But If God Isn’t There…Then?
by Tim Keller, Lead Pastor
It was the nineteenth century German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche who declared that God was dead and with His demise the end of morality. He held that sin was nothing more than an elaborate ruse invented by a band of religious zealots in order to control the souls of their flocks. He sought to charter a course for a future of supermen who would lead with the clenched fist and not with the guilt-ridden stain of God and religious morality.
With Nietzsche’s view firmly in their grip, a century later a group out of Germany called Nazis did nothing more than attempt to bring into existence the very concept that Nietzsche had espoused. The results were devastating and millions paid the ultimate price.
The residual of Nietzsche’s worldview continue to linger in the 21st century. Declaring that a loving God could not possibly allow the suffering and bloodshed that exists throughout the world, many have determined that Nietzsche was right and God must be dead. They believe that with the absence of a guilt-giving moral lawgiver, humanity is on the right path to achieving ultimate success in the fields of love and justice.
The only matters that they have seemed to miss are obvious to the objective bystander, but apparently not to the proponent; if God and His morality are no longer functioning two questions must be answered:
First, who gets to set the rules of the game? Even in a family-friendly game of Yahtzee there are a clearly defined set of rules about how many rolls you get and how many points a big straight is worth. Do we each get to decide for ourselves? No. The rules on the lid of the box apply to all.
So, without a God-given moral law (murder, stealing, lying, etc.), who gets to say what right behavior is and what is wrong behavior?
Recently I caught a statement on Facebook that a distant relative of mine had posted about how something regarding the mistreatment of animals was just so wrong. I happen to know that this young woman does not consider the Word of God to be binding on her in any way so I stuck my head in the noose and IM’d her with a simple question. “What determines that abusing an animal is wrong?” Her response was predictable, but disappointing for such a brilliant mind as she possesses. She wrote back and said that the standard was the law. It was the law created by Congress that made it morally wrong to abuse an animal. That was the ultimate standard.
I thanked her for her response and didn’t follow-up on the conversation. In my spirit, though, I rejoiced that she had not been born a black woman in 1860. For then the very same law she espoused as the moral guardian would have rendered her a piece of property without any rights.
The second question the Nietzsche philosophy must answer is this; if God and His invasive morality either no longer exist, or never did exist, from whence do all of the social problems we are facing come?
If there is no God, then all the evils history has recorded from Nero to Stalin, Hitler to Bin laden have only one source: humanity. Even without God, the death blow to the “we’re all essentially good” is demolished every time the news records another sexual predator has made a victim out of a child.
Many of the men and women you rub shoulders with on a daily basis have dismissed God from their worldview with the same flick of a finger they would use to drive away a mosquito. If we are going to reach them before it is too late, we’re likely going to have to get them to think through their position and see the flaws.
Combine those gentle conversations with a healthy dose of love and you have the recipe for the formation of a brand new disciple.
