By Augustus Henry
A PROFESSOR brought a young female student to a lecture on Christian ethics. He was impressed with the presentation and so was she. During the question period of the lecture, the professor posed a question to the presenter: all these theories sound true, he said, but how do I get students to stop cheating on their exams?” After the presentation, the presenter met the student who said she had a dilemma. “My professor brought me here to listen to you, so that I can write a paper against your speech” she lamented. “I believe everything you said is true; however, my dilemma is if I write in support of your teaching, I will fail the course. If I oppose, I am writing against my conscience.”
What God has connected, let no man put asunder!
Ethics is defined as the branch of knowledge that deals with moral principles (Webster). People want morality without a moral compass. The professor wants students to stop cheating but discourage them from a source of morals.
The professor’s mistake is assuming that ethics is a product of the mind not the heart. He believes that you can teach people good character just as you teach them mathematics, while denying the power of the only one who could supplant bad character for good. Paul says in 2 Tim. 3: 8 “Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these teachers oppose the truth. They are men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected. …From such stay away.”
They try to be spiritual without the Holy Spirit.
People try to teach truth without the source of truth.
They try to instill morals that is detached from the moral law giver.
Intellect does not connect a bad heart with a good mind.
Attaining good Moral conduct is not an academic exercise, it is not dependent on schooling, neither is it great mental capacity. If you think you send children to school to learn moral deportment, think again. Can a leopard change its spots? Even people that attend religious schools become criminals. The pedophilia occurring in the Catholic Church and among the Pentecostal clergy in North America is testament to that notion. The clergy in those institutions are among the most intellectually able in those organizations.
Some of the greatest minds on earth has also committed some of the most hideous atrocities:
Ted Kaczynsk (Unabomber): IQ 167, genius, mailed out bombs to his victims. His targets were mainly professors, and over the period of twenty years, his bombs injured twenty-three and killed three.
Charlene Adelle Williams IQ, 160, genius: While it was her husband who did the actual killings, she kidnaped, raped and assisted in the murders of nine women and one man, with some being as young as thirteen.
Plato was one of the great western philosophers and advocates for academic ethics. But here is what he wrote: I was glad to be born Greek, not a barbarian; a free man, not a slave; a man, not a woman… Even in his great mind you see the stain of discrimination which is a total violation of ethics. Without a moral compass, even the greatest minds, ideas, and philosophies can lead us astray.
We know humans can transform minds, but only God transforms hearts.
The cusp of the matter is that your mind cannot be made straight if the heart is not, and only God straightens the heart. The Bible states that “The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.” (Luke 6:45) However God says in Ezekiel 36:26, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” The world has come to believe that people can live ethically by teaching ethics in colleges and universities; but conviction of ethical behaviour starts with a changed heart not a trained mind, and if the heart has not changed, even that greatest theological mind will do evil. Therefore, if you want someone to change, lead them to Jesus. Whether it is your son, daughter, brother, or sister, only Jesus can make that change. He can also do it for a neighbor, cousin, or friend. Get someone to try him today.