Natural Law and Human Flourishing
The Nazis--who arrested, tortured, and killed millions of image bearers in order to help along the Darwinian theory of natural selection leading to survival of the fittest--did not break the law. They had changed the laws to make their actions legal.
When held accountable for their actions, they pointed out they were merely following orders; they were obeying the law. And yet the international community still found them guilty of crimes against humanity.
How could this be if the laws instituted by human governments are the highest law? If that were so, we would have to admit that the Nazis did nothing wrong. We would have to admit that slavery and racism were good until just recently in human history. We would have to admit that raping women in countries where women have the human rights of a sex toy is perfectly fine.
But we all know that human laws are not the highest law. In His infinite wisdom, God has written His eternal law on our hearts. Even the Gentiles, who were without the law, by nature did what the law required as their conscience bore witness to the truth. Therefore, we are all without excuse (Rom. 1: 18-20; 2:14-16). Even non-Christians realized the Nazis were criminals deserving of death.
This is the natural law, discernible through conscience, reason, and observation. The natural law, an aspect of God's general revelation, doesn't replace God's special revelation, the Scriptures. They have different roles. But the natural law does have a role, a role which has been ignored by most Christians and virtually all Protestants for the past 150 years, arguably leading to the loss of the West today.
So what? Well, for one thing, we have to decide whether we're going to live according to the norms of our culture to make friends, gain approval, earn a higher income, and fit in, or whether we're going to live according to the biblical standards of true excellence that often lead to temporary loss.
If Christians alone had been operating according to Boss's commands instead of their boss's commands for the past few generations, we would be experiencing a degree of human flourishing beyond what any of us living today will know in this life.
Now it's our turn to decide how we will live. Will we succumb to the easy path, just following orders, keeping our mouths shut, refusing to speak the truth, and paving a yet more difficult path for our children and grandchildren? Or will we live according to the true Boss's commands, rejecting what is culturally acceptable in favor of what is truly excellent?
