Absolutely!

I'm going down an old road today. In fact, it's as old as mankind. It starts there. It's an insidious thing that dominates every culture among every people, everywhere you can go. It's that old lie. It's that old promise that can never, ever be fulfilled. Here "it" is: moral truth is relative. Stated in other terms, there are no moral absolutes.

Someone said that a statement like, "There are no moral absolutes," is an absolute in and of itself and therefore contradicts its very premise that there are no moral absolutes. Whoever said that is a wise man or woman.

As I said, all this begins with Adam and Eve. There they were, living in perfect harmony, within a perfect garden, in perfect peace, with a perfect eco-system, and with nothing to fear. No lions roaming the area would have given thought to attacking them or any of the other animals in the garden. No poisonous spiders to bother them. No scorpions to attack them. Just peace, perfection, and a pleasant life.

They had one, and only one, prohibition: they could not take fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It was the one thing God placed off-limits to them. Along came the serpent, complete with his persuasive arguments that God was withholding something from them. Yes, God was depriving Adam and Eve of a special treat that this serpent knew they could have: the right to believe whatever they wanted. The right to be their own gods. Adam and Eve took the bait. They swallowed the lie, one that was sweet to the mind, but bitter to the spirit. And thus began the march of moral relativism.

If God and God's words are not absolutely true, why do we have prisons? Why are we dismayed and disgusted by the likes of Sen. Mark Foley? Why is Iran a problem for us? Why is Osama Bin Laden the bad guy? Why is Chavez or Castro a threat?

If God and God's words are not absolutely true, why does death sting us so? Why do we cave under the news that we or a loved one has a terminal disease? Why do we stop them from terminating their lives? Why is murder wrong? Why is pedophilia wrong?

If God and God's word is not absolutely true, then what I am doing somewhere in South America? Why do men and women launch out, seeking to influence others with the claims of Christ? Why not just live and let live?

But God is true. His words are true. And his solutions to life are true.

We need absolutes as surely as a navigator needs a compass. Without them, we have no clue where to go. We won't even know if we have arrived.

One college student said he did not believe in absolutes. His professor asked if the young man was sure. He replied, "Absolutely!"

May we be so quick to respond about God's absolutes!