"...Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" (Gen. 18:25, NKJV).
"So then each of us shall give account of himself to God" (Rom. 14:12, NKJV).
"For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself" (Romans 14:7, NKJV).
"... 'There is no accountability, since God does not exist'" (Psalm 10:4, HCSB).
If there is no God, man is not accountable--there's no Judge, no Lawgiver, no Executioner of final retribution and justice. The government would be the highest law, and standards would differ from state to state, subject to local opinion or custom. In short, man would be a law unto himself. Is responsibility a delusion then? If there is no God, all things are permissible, according to Dostoevsky! If there is no Judge, why worry about justice or answering to anyone. However, the whole system of Western government is based on the premise of natural or transcendent law from God given to man in his conscience, and, since we are in His image, we are mere stewards of God and accountable for His blessings and will be held to account at Judgment Day.
"Man has forgotten God," according to Solzhenitsyn, and the chief question and issue of our day, according to William Durant, is whether man "can live without God." Nietzsche said that God was dead, that we had killed Him, or that He was irrelevant if He does exist! To the unbeliever, God is in none of His thoughts, and even if there is a God, he lives as a practical atheist, or as though there is no God--this is the dilemma: Are Christians going to see the light and be the light, or let society rot and fall apart at the very foundations? The beauty of the church is the sense and reality of belonging to a family where we are concerned for each other and can share with each other our burdens, blessings, gifts, and talents. Man is not a law unto himself, however, so he can live with the morals of a beast if he chooses, even if he sees himself as one. (The purpose of government is to put a lid on and restrain evil in society, securing and maintaining our freedoms and rights--note that God confers our rights, and the government derives its power from the consent of the governed, and its main purpose is to keep evil at bay.)
However, God is not dead, He's more alive than ever before and will not die; He is the one who is there and we must reckon with Him, whether we want to or not. If there is no God, there are no absolutes either, and no standard of right and wrong beyond our subjective feelings. Many great atheists have tried to kill God or make Him irrelevant, but God lives on in men's hearts, for Christ founded a kingdom of hearts, not armies or wealth.
Man is too proud, however, to seek God and justifies himself and his sin. What does this worldview entail and what is the logical conclusion? We always invent a system of ethics that we feel or believe we can keep, and that doesn't condemn ourselves. If there is no God, man has no hell to shun, nor fear of a Day of Judgment, and there is no Lawgiver to tell us right from wrong--man is the highest being and we have no one to give an account of ourselves to.
In short, man is an animal and has the right to live like an animal morally. (Man then cannot be in the image of God, since there is no God, and therefore has no unique, intrinsic nor extrinsic dignity, the image of God implies a lot: not only dignity but meaning and purpose; we're wired spiritually and rationally; we are also emotional, communicative, and moral beings that are fulfilled and made complete in Christ (cf. Col. 2:10); however, we are not replicas of God--Jesus is the only express image or icon of God.)
Having no Lawgiver implies we can make up our own rules as we go along and there are no absolutes--no God means no absolutes, but all is relevant (principle, morals, truth, and values)! Having no Judge means we can get away with murder without fearing retribution! Caveat: Christianity doesn't endorse "going rogue" or philosophy of "each man for himself" in a "law of the jungle," where it's "survival of the fittest"--we are all family in Christ and ought to have vested interest in each other. Soli Deo Gloria!
"So then each of us shall give account of himself to God" (Rom. 14:12, NKJV).
"For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself" (Romans 14:7, NKJV).
"... 'There is no accountability, since God does not exist'" (Psalm 10:4, HCSB).
If there is no God, man is not accountable--there's no Judge, no Lawgiver, no Executioner of final retribution and justice. The government would be the highest law, and standards would differ from state to state, subject to local opinion or custom. In short, man would be a law unto himself. Is responsibility a delusion then? If there is no God, all things are permissible, according to Dostoevsky! If there is no Judge, why worry about justice or answering to anyone. However, the whole system of Western government is based on the premise of natural or transcendent law from God given to man in his conscience, and, since we are in His image, we are mere stewards of God and accountable for His blessings and will be held to account at Judgment Day.
"Man has forgotten God," according to Solzhenitsyn, and the chief question and issue of our day, according to William Durant, is whether man "can live without God." Nietzsche said that God was dead, that we had killed Him, or that He was irrelevant if He does exist! To the unbeliever, God is in none of His thoughts, and even if there is a God, he lives as a practical atheist, or as though there is no God--this is the dilemma: Are Christians going to see the light and be the light, or let society rot and fall apart at the very foundations? The beauty of the church is the sense and reality of belonging to a family where we are concerned for each other and can share with each other our burdens, blessings, gifts, and talents. Man is not a law unto himself, however, so he can live with the morals of a beast if he chooses, even if he sees himself as one. (The purpose of government is to put a lid on and restrain evil in society, securing and maintaining our freedoms and rights--note that God confers our rights, and the government derives its power from the consent of the governed, and its main purpose is to keep evil at bay.)
However, God is not dead, He's more alive than ever before and will not die; He is the one who is there and we must reckon with Him, whether we want to or not. If there is no God, there are no absolutes either, and no standard of right and wrong beyond our subjective feelings. Many great atheists have tried to kill God or make Him irrelevant, but God lives on in men's hearts, for Christ founded a kingdom of hearts, not armies or wealth.
Man is too proud, however, to seek God and justifies himself and his sin. What does this worldview entail and what is the logical conclusion? We always invent a system of ethics that we feel or believe we can keep, and that doesn't condemn ourselves. If there is no God, man has no hell to shun, nor fear of a Day of Judgment, and there is no Lawgiver to tell us right from wrong--man is the highest being and we have no one to give an account of ourselves to.
In short, man is an animal and has the right to live like an animal morally. (Man then cannot be in the image of God, since there is no God, and therefore has no unique, intrinsic nor extrinsic dignity, the image of God implies a lot: not only dignity but meaning and purpose; we're wired spiritually and rationally; we are also emotional, communicative, and moral beings that are fulfilled and made complete in Christ (cf. Col. 2:10); however, we are not replicas of God--Jesus is the only express image or icon of God.)
Having no Lawgiver implies we can make up our own rules as we go along and there are no absolutes--no God means no absolutes, but all is relevant (principle, morals, truth, and values)! Having no Judge means we can get away with murder without fearing retribution! Caveat: Christianity doesn't endorse "going rogue" or philosophy of "each man for himself" in a "law of the jungle," where it's "survival of the fittest"--we are all family in Christ and ought to have vested interest in each other. Soli Deo Gloria!