Past Principal Points
Violence & the Value of Life
In recent years we have all been horrified by the increasing violence in our society. It seems every year brings news of some new mass slaying, often of children by children. It is not limited to the US by any means, although they have suffered some of the worst. Closer to home the Garroch family of Calgary, and the Laing family of Taber have their own nightmares of children going off to school and being murdered there. It seems incomprehensible to most of us, but in reality it is simply the outworking of a value system which is finally coming to show its true nature in all its ugliness.
In the latter half of the nineteenth century and the first third of this one, society was rocked by the notion that the Bible was not a reliable document that revealed the will of God to man.
First, there was Darwin which culminated in the infamous Scopes "Monkey Trial" of 1925 which opened the floodgates to the teaching of evolution in the schools. Second, there was the Fundamentalist/Modernist controversy raging amongst theologians who were divided over the question of Biblical inerrancy. This debate culminated in a split at Princeton Theological Seminary in which that once great seminary embraced the tenets of liberalism while the conservatives founded schools like Westminster and Grace which remained true to the authority of Scripture.How does the violence of today connect to these historical events, you may ask.
When my parents' contemporaries turned their back on the Bible as the inerrant, infallible, wholly trustworthy Word of God, they threw out the only source of reliable truth about the nature of man, the nature of God, the purpose of life, and the moral standards by which we should live. Initially, most people continue to live and believe in the principles revealed in the Bible. The Ten Commandments continued to be honored, and most people accepted the other teachings of Scripture as just plain common sense.However, as my generation (the baby boomers) came to adulthood in the 60's, we began to question why we should follow our parents' moral code. They would attempt to teach us right from wrong, but we would ask "Who says?" and without reference to the revealed will of God, they had no answer.
Once we discard revelation as a source of truth, all views are equally acceptable. Once we accept that humans are simply the accidental product of time plus chance, then all moral positions become equally acceptable.We now see the fruit of this in the generation currently coming of age. The baby boomers' parents discarded the source of truth, but still lived by its values and pass them on. The baby boom generation rejected the values because they lacked a foundation and didn't bother to pass them on. Now we are seeing the results of teaching children that there is no right and wrong. Now we are seeing the results of teaching them that humans evolved accidentally like monkeys or like plants. Therefore they are of no greater value than either.
When one of the educated elite of our culture, Dr. Henry Morgantaler can claim that he aborts children because he loves them, then you see how perverse our culture has become. The murderers among us are simply acting out the logical implications of what they have been taught. We can kill the unborn because they are not people, after all. And if we can kill children in the womb, why not kill them when they're older?
For anyone who has ears to hear and eyes to see, it is abundantly clear why we are experiencing so much wanton violence. It is equally clear that we will not be able to escape from it until we return to the God who made us and live according to His standards.
Copyright © 1998/99 Airdrie Koinonia Christian School Last Modified: 1999-11-3