Questions & Answers: Christian Ethics

Today on Renewing Your Mind. We can fight, we can protest, we can oppose, we can vote for and vote against, we can remain steadfastly committed to our principles in the world. But at the end of the day, progressives and progressivism always wins.

Because conservatives always have to move their way in order to compromise, in order to be considered nice. What we have to make sure of is that it doesn't creep into the church. That's Dr. Burke Parsons addressing one of the many questions that our teaching fellows and speakers fielded during our 2022 Ligonier Ministries National Conference. Our theme was upholding Christian ethics. So the questions focused on some of the challenging issues that we face in a world that is increasingly hostile to biblical Christianity. So let's dive into some of those questions now.

Our moderator is Ligonier's President and CEO, Chris Larson. Does God ever approve of dishonesty? It's a general question, but to narrow it down, was Rahab's dishonesty approved by God in Joshua 2? Yeah, so what I think sometimes we look at in the text as a falsehood, actually at times would not be a falsehood if we knew more about the text. For instance, the midwives are always thrown out as that. Well, I think if you do a little bit more deep dive into the text and you understand how many midwives there would be and who were the midwives and etc. I think what they're saying is by the time when I'm not saying that they aren't finding the ways to clutter their calendar that they didn't get there at the delivery point.

But there, in fact, they would deliver quicker than they could get there for various reasons. And I think they're taking a valid point and making it. And so I think sometimes when we claim that there is a falsehood there, I'm not sure that we understand the context.

I would at least put that out as a beginning point. So if they come to me and say to me in World War II, do you have any Jews in your house? Well, I know what they're asking me. They're not saying all that they're asking me. They're asking me, do you have any Jews in your house for me to kill? And the answer is no. I don't have any Jews in the house for you to kill. I may have some Jews in the house, but they're not here for you to kill. I work for a large company that is liberal and increasingly progressive in its policies, especially concerning so-called diversity and inclusion initiatives. As a Christian, it seems as though my worldview is completely unwelcome, and I wonder on a practical level how one should gauge whether to stay and resist by being a light in the darkness or whether to shake the dust from my sandals and move on. Do they work in an evangelical church?

That wasn't disclosed. So I think for some people, the decision might very well be made for them, and that may be sooner than later. I've interacted with a lot of folks who have faced this.

I know you have too, Chris. Even folks who are in leadership positions in corporations where in the last two years they have seen a radical shift in the corporate culture, and they have felt the pressure. This is something that's probably going to continue to increase.

It's not necessarily going to diminish. And it's, of course, incumbent on the individual to work through their own context and in their own context what is best for them, what is best for their family. And they are responsible for their conscience before God. This is what we all enjoy about the Westminster divines and the liberty of conscience as a key piece to what they were about. But I think the reality is that in some corporations, that decision might actually be made for you to force your hand to condone or endorse something that is not aligned with your convictions and force you to be a part of it. And at that point, I think we who in the American church context have enjoyed a relationship with our culture that has been one of friendly and even perhaps in our favor to be Christian, we are probably needing to recognize that there is a cultural shift to there.

We may very well find ourselves either experiencing physical persecution, but if you go back into the pages of the New Testament, it wasn't just physical persecution that they suffered, it was also economic persecution that they suffered because of their convictions and how out of step the early Christians were with their Roman counterparts and in their Roman culture. And that may very well be where we are headed. Yeah, I think we as the church in the United States are really beginning to see for the first time in a sweeping way just how much the world does hate us.

And it's a surprise for a lot of people. I mean, Mike, you've been living with us for, you know, most of your life in the UK. Most of the Christians throughout the continent of Europe have been living like this for a long time. Now it's come to our shores and we are going to find ourselves persecuted. We're going to be accused of hate speech for speaking the truth in love. We're going to be accused of being obstinate and intolerant simply because we're striving to proclaim the gospel of Christ and the exclusivity of Jesus Christ. We'll be considered bigoted.

