What happens if you speed and get caught? You get a $200 ticket right? What happens if you cheat on a test and get caught? You get a zero right? What if you cheated and your teacher took $200 from you? Why isn't this just? There must be an underlying "idea" of justice that makes it just to get a zero for cheating but unjust to get a ticket. Where did that come from? Why is it unjust? Because you say so? Because society says so?

Morals either have to come from an objective source or a subjective source. An objective law is a law that's true for everybody in all times in all places. If there is an objective moral law, there must be a source for that law. If morals do not have a source, then theft, murder and rape cannot be considered as bad things. The other option is that morals come from a subjective source. Subjective means that what is right can change, depending on where the idea comes from.

So morals have to come from somewhere but where? If people by themselves pick their own morals then a person could say that torturing innocent babies for pleasure was okay. Why does that idea seem vile and repulsive? Because it is an objective moral law. Absolutely no rational person would agree to this.

Others say that this moral law comes from our environment and society. If this is true, then the Nazis have to be good, upstanding, moral people because they did just what their society said to do. When the Nazis began going door to door looking for Jews, if you believed that morals came from society, not only would you be obligated to turn in any Jewish friends or relatives to their deaths, if you didn't, you would be an evil person!! Humans in general are not good with coming up with their own moral code. The only real way you can justify getting mad at your teacher is if there is some standard you can hold her to that is true for both of you. This standard can't be from society or yourself. Morals don't come from individuals or our own logic; our thinking can be messed up. Morals don't come from society; societies change, and a society can practice evil against a group of people. Objective morals can only come from something, or Someone, that transcends all time and culture. If the source of morality is an eternal, intelligent Being, that would be God.

The bad news is that we as humans don't live up to God's standard. However, because He loved us so very much, He sent His own Son to die and to take our punishment, death and separation from God forever. He paid the ticket. Jesus took the zero.

No matter your crime or mess-up or failure or however bad of a place you may be in, all you have to do is to tell the Judge you accept His free gift, turn over your life, including the evil you did, to Him, and you walk. You will be God's child, belonging to Him, but in the service of God is ultimately the only true freedom.

For more info please contact Christian Debater™ P.O. Box 144441 Austin, TX 78714 www.BibleQuery.org