christians, is the bible the perfect guide to morality?

If the Bible isn’t the Christian’s source for morality, then the question needs to be asked, “What should be?” The Christian worldview is based on two foundational axioms: 1) God exists, and 2) God has spoken to us in the Bible. If these two presuppositions aren’t the starting point in a Christian worldview, then we’re just like everyone else, trying to find objectivity in a sea of subjectivity.

According to the Bible, man was created in God’s image. Part of that image entails man as a moral being. We are moral agents who make moral choices and are able to differentiate between right and wrong. The basis upon which we differentiate between right and wrong is our knowledge of God’s law, and that knowledge comes from two sources—revelation and conscience. Revelation is self-explanatory. God gave a commandment to Adam and Eve in the Garden. He gave Ten Commandments to the Israelites after the exodus in Sinai, and Jesus boiled those Ten Commandments down to two essential commandments—love God and love your neighbor. All of these represent God’s revelation of His law which is simply a reflection of His moral character to His people.

The Bible also says that God wrote His law on our hearts (Romans 2:15). This is conscience. In other words, even without God’s revelation in the commandments, we intuitively know God’s law based on the fact that we were created in His image. However, due to the fall (Genesis 3), that image is marred and disfigured, including our conscience. So even though we know God’s law through our conscience, we tend to distort it to our advantage. That is why we need revelation.

The Bible, which contains God’s revealed moral will in His law and commandments, is His revelation to His people. As such, the Bible becomes our source of morality because the Bible is the very Word of God in written form (2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:21). If the Christian wants to know God’s will, he turns to the Bible. If the Christian wants to discern right from wrong, he turns to the Bible.

What happens if the Christian doesn’t turn to the Bible as his or her source for morality? There are many ways to answer this question, but the bottom line is we all tend to trust our conscience, whether implicitly or explicitly. The human conscience can be likened to an alarm system; it warns us when we transgress our moral standard. The catch is our conscience is only as good as the moral standard that informs it. If it’s not the Bible, then we inevitably inform our conscience by various other means.

The current reigning ‘competitor’ to biblical morality in our society is social consensus. In other words, our morality is shaped and changed by the culture around us. It should be very easy to see that if social consensus is our moral compass, then we have built our morality on a foundation of shifting sand. Social consensus is just that—a consensus. It’s a picture of the general social mores of the day. A generation or two ago, homosexuality, divorce and adultery were still not accepted, even considered sinful. Nowadays, both homosexuality and divorce are normal and adultery isn’t as stigmatized as it once was. Basically what you have with social consensus is what happened to the Israelites a couple generations after conquering the Promised Land: “Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 17:6). The people abandoned God, and within two generations they were doing what was evil in the sight of God.

So why should the Bible be our source for morality? Because without it, we are like ships adrift at sea. At the end of the Sermon on the Mount, our Lord said these words: “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built His house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock” (Matthew 7:24-25). The Word of God, the Bible, is the only rock upon which to build morality.

The thing is, none of us was ask to come here, neither did I know that I was going to be put into God's creation. I am, so I accept the facts on how to play the game. It works for me. I play the game to stay alive and in right standings with a God that can do all that to those people. If He did it to them, don't you think He (God) can do it to you or me?

What makes you the exception? Because you don't believe? Well maybe they did the same and that is why they ended up dead or stoned or whatever the case was then.

I didn't live back then, but I am here now and I make the best of it, so that I won't find myself outside of God's will, or staring in His wrath. You'd think?

God's way is much easier than fighting Him. You can't win against Him! I have yet to see an army of men with their weaponry or human logic fight and win against a Mighty God.

The bible is a love story not a guide. It is showing the difference between self effort/law and grace(Jesus). people wanted to attain righteousness by themselves and thus they were given laws to keep. These laws showed them that it was impossible for man to keep such laws, much less to go to heaven. And the consequence of not keeping these laws was death. So God in his great love, sent his perfect son to keep the laws perfectly on our behalf and to bare the punishment for our shortcomings. He became our substitute and made it possible for men to go before Gods again and fellowship. We attain what Jesus did by simple faith in him. We also gain many benefits such as eternal life, our destiny, healing, restoration, abundant life, prosperity, peace, conforming daily into Gods perfect image and many more. Men do not understand this- nor the purpose of the law so they turn it into relifgion- and say do this and do that- to gain this and gain that. etc. God did not stone anyone- The people said God whatever you command we will do- so they join a coenant or agreement that blesses them based on performance rather than on Gods love and grace. What did Jesus do when people wanted to stone a prostitute? What did Jesus do when the people attacked him for healing on the sabbath? What did Jesus do to the women at the well? You should realize that this Jesus is not what you see everyday in religious people- but you have to find this jesus for your self, because you wont be able to use others as a scapegoat. i have briefly explained the bible to you now the rest is up to you.

I knew what your text would say before I clicked on the link to your question. Aren't you forgetting that we've already answered this question a gazillion times? I suppose that's why you choose to cling to the atheist religion> Free for all, it's one big giant world orgy> satisfy yourself with the lust of the world. That feels good to you... WhY bother with the Creator who created you and has a purpose for you> never mind that... keep doing what John Lennon termed "imagine" that you are living in a world with zero accountability... a world where RIGHT now is all that matters... yeah, keep imagining... <sigh!>

Ancient texts that we render into other languages from the original ancient Hebrew, Aramaic, and

koine Greek, span over 3,500 years of human history.

It gives an accurate and true picture of how things were then, and how, the Christ was sent to modify

much of what was.

What we sow, is what we reap, a simple but sober, truth.

There simply is not room here to point out all the ways in which you have bought into completely WRONG twistings of the scripture.

Break these up into individual questions and I might answer one of two of them if something more important doesn't come up between now and then.

we deserved all that for our sin. when a parent punishes a child the child doesn't like it and the parent doesn't really want to do it but they still love each other and in the long run the child is better off. its the same.

Morality is not what it's all about.

Also, you are confusing descriptive with perscriptive. Describing something happened doesn't mean we should all go do whatever it was.

No, the Bible is not the perfect guide to morality. This is because the Bible is not meant for today's culture, it was meant for the culture of the ancients.

After reading all that.

They will conclude that it is.