AFA Journal April 2013 Tim Wildmon Louie Giglio

To judge or not to judge … that is the question

by Tim Wildmon, AFA president

Do you know the favorite Bible verse of those who don’t believe in the Bible’s authority? Think about it. It’s not hard. The favorite Bible verse of those who do not believe in the Bible is: “Judge not, that you be not judged.” 

Now these folks cannot tell you where this verse is in the Bible, because they don’t read it. But they have heard it is in the Scriptures somewhere so if they don’t like something you say when you pronounce something right or wrong, they whip out Matthew 7:1 and that is supposed to be the end of the discussion.

One of the problems is, if you tell someone he has no right to judge someone else, you have thereby judged him for judging. You have done precisely what you claim to be against – judging. That makes you a hypocrite. But that then begs the question – why is it wrong to be a hypocrite? Who made that judgment? We just assume that to be a true statement, which is a presupposition. But presuppositions need a foundation to be authoritative. For example, the teachings of Jesus Christ are authoritative for those who believe He is the Son of God.

Each one of us has a worldview on which we base our lives – presuppositions we operate under and make decisions on. Because of our country’s Christian heritage, most Americans, either consciously or subconsciously, derive their presuppositions about life and morality from the Bible. Ask an average man on the street if lying is right or wrong behavior, and he is going to tell you it’s wrong. Ask who decided lying was wrong, and he will either say, “It just is,” or, “My parents taught me it was wrong,” or “The Bible says so.”

However, “It just is,” is not an answer to the question; it is an opinion. Neither is “my parents taught me.” Parents are an authority figure, but they do not define morality in any absolute way because they are humans whose opinions are subject to change. “The Bible says so,” is a legitimate answer because if you believe the Bible is God’s Word, then you want to obey God so you don’t fall into disfavor with a Supreme Being who can control your eternal destiny.

A lot of Americans will say they subscribe to the idea that a person should be free to do whatever he wishes “as long as it does not hurt anyone else.” This view again is based on the presupposition that freedom is “good” and it is morally “wrong” to hurt someone else. Who made these rules?

Who says freedom is morally superior to bondage? And why is it wrong to hurt someone else? Who says? To injure or hurt someone else goes against biblical teaching. That is where the idea that it is wrong to hurt someone comes from in the first place. The Golden Rule was given to us by Jesus Christ. 

Other cultures in the world, such as communist countries, use the atheistic state government as the agent for defining what is right or wrong behavior. It’s called totalitarianism for a reason.

In Muslim countries, Islamic law and teaching dominates the people’s behavior. They define good and evil, wrong and right. Most European countries have what’s left of their Christian heritage to guide them, although the continent today is mostly secular with Islam rising as a possible replacement to secularism in the coming decades. 

It is a healthy exercise to ask ourselves where we get the moral values that govern our lives. Is it each person for himself or do we acknowledge a higher power with authority to declare such?

God calls on all men to submit to His will and authority. Let us pray that America will become a God-fearing people again. In Matthew 10:28, Jesus declared: “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear Him who can destroy both body and soul in hell.”