In 1 Peter 5:8, we are told by the Apostle Peter that the enemy, Satan, is prowling
around like a lion looking for someone to devour. For someone that has been to
church most of his life, I have come to believe the assumption that Satan’s
dealings are easy to spot; however, it is quite the opposite. Like a lion looking for
prey, he is very subtle in his way of dealing with people. One way that attacks is
by persuading people to believe appealing views that subtly push us away from
the Gospel, like evolutionary ethicists. g According to McQuilkin, our ethical beliefs
have developed through evolution to help us survive and reproduce. Some
evolutionary ethicists emphasize that we think we have duties; however, there is
no real moral obligation behind those beliefs.1
One of the biggest problems with this way of thinking, especially in light of what
our society is facing, is that we can make the worth of human dignity a part of
God. Our culture likes to justify the absence of God based on the immorality
around us. The argument that a loving God would not allow so much injustice
around is constantly thrown around. I love how McQuilkin defuses this way of
thinking. He says, “It makes better sense to say that value came from value—not
that valuelessness produced value.”2 These are similar words to the one that
David coined when he wrote in Psalm 16:2, “I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord; I
have no good apart from you.” It is the realization that there is no value apart
from God.
In contrast, if we were to observe Satan's modus operandi, we would see how he
uses culture to persuade us to believe that dignity or value is found in things that
this world can give to us. We do not see our society recognizing that the cause of
all the problems around us is the absence of people believing in the Gospel, but
rather the absence of a righteous social system; that we do not have enough
people to advocate for people’s dignity, that dignity is found in fulfilling our
pleasure and desires, that doing what we love regardless of what it is can give us
dignity… the list can go on and on. The matter of fact is that what we truly lack
as a society is a belief in the Gospel. People need to recognize that without
Jesus, there is no dignity. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.
g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g
1 J Robertson Mcquilkin and Paul Copan,
An Introduction to Biblical Ethics :
Walking in the Way of Wisdom
(Downers Grove, Il: Ivp, An Imprint Of Intervarsity
Press, 2014), 180.
2 Ibid., 181.