We'll be considered just difficult to get along with. We're beginning to face what many of the Christians faced even in the early centuries of the church. And so it shouldn't be a surprise to us. Persecution shouldn't be a surprise to us.

Yet that doesn't mean we cease to shine as a light to the world. This next question is related. And Dr. Reeder, I'm imagining that's going to follow on some things that you were saying earlier today.

I am in grad school and will graduate next year as a dentist regarding ethics and medicine. How should a young Christian in public medical education navigate these times where even the God designed anatomical differences between male and female are being redefined and blurred as a result of mandated inclusion and diversity training? Yeah, some of this actually migrates, my answer is going to migrate a little bit back to the previous discussion about, you know, the blessing of the Lord and Rahab and the midwives.

I think you have to remember, if I can just say something, and now when I say it this way, I'll migrate the other way. When the Lord blesses, other than the work of Christ himself, there's always a mixed bag. Now, I'll acknowledge the Bible doesn't say much negative about Joseph and Daniel, but it's not that the Lord blesses.

That means everything was done perfectly in a perfect way with attitude, et cetera, et cetera. We've all got feet of clay, and the Lord draws straight lines through crooked sticks. And so when you're reading through the text and watching what the Lord is doing, he is always ruling and overruling our imperfections and using us for his purposes. I mean, I pastor a lot of people that talk to me about this all the time, and we work our way through it. So here's where I draw the line with them, and I said, now you have to work through your own conscience and its sensitivities from here. If they're drawing you in to participate, propagate, celebrate, or promote something, that's a different story, you have to say no. I cannot participate, I cannot propagate, I cannot perpetuate it, and I certainly can't celebrate it.

I can't enter into that. But I am not ultimately responsible for everything that that corporation where I'm working is. Anymore when I go down and buy groceries somewhere and they've got some questionable policies that they're doing, I'm not supporting that just because I'm participating by buying something from them. Now, if I am engaged in what they're doing, that's a different story at that point. So I think that you have to, when you make that decision of employment or engagement in a business, that you have to draw the line in that I cannot promote it, I cannot participate in it, and I cannot perpetuate it. And so I can't do that.

I think overall, in the culture, we need to pray through it, we need to think through it, because the first steps of persecution are never assaults directly upon the lives of believers, but usually the livelihoods of believers. And so that's where you have to be willing to lose the job to be faithful to Christ. And I can't be willing to participate in something that's unfaithful to Christ, simply not to lose the job. But where I draw the line in our beginning conversation is, do I have to enter into the act and promote the act and participate in the act in the business? Then I have to draw the line at that point.

I hope that's clear. It might be worth saying on this issue, just thinking as a historian, in the early church, many of the issues that we're facing today were faced in fantasized slavery. Almost total absence of any valuing of marriage in Roman culture was widespread. And these were some of the factors that made the church extraordinary in its culture. The valuing of marriage, the valuing of even lives that had not yet proved by performance their outward merit. And it's evident that the way the church lived differently was part of its shining light of witness. And so it's just interesting to see, for example, the number of female converts in the second and third centuries in a culture where marriage and femininity was not valued and affirmed.

You see the amount of converts there, so there's some encouragement there from church history that the church has been here before and through its faithfulness in such difficult situations has shone as a light that has even attracted people to its good way of life. Chris, this question about the corporation and the progressive policies and so on, I think it's important that we remember that we're not going to win this battle in our culture. We can fight, we can protest, we can oppose, we can vote for and vote against, we can remain steadfastly committed to our principles in the world, but at the end of the day, progressives and progressivism always wins because conservatives always have to move their way in order to compromise, in order to be considered nice.

And so that's why progressives and progressivism always wins in this world. And so in the end, we're not going to fix it, we're not going to undo it, we're not going to go back half a century. What we have to make sure of is that it doesn't creep into the church. How can we use creeds and confessions in a godly way, one that is safe and not destructive? Creeds and confessions have been adopted by the church because, let's take the Nicene Creed as a first one. The heart of the Nicene Creed is the statement that we believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, begotten not made of one being with the Father. That's not a sentence to be found in scripture.

And that was the point. It was seeking to bring together the big scriptural picture of the son's relationship with his father and articulate it in such a way that you cannot simply throw proof texts out, you cannot simply try to use biblical language and deny the great biblical truth. And so those who were writing the Nicene Creed were saying, we need to have a way to be able to articulate biblical truths for our time for the sake of the particular threats that we're meeting. And so the Nicene Creed was the first example, but we see these are opportunities, creeds and confessions, to helpfully bind ourselves to a faithful articulation of biblical truth. And they are often done in response to misunderstandings and false teaching. And through false teaching in the church, through heresy, God has continually enabled his church to grow in clarity in responding to the false teaching. And that's what creeds and confessions do. As we recite the creed together, as we recite a confession together, we're together binding ourselves to the truth to say God has spoken, he's spoken undebatable words, and together we will confess it and nail our colors to that mast in a way that cannot be misunderstood. Yeah, I would say, you know, we think that our screens are something new.

Actually, they're not. If you go into most 18th century churches, you'll find that when you look up front, there'll be three screens. Now, they didn't have PowerPoint, but they had three screens. You'd find the Apostles' Creed on one, you'd find the Law of God on one, you'd find the Lord's Prayer on the other. Those were the three essential texts that was used in the foundations of discipleship in the lives of believers.

And so they kept them in front. Secondly, they were instruments of worship. So they were used for discipleship, used for worship.

And then thirdly, they were used as a distillation of biblical truth. So I think the way you don't want to use it wrongly is don't make it the Bible. It's not the Bible. It is a distillation of the Bible, which means it's okay to update the language. You can change doth to does, and you have not violated anything of eternal significance. So you can update the language, and they are not, the Bible alone is inerrant, infallible, and sufficient.

They are not sufficient. So you can continue to take a look so something needs to be added to the creed. So you get an Apostles' Creed, and then you move to a Nicene Creed, and then we get the Westminster Confession, which I'm fine if we don't ever add to that at all. I'm fine with it.

I love it. But now let me give you the other piece. The last thing I want to say, this gives you true freedom. As I said in my talk this morning, the world is cloaking its sin in freedom, which is autonomy, self-rule.

It's not freedom in the sense of emancipating people to do that which is right and as defined as right. So I see the creeds and confessions. Let me put it this way. We live on a hill, and there's a 1,500-foot drop on the other side. Our yard is 20 yards, and then a 1,500-foot. Now, when my grandchildren come over to play in the backyard, how much of that backyard do you think they get with their grandmother standing there? About five yards of that 20. That's all they get.

But if I would break down, shed my Celtic background, and buy a fence and put it at the edge of the yard, how much would they then get? You see, that's why I love the confession. It's not binding. It's freeing. It actually gives me the room I want that I need. The confession is that fence out there that keeps us from theological aberrations and adultery, denial, or today's progressive word, deconstruction.

It keeps me from that. Now, I've got all kinds of room to work with biblical truth, and that's the way I think. So, in other words, the best way not to use it wrongly is use it rightly. Worship, discipleship, and ordination, development, and governing of the preaching of God's Word within the standards that honor the whole counsel of God, but only God's Word is God's Word. We don't have a lot of time left in this session, but I want to end with this question. It's so important.

This comes up often at our conferences and these Q&As. Why does it feel like I'm warring against myself, deciding on whether I am saved or not? How can I confirm that I am truly saved? The first answer to that question is, do you have faith in Jesus Christ? For those who have faith in Christ are given many, many assurances in Scripture. And so there's the first thing to ask, do you have faith in Jesus Christ? Those who have faith in Jesus Christ may be assured. But there is a second stage, but this needs to be kept in order. And the second stage is to ask, is your life beginning to exhibit the fruit of a heart that has been turned and led by the Holy Spirit?

Are you beginning to see evidence of that? Because that will show the Spirit at work in you that by the Spirit you're calling Jesus Lord, by the Spirit you're beginning to be transformed into Christlikeness. And those who must not be flipped around, you don't look for your assurance primarily by looking at yourself. You get your assurance from looking to Christ. But there is an additional level of assurance which also stops us from thinking I can have a bare faith in Christ, which is merely I'm able to sign a bit of paper, officially say I've trusted in Christ, but there isn't actually any active leaning upon him. And so the second level of it just protects us from that to make sure that the faith in Christ we have is real and evidence of a transformed heart. You know, the Reformers talked about the internal witness of the Holy Spirit. You see this in 1 John. These things have been written that you would know that you have eternal life.

There is a certainty there. But then when they talked about assurance, now we're back to the Confession. The Confession even speaks of assurance waxing and waning. And it does seem to be tied to one's living of the Christian life, that waxing and waning, neglecting the fellowship of the saints, neglecting time of prayer, neglecting time in God's Word, one may begin to feel their assurance waning. And that is very much the provocative work of the Holy Spirit to encourage one to get back to the fellowship of the saints and the times of prayer and the reading of the Word. But there is that sense in which, if you're struggling with this, make 1 John a study and read through 1 John and see that the emphasis there is not doubt.

The emphasis there is that you may know. And then as you grow in the Christian life and that sense of assurance. Yeah, I think if I can maybe put it this way, which is really just repeating what both of you just said. I take them to John 6, 47. Jesus said, Truly, truly, he who believes in Me has eternal life.

Truly, truly is, I mean, I mean. And I said, you know, isn't it wonderful? You have to listen to Me preach and figure out, can I say, Amen? But when Jesus preaches, He puts the Amen at the front, because you know that so be it forever.

And so that's what He says. He who believes in Me has eternal life. I said, do you believe that? I said, well, there's your assurance, Jesus can't lie.

All of the truths are yes and amen in Him. What you're really asking Me is not assurance does Jesus save you. You're really asking Me, do I have saving faith? That's what you're really asking Me. Because the devil believes and he's not saved.

That's what you're really asking Me. And I'm not going to put you down for asking that, because saving faith is not the act of a moment. Saving faith is the acquisition of a lifestyle. Faith and repentance are not momentary acts. They are a walking relationship, living, robust, vital relationship with Christ. Now, let's look at the evidences of saving faith.

Can I give you the first one? Is you're examining yourself. When you don't have saving faith, you never examine yourself.

But when you do, you do. Do I believe? Secondly, when you believe, do you believe in Christ? I mean, here's what Paul said about his saving faith in Christ.

He's about to die. Last thing he says is, I suffer these things, and I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him against that day. Saving faith is personal.

Six times he uses the word I. Saving faith is personal. Saving faith is rational.

I know. Saving faith is emotional. I'm convinced. Saving faith is volitional. I put my trust in him. And saving faith has only one object. It's not faith. It's Christ. I know not what I believed, not when I believed, not that I believed. I know whom I have believed, and he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him.

That's Dr. Harry Rieder, one of the speakers who participated in this Q&A panel from our 2022 Ligonier National Conference. We're glad you've joined us for Renewing Your Mind on this Friday. I'm Lee Webb, and all week we brought you sessions that focused on upholding Christian ethics. That was our theme for this conference, and I think we all came away encouraged and better equipped to live with Godly integrity. That's one of the reasons we exist as a ministry.

We are committed to serving listeners like Connie. I started listening to Renewing Your Mind about 12 years ago. I went into my church library to find some material that I could study during the week, and I came across the R.C. Sproul old cassette tapes, and I started to listen to the Romans series. I hadn't grown up in a Christian home, so I was a fairly new Christian, and I had stumbled across some teaching that was prosperity gospel and not true to the Word of God. I was confused on a lot of things, and I'm just so thankful for Ligonier Ministry and R.C.

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