Question for Christians: Does obeying God make one a moral person?

Question

User "death from above", is there a reason you refuse to actually answer my questions, opting instead to post a snarky response followed by an insult? You've done this several times and I'm not sure what you're trying to accomplish.

User "death from above", calling this "tired, old tripe" certainly sounds insulting to me. And I see absolutely no hidden invective or agenda in this question. It's a simple "yes" or "no" question. Why get so worked up about it?

Answer 1

How much you change your self decides morality. Just following God wouldn't do it. When we read Bible, we shouldn't just read it, but apply its teaching to our lives. There are so many people who go to church and read Bible, but still are not moral. Unless you are willing to change your self, you can not be moral

Answer 2

Printninja - the Bible doesn't say Killing is immoral, it says murder (unlawful killing) is immoral.

Killing can be lawful in some circumstances under secular law as well as spiritual law. For example self-defence to save your life or someone else's life

As for saying stoning women is immoral, you are imposing a 21st Century present day moral system upon that of an ancient peop[le who lived 3000+ years ago in a very different culture and location.

Sexual purity was very highly valued, unlike today, and when a man would marry a woman, her virginity was critical. In ancient times a dowry was paid to the father of the bride and the rightful expectation was that the bride would be a virgin.

In the culture of the time it was the father who was charged with the covering, care, and well-being of his daughter. Her sexual purity was was representative of the fathers ability to raise her according to the laws God.

Therefore, in that culture, a man's reputation, as well as the family's reputation in the community, could be adversely affected by the fornication of his daughter. If his daughter had been promised to a man to be married, and a dowry had been paid, there was every expectation from the bridegroom that she would be a virgin.

If the contrary was discovered after the marriage, then the implication is that there had been a deception in which the father could be implicated, or it would mean that he was unaware of her sin and this would bring great shame the family and the community, not to mention it being a display of outright rebellion against God's law.

In this case, to insure the integrity of the family, and to remove the evil of adulterous/fornication from the community, stoning was advocated.

Finally, she was not stoned for not being a virgin, but for carrying out a deception in trying to appear as one.

Granted it was not an ideal solution and God worked within what man was capable of understanding in the early days of civilization. By the time of Jesus we had evolved to the point where we had outgrown such laws and Jesus recinded those ancient laws and replaced them with updated ones which are as valid today as when he taught them 2,000 years ago.

Also stoning was part of the then Judaic religion, it was never part of Christianity so your beef is not with Christians anyway!

Answer 3

I am an atheist but even I know the answer is NO.

Morals like Beauty and Evil are in the eyes of the beholder.
Do you stone-to-death farmers who grow two crops in a field or children who disobey parents or people who wear two types of thread in their clothes (as per Leviticus)?
How does one obey 'god'?
Is it about obeying the Decalogue (aka Ten Commandments) or Leviticus (which is a little more picky and much more severe) or is it just obeying Jesus' thingy with John 13:34: "A new commandment I give you: Love one another."

There will be conflicting answers; whether they be through ignorance or omission is hardly the point - getting 'it' right is 'the only way'.

So the question really should be: How does one obey ‘god’?

Answer 4

Zero: This is a very good and relevant question posed by you ! As a Christian, the answer is an emphatic "NO". Why is this? Because human beings apart from God are not "moral" nor, neither can be ! This "morality" is simple man's best, on his own self-righteousness. When Jesus Christ was called "good" [moral] , He retorted by stating, "that there is none good but God" (Mark chapter 10, verse 18) . It is the God in humans which is moral - when humans attempt to be God by "being moral" or "good", we are only self-righteous !!! Hope this suffices in answering your query !

Answer 5

I know people hate it when I get picky, but I have to do it here.

The problem is the definition of morality. It changes with time and with culture. A lot of Christians would say in order to be mortal you have to follow God's will. They define their morality only within that context. So I guess when they talk about atheists and morality, they're not saying atheists are bad people, but rather that they're not "moral" per se because their fundamentalist view holds that in order to even start talking about morality you have to do so within a framework of God.

Now, this Christian sees things differently. In our culture at large, morality is something outside of God. So there can be moral people who don't believe in God, and immoral people who claim to be obeying God.

Answer 6

Not necessarily. For starters, there are plenty of 'moral' people who don't believe there even is a God. So obedience to God is not a prerequisite for morality. But your question was if obeying God did make one moral?

And your attitude has a great deal to do with it, too. I mean, I don't mind so much the not killing, honoring my parents, and not making graven images. But the no lying and no stealing, I follow with more reluctance--I still follow them, mind you, but more out of obedience than an inherent desire. Does it make me moral that I do not steal, or does it make me immoral that I still think about it occasionally?

And then there's the worldly subjectivity to morality. Common contemporary example--society thinks it immoral of Christianity to not endorse the rights of gays. Here we have two conflicting moralities, mutually incompatible with each other. Here the Christian must choose God's morality over society's morality.

Answer 7

Obeying the Ten Commandments and following the teachings of the Gospels of Jesus Christ will make a moral person.

One the other hand, I believe an indigenous person who never knows religion who is a kind and generous person and lives a life free of sin will also see the Kingdom of Heaven.

Peace,

AAD

Answer 8

Not necessarily so. There have been countless people who have proudly claimed to be obeying God, but committing atrocities (look at world and American history). Of course those people are the type that would take anything that they thought could get them what they want and use it.

Answer 9

No, just because you are obedient does not mean you are moral. Having morals means you behave out of a true understanding of what is right and wrong, and you choose to try to do right when possible. Being obedient to God just means you're afraid of going to Hell.

Answer 10

I think doing what you think and know is right is what makes someone a moral person. I do not follow the 10 commandments simply because Im a sinner. Its in my nature and I can stop myself anytime I want to. But sometimes the "adam" part of me just wants to take that apple and not think of the consequences.