The Philosophy of Relativism

1. IS A BELIEF BASED ON THE PRESUMPTION THAT THERE ARE NO MORAL ABSOLUTES. The Philosophy of Relativism

2. This philosophy believes that the moral codes of a society are dependent on the will and circumstances of any given society at any given time and place.

3. This means that society can change its moral codes, its laws, by public pressure upon governments to do so.

4. This would allow immoral people to turn their sinful and anti-social conduct, their wrongs, into rights by being vocal enough to encourage their society's leadership to change the criminal code in their favour.

5. This philosophy rose to prominence around 1850 and was soon being taught in universities in the United States and, eventually, around the world.

6. This is a time concurrent with substantial intellectual criticism of the Bible (#1) which attacked the Bible's accuracy, Godly origin, the divinity of Jesus and the moral absolutes the Bible espouses.

7. What most people do not realize is that if the foundational beliefs of relativism are projected, or followed, to their logical conclusion, we end up with moral decay and anarchy, not peace.

8. The Ten commandments, the moral code of Leviticus, the multitude of other Old Testament commandments and all of Jesus' teachings would all be invalidated.

9. It is not a beautiful thing to envision. On the other hand: Numbers 23:191 Samuel 15:29 Isaiah 26:4 Isaiah 46:4 Malachi 3:6 Psalm 12:6-7 Psalm 33:11 Psalm 102:26-27 Matthew 5:18 Matthew 24:35Romans 1:22-23Romans 11:29Hebrews 1:10-12Hebrews 5:17-18Hebrews 7:24Hebrews 13:8James 1:17 (#2), (#3)

10. The above passages are but 18 of a multitude of such statements, to be found throughout the Bible, declaring the absolute unchangeability of God. He does not change Himself. He does not change His mind.

11. Everything about God is absolutely unchangeable. Immutable. Steadfast and trustworthy. A dozen and a half passages should be enough to indicate the importance of this concept. Why?

12. Biblical truth is not necessarily to be found in a single passage saying: "It is written..." because a single passage can be taken out of context and be corrupted and twisted into saying just about anything.

13. The truth is to be found in multiple passages saying: "it is written and again it is written" and in this case: "and again it is written... and again it is written... and again it is written..."; because multiple passages saying the same thing cannot be corrupted.

14. We can most assuredly trust 18 passages that all proclaim an identical message. We can be sure of the FACT that God does not change and we can be sure of why this is so important to us.

15. If God was not unchanging, we could not be sure of having our prayers heard, let alone answered, because we could not be sure of whether or not He was going to honour His promises to do so on any given day.

16. In the same way, what certainty would we have that our faith will lead us to salvation?

17. What motivation would we have to live according to God's will in hope of attaining Heaven? I, for one, am overjoyed by God's steadfast unchangeability.(#4)

18. If God was to keep changing the rules for living a righteous life, doing so would be like shooting at a distant, fast moving target. God's immutability places the target close by, large and solidly stationery.

19. This truth will be as it was yesterday, as it is today and as it will be tomorrow. It is a better deal for mankind from a generous and loving God.

20. In the 2,000 years since Jesus returned to Heaven, mankind has still not mastered the commandments contained in the Bible. Frequently changing the rules would not make doing so any easier.

21. Eliminating some or all of them would not get God's goals accomplished and without the accomplishment of those goals salvation is not possible.

22. Again, it is necessary to state that those who wish to have the rules change do so in an attempt to ease their guilt over their conduct and lifestyle, by making it technically no longer immoral in the eyes of the world,

23. rather than by doing the more difficult act of changing themselves to conform with God's will. Proverbs 16:25 states: "There is a way that SEEMS (#5) right to a man, but its end is the way of death (#6)". Think this through carefully. Read Psalm 14 and think deeply.

24. God's rules that we are talking about are the 613 commandments of the Old Testament. Relativists complain that they are too many and to difficult and that makes relativism easier.

25. The absurdity in this is that no one is subject to all 613 because some apply to women, some to men, some to male children, some to female children, some to parents, some to priests, some to Levites,

26. many apply to temple worship, many apply to sacrifices, many apply to dressing like a Hebrew, many apply to Kosher eating, and many apply to a multitude of possible Holy days which we call holidays.

27. So, examine just who you are very closely and determine how many apply to you - not too many I would bet!

28. On an number of occasions I have encountered the statistic that in 2002 there were 2.2 million laws on the books in the United States. I doubt that Canada is much different.

29. Given all of this, I ask you consider which way would be easiest: God's way of 613 or the relativists way of 2.2 million?

30. Sadly, it is far too late for a switch to occur and since we will not be able to live in a Godly state we must endure living in a progressively worsening police state.

31. The Philosophy of Relativism has led to the philosophy of "Legal Positivism" which takes the concept of no moral absolutes into the justice system and results in 5 major beliefs:

32. There are no objective, God given standards of law(?), or, if there are, they are irrelevant(?) to the modern legal system.

33. b) Since God is not the author of law(?) the author must be man; in other words, a law is a law simply because the most powerful human authority, usually the government, has said it is the law and is able to back up its declaration with force if need be.

34. c) Since man and society evolve, therefore the law must evolve as well. d) Judges, through their decisions, guide the evolution of law. e) To study law, get at the original sources of law, the judges.

35. One has only to watch the news on TV, or read a newspaper, to see legal positivism at work in our courts of law and within our society today.

36. The ridiculous decisions handed down, by judges, that defy all logic, and often God's Will, and the seriously inappropriate sentences handed down on those found guilty, are nearly always impossible to reconcile with the teachings of the Bible.

37. As with the philosophy of Relativism, the philosophy of Legal Positivism, if left unchecked, will lead to moral decay and anarchy. As we go about our daily lives it is not difficult to see this happening with alarming consistency.

38. Relativism and Legal Positivism have led to the philosophy of Progressive Christianity, which, by drawing on the beliefs of relativism and legal positivism, allow for Christian concepts, the teachings of Jesus,

39. to change according to the changes in society's moral values so that a Christian's moral beliefs do not leave them in conflict with the society in which they live(#7).

40. Actually, making Christians different from, and in conflict with, the rest of the world was the whole point to Jesus' mission here: that through witnessing what Christians have: joy, hope, peace and salvation; the rest of the world would want Jesus too.(John 3:16-17.)

41. I would again draw your attention to the 18 of many passages in the Bible which state that God is not going to change His mind about anything and the reasons this is so essential to practicing Christians.

42. Christianity does not need to progress and cannot change because God got it right the first time, as He always does.

43. Christianity does not need to progress and cannot change because God, the foundation of our faith, is not going to change.

44. He has set down the values, Jesus has restated and endorsed them and the Holy Spirit, who was sent to all believers, even today, to guide us along God's righteous path to salvation, will keep moving us onto Jesus' "narrow way" which does not change.

45. I would also draw your attention to Matthew 5:17-20 and Luke 16:17. ******  What can progress through change, in Christianity, is Christians.

46. Through Bible study we will come to know what God expects of us and we can, through effort, and the help that God promises, change our lives to conform to His will.

47. Yes, it will take effort, and yes, we will become noticeably different from the society that surrounds us. This would be what God has asked of His followers since Abraham.

48. In achieving this, Christians would be raising the standards of society rather than having the world around us lower our standards through the application of relativism, legal positivism and progressive Christianity.

49. We have the God given gift of choice to work with. We can chose the  moral absolutes of God as presented in the Bible or we can chose to live without  moral absolutes

50. as presented by our increasingly relativistic society. In making our choice it is important to consider:  Joshua 24:15  Acts 5:29   Romans 16:17-18  Colossians 2:8