Proverbs 29.18
“Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast-off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law.”
We live in a time when many people have rejected the reality that God has spoken to man truthfully and objectively in the verbal propositions of scripture. Even worse, some go so far as to say that objective truth doesn’t even exist; they claim that all truth is subjective.
The consequence of the rejection of the objective, revealed truth of scripture is titanic. Without objective truth, there is no basis or reference point for morality or law. There are no objective categories to explain why some things are right and some things are wrong. Whether people realize it or not, this is modern man’s great dilemma.
When there is no objective reference point for what is true, we are left only with arbitrary standards set by whatever group has the most political power or persuasive influence. It should come as no surprise that there is so much “fake news” today. It isn’t truth that people seek, but whatever narrative supports their interests and preferences.
Francis Schaeffer provides great insight into the modern dilemma. He wrote that if one abandons the Christian solution — that is, if a person rejects the absolutes and universals that are possible because God speaks objective truth in the Bible — then there are three (and only three) possible alternatives for the standards of right/wrong.
The first is radical individualism, that is, every individual believes and does whatever he wants to do. Each person lives by his/her own subjective standards. This is the rule of self, and it quickly degenerates into anarchy and chaos.
The second is the rule of 51 percent. This is the authority of the majority, and it produces shifting and arbitrary moral standards that are derived by what the majority can be persuaded or manipulated to support.
The third is an elite or dictator — that is, some form of authoritarianism wherein an elite minority, or an autocrat, tells society what is right/wrong.
If you do not have an absolute that resides somewhere, to which you can appeal, it will lead to one these three positions. And none of them provide a stable foundation for a society or guidance for every day life and work.
The reality is that there are objective standards of right and wrong. There is objective truth. It is imperative, therefore, that Christians speak the truth and practice the truth in every area of our lives.
