical Review, Summer 1995, pp. 353-54). (See Romans 2:12, etc.).

2. Amorality instead of immorality (i.e. denial that moral absolutes should or do exist). (See Romans 1:28, etc.).

3. Autonomous man (see Jer. 17:9; Mk. 10:18; Rom. 3:9-18; etc.).

4. Ethics as social construct created by language, not God. (see Richard Rorty; Michael Foucault; Jacques Derrida; etc.) (see Romans 1:21, etc.).

5. Global Socialism and Multiculturalism. New standards to accommodate all of the anti-Christian elements of the world (United Nations; UNESCO; UNICEF; etc.) A politically correct world where all ideas, lifestyles, and religions are of equal philosophic value and any one god is not better than any other (see Acts 4:12; Rom. 6:15-23). All men are good (see Matt. 7:11), not evil!

The basic problem here may be seen in John 3:16—“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life”. If man may be good without God, why did Jesus die? If man just needs more human governmental agencies, then philanthropy, not the love of God, is what the world needs now. Yes, we need Romans now more than ever!

– Robert M. Housby

Categories: Bible, God, good, New Testament, Romans Tags: