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Biblical Situation Ethics

BIBLICAL SITUATION ETHICS

                                  by Vernon D Cook


1. THE BASIC QUESTION
2. UNQUALIFIED ABSOLUTISM
3. CONFLICTING ABSOLUTISM
4. GRADED ABSOLUTISM
5. SCRIPTURAL SUPPORT FOR GRADED ABSOLUTISM
6. SITULATION ETHICS
7. SITUATION ETHICS: THE NEW MORALITY
8. THE GENERAL POSITION OF SITUATION ETHICS.
9. PARTICULAR EXPOSITIONS OF SITUATION ETHICS.
10. VALUES IN SITUATION ETHICS.
11. DISVALUES IN SITUATION ETHICS.
12. CONCLUSION



                THE BASIC QUESTION

Christians find themselves living in a society that all too often endorses moral relativism and postmodern thought under the pretext of “promoting tolerance.” Moreover, Christians themselves seem divided over why and how they are to be moral. While no one denies the presence of a “Law of Nature” – an inner feeling or impulse by which to judge actions as right or wrong – most people would not be able to tell you why it is rational to build a system of ethics around it. It is not, after all, grounded in anything but ourselves; and if you exclude the possibility of a Moral Law-Giver from the outset, then there is no real justification for following it. Norman L. Geisler, for his part, asks: “Can be a system of ethics be sustained apart from a belief in moral absolutes? And, can a belief in moral absolutes be sustained apart from a biblical world view?” It would appear that the answer to both these questions is no, if we wish to maintain a foundational and not merely pragmatic view of morality.

A belief in moral absolutes is necessary in order to promulgate an intellectually honest system of ethics. Peter Kreeft, a professor of philosophy at Boston College, has pointed out that “if I give one student a ninety and another an eighty, that presupposes that one hundred is a real standard.” Even atheists believe in an absolute standard, quite apart from any outward professions; for “when Gentiles, who do not have the law [of Moses], do by nature...