First, the serious issue… Boko Haram is an Islamist group in Nigeria that is accused of kidnapping 276 school girls a month ago. I do not know exactly what to do about that but I suspect we probably have men (and women) who could go in, kill the kidnappers, and save those girls. Personally, I would have no moral qualms with the proper authorities killing kidnappers. I find strength in that conviction from the nature of God as it is revealed in the Old Testament: “If a man is found stealing one of his brothers of the people of Israel, and if he treats him as a slave or sells him, then that thief shall die. So you shall purge the evil from your midst” (Deuteronomy 24:7; see also Exodus 21:16). The apostle Paul apparently felt the same way (1 Timothy 1:10).
Now, the light-hearted side… In a Calvin and Hobbes cartoon, Calvin and Hobbes, his pet tiger, are walking through the woods. Calvin says, “I don’t believe in ethics anymore. As far as I’m concerned, the ends justify the means.” (Isn’t that Boko Haram’s argument?)
Calvin continues: “Get what you can while the getting’s good – that’s what I say! Might makes right! The winners write the history books! It’s a dog-eat-dog world, so I’ll do whatever I have to, and let others argue about whether it’s “right” or not.” Then Hobbes shoves Calvin down into the mud.
“Heyy!!” he screams. “Why’d you do THAT?!?” Hobbes responds smugly: “You were in my way. Now you’re not. The ends justify the means.” Calvin, covered in mud, retorts: “I didn’t mean for EVERYONE, you dolt! Just ME!” “Ahh…” Hobbes responds.
There is a similarity between Boko Haram and Calvin, isn’t there? In the 2nd Annual Spring Apologetics Lectures sponsored by the Thomas B. Warren Christian Apologetics Center (held in May, 2012), Rolland Pack, professor at Freed-Hardeman University, shows how we can use our fellow citizens’ moral inconsistencies to teach them there is a God and there are moral absolutes.
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His lectures are published by the Warren Apologetics Center under the title Truth Acknowledged, Rejected, and Applied. Pack bases his approach on Paul’s thoughts from Romans 1:18ff. Pack comments, “We must focus attention on the fact that people recognize something (i. e. anything) as wrong. …That any behavior is acknowledged to be wrong reveals the ‘deityship’ of our Creator when it is properly unpacked” (pg 40).
Paul points out in Romans 1 that there is universal unrighteousness and man can know that there are certain standards of morality, universally acknowledged. The truth of God’s “eternal power and divine nature” (verse 20; NASV) was understood (vs 20) but then “suppressed” (vs 18), “exchanged” (vs 25), and then rejected (vs 28).
Because man inherently knows there are some things that must be inherently morally wrong (everyone’s reaction to Boko Haram and, apparently, Bill Watterson), Pack suggests one place to start in our apologetic evangelism is “with shared moral insight” (pg 45). He also says, “Created in the image of God, people have an awareness that some things are right and some are wrong” (pg 47). But the only way to be consistent is to recognize one Source of that shared moral insight.
You may try using this approach in your efforts at evangelism.
–Paul Holland
