Like it or not you need absolute truth.
The need for truth
I recently heard a report that most young people in America do not believe absolute truth exists, which concerns me for their sake. I know from experience that life is one and lost in our minds. What people believe about who they are and how they ought to act is fundamental to the outcome of one’s life. Therefore if there is no mental anchor for one’s mind, there are no absolutes; there is heartache ahead.
Can we agree that two plus two equals four? If we refuse that, how will we even manage our money? Our whole world would be in chaos if we abandoned the idea that math has absolutes. Our phones, cars, airplanes, TVs, etc., would become useless if we did not have an absolute system with numbers.
Most people would agree with scientific absolutes but struggle with moral absolutes. When we say moral, we are talking about a framework of behavior that is universally true. We live in a world of connectivity based on absolutes, where there are standards based on math that allow systems to work together. Now imagine trying to make a system where each piece works off of its own standards, and the standards could change at any moment. Our world of technology would halt, and most would die because of the lack of food.
Where to find moral truth
If I suggested the Bible contains absolute truth, would you reject that? I want to ask why? Why couldn’t you look at the Bible like any other book in the world? If I used some self-help book, would you automatically respond with “I don’t want to hear it?” I believe one has to be open to finding truth; if it is in the Bible, so be it.
The heart of God’s moral code is found in the ten commandments. It was the center of God’s holiness. In the temple of God, there was the holiest place where only the righteous and God would dwell together. In the center, there was a box called the arch of the covenant. In that box lay the ten commandments. That should tell us that the ten commandments are essential in the Biblical story. So let’s see if these ten commandments can teach us the absolute truth.
The fifth commandment
I will start with the fifth commandment because the commandments are broken into two sections. I want to point out that the first four deal with man’s relationship with God, and the next six deal with human relationships. The first of these is to honor our parents.
Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
Exodus 20:12
The fifth commandment teaches a universal law of respect. Each human being is worthy of respect. When a society fails to respect each other, anarchy will ensue. Here is the point if we cannot respect the ones who brought us into this world, how can we genuinely respect anyone else? I know here is where the idea there is no absolute truth comes in. We start asking questions like, what if your parents were terrible? What if they gave you up or died? Questions like these tend to muddy the waters.
Where we are tripped up is with exceptions. What I mean by that is some circumstances make it seem impossible to hold to an absolute. What if a father molested his daughter? Could that daughter respect her father? Of course not! But this does not diminish the core principle of respecting one another. We need to ask if it is right for a father to molest his child; that is an absolute no. We can start to see here a pattern that if we do not hold to absolutes, chaos starts to take place, and it becomes like a domino effect where we have trouble figuring out what is right.
Respect the position
The other part of this absolute truth of respect is that of position. There needs to be a hierarchy that manages respect. Everyone deserves respect, but the structure is essential. A house has a hierarchy, and the foundation is the head. The kitchen cabinets need to be treated with care to last, but they are not fundamental to the house’s longevity.
We are not exactly like a house because, with humans, we can be a cabinet one day and the foundation the next. That is why respect is essential. One day you are the child, and the next, you are the parent. If respect is not part of this system, then failure is in the future.
America is heading for a total collapse because it is not embracing absolute truth. We can see this happen with the f..k you phrase. The “let’s go Brandon” is a curse on our society. Like each of us, if we are honest with ourselves, we have done things to hurt people, and we are not always worthy of respect, but there still must be respect. Whoever is president of the United States of America should not deter us from respecting the office. You won’t be the world’s most fantastic parent, but because you are the parent, you desire respect; therefore, you must respect your parents.
Next, we will consider the absolute law of thou shalt not kill.