Ethics are Entwined with Eschatology |
How we live today is to a large degree dependent upon how we view tomorrow. That view has a significant impact on how we make decisions and how we lead. Leadership that is without principles leads to precarious results. The ancient Greek dramatist, Sophocles, in his tragedy Electra (c.420 BC) concluded, "The end excuses any evil." The Roman poet Ovid wrote in Heroides (c.10 BC): "The result justifies the deed." In the modern world, this is what is called "consequentialism." Consequences are neither right nor wrong, they are simply the way it is. Shakespeare expressed it more eloquently - “Things are neither right nor wrong but thinking makes them so.” This way of thinking replaces the biblical belief of an absolute right and wrong with the subjective reasoning that the rightness of an action is based on whether the person committing it thinks the consequence or end result will be good. We see this hedonistic utilitarianism in The Prince, by Machiavelli (1513), who is sometimes called the father of political science. He wrote, in politics, “one must consider the final result.” I am afraid I see this view of truth and decision-making in operation today. When I was in college, the book Situational Ethics by Joseph Fletcher was all the rage for ethical consequentialism. Decisions were based on the situation you found yourself in, not on ultimate objective truth, and certainly not on God’s word. Christians must not give in to the utilitarian pragmatic view of truth no matter how difficult the situation. We must engage in principle-centered leadership and those principles must come from the inspired word of God. Perhaps you might ask, why is this important? Hear the words of sacred scripture: For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil. ~ Ecclesiastes 12:14 Therefore also we have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad. ~ II Corinthians 5:9-10 That is why. Serving Him with you until He comes for us, Fred |