What do you think? Does morality come before Christianity?

Question

from either the perspactive of a child growing up or in general life.

Thanks for all of your input. It’s interesting to know the different perspectives. There are a lot of good points made such as G Rain; From God perspective, truly what we call morals was the character of God long before humans came into existence, just as Cem, Ehsanbana, and Aleria put it.

In Tony’s case, I think that Christianity and religion are two separate things, but Jus tas stated above, morality came from God.
With Vpsoomall, we can look at this in the secular sense. As a people, we know what we see, what we hear, and what we are taught. So a given person can grow up not living out any type of “morality until they meet Jesus because they never saw, was taught or heard about morality. In this case I guess we can say that Christianity come before morality.

In short, I agree that what we call morality is the very nature and character of God, and aside from Him we would know no morality. In God’s time I believe that everything is in existence and doesn’t become manifest in this life until God allows us to discover it.
Taf3sgho has a point that we should obey God above being “a good person” and in our love for Christ our morality is perfected.
No matter how a person is brought up from a child, true morality is centered on Christ and love. (Akolouthe)
Thanks for all of your input.

Answer 1

Chronologically, yes...morality comes from God and has existed eternally with Him, before Christ came to earth. But as far as their application in life, personally I don't think you can separate the two. The morality of God/Christ is the morality of this world whether you accept it or not.

Common morals are known and accepted by humans but we certainly didn't invent them, otherwise there wouldn't be such a unified idea of right & wrong. There are certain fundamental things that every sane person knows are wrong, like murder & theft, so while people debate on many subcategories of morality, there are definitely certain things everyone in the world knows are inherently right or wrong and are not in dispute.

Anyone who's spent significant time on this planet should know that something there's no argument over was NOT a human invention.

Answer 2

It depends on what your vantage point on Christianity is. If you mean morality before God, then no, morality was ingrained into our very essense. People know what is right and wrong and what is moral and what is not instinctively, just a child feels bad about lying even though they really don't understand why.

But if you mean before Christ's death, then yes. For morality was part of daily life in the Jewish religion as well as other religions that were not centered on one God.

Answer 3

Christianity is a belief with morality (Latin mores). There is no cause and effect. Christians have morals just like Chinese have morals.

Western Civilization has a lot of discussion regarding Ethics, the study of Morals. The discussion comes from Greek later Roman sources.

Christianity is based on Judaic morals until Christianity split from Judaism into the surrounding Hellene culture. This is around the last 1st century, after the Jewish Wars with Rome. The Hellene culture had morals which Christianity blended with it Judaic morals.

Answer: Morality can be found in Jewish and Helene cultures both predating Christianity.

Answer 4

There is natural law. People have natural morals that are self serving...such as not killing your children, obeying laws in society because it functions better that way. Then there are divine laws...a different approach to morality. Where people do things out of love for God and not for themselves.

Answer 5

Jesus was just an advocate for morals. They were always around because they have always been the only way to truly live life to it's fullest without being caught-up in things that restrict or immobilize us. He simply enlightened some and reminded others of the power we all possess of choice.

Answer 6

No, without the teachings of Christ there is no true morality.

Look at Hitler's teaching of killing Jews, Germans had no problem with what he was doing and supported him because it was their "morality". Muslims support killing Jews and Christians because it is their "morality".

There are many more examples, but the point is morals in a society change, sometimes to support heinous actions.
Christ is the only one whose teachings confront man's selfishness, violence, greed, and revenge. (Mat. 5-7) And, hence, the morality that will most effectively deal with the man made problems of this world and make it a better place for us all.

Answer 7

If you are a true believer, then you should know that the Creator is a perfect moral by His Almighty...

So God has sent humans to earth starting with Father & Mother of Humans "Adam" & "Eve" with all the morals sent along with them as basics for them in life to pass over to generations coming from them..

So Morals surely comes before all ......

Answer 8

Morality has nothing to do with Christianity....it was around long before Jesus, long before Moses and long before the written word.
Morality is a concept, an agreement among people, a social constraint in some cases and an innate knowledge that the golden rule is better than being a siht head.

Answer 9

"Morality" is a concept created by man through his evolution to ensure survival of the species. What was good for the tribe became "good" overall, and what was "bad" for the tribe became bad overall--mores and taboos have changed, as well as how cultures have defined god, as people expanded and spread out over the earth, to define what was good and bad in each society as it affected them directly. An increase in knowledge also helped in defining mores and taboos--such as finding out that volcano's don't erupt when sky god gets upset--it's because of tectonic plate activity, or other natural phenomenon, so then it became "bad" to sacrifice the virgin to the volcano, when ity used to be a "good" thing to appease the sky gods...

Make sense?

Answer 10

Well whose the final moral judge?
Which is more important to God?that you are a good person or that you believe everything He says.