Who's in Charge?

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Who's in Charge?

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If you are the ultimate authority in your life, how can you deny me or anyone else that same right?

Can we each make up our own rules of what is right and what is wrong?

Some believe there is an inherent ability in us to know right from wrong—and we do have a conscience (or at least most people do). But can we rely solely on our own conscience? What if my conscience says it's okay to do something you find abhorrent—or yours that I find abhorrent? Most people can agree that theft and murder are wrong and anything that harms another person, but who gets to decide what is ultimately harmful? Can I decide? Can you? How about philosophers or ministers, or the court system or politicians, etc? Can we all rally around some institution or person or organization and declare them the authority on what is right and what is wrong? If that were possible, wouldn't we have been able to do that for centuries and have avoided all the wars and crime and broken families and people?

We have a problem. Philosophers disagree, so which one would we choose? Religions certainly disagree! What politician do you trust to be the sole moral authority? Can you be trusted to be? Can I? We're in a quandary. How can there ever be peace between people if there is no absolute right and wrong? No absolute values? No absolute truth about what is holy and what is profane?

As much as we can most agree on some things—like don't do things that harm another person—we can't even agree on whether someone was harmed by, for example, abortion, adultery, fornication, Sabbath breaking.

There is someone who claims to have the right to be in charge—to be the true ultimate authority—who claims to own the universe and all things and claims to have created us and to be the One who will resurrect us after we return to dust. We have His book—the Holy Bible—in which we are told about his right to tell us how to live because He says He is our Father.

Isn't it obvious that we need a "referee"—a judge who gets to say what is holy or profane, what's good or bad, what's right or wrong? Who can we trust to be all of those things? I don't know of any human or humanly devised institution, so I choose God. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—the God who was willing to give his only begotten Son to die for my sins that had earned me the death penalty.

I choose God and his Word. How about you?

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