As Christians, we must see that just because an artist-even a great artist-portrays a worldview in writing or on canvas, it does not mean that we should automatically accept that worldview. Good art heightens the impact of that worldview, but it does not make it true.

The beginning of men's rebellion against God was, and is, the lack of a thankful heart.

If there is no absolute moral standard, then one cannot say in a final sense that anything is right or wrong. By absolute we mean that which always applies, that which provides a final or ultimate standard. There must be an absolute if there are to be morals, and there must be an absolute if there are to be real values. If there is no absolute beyond man's ideas, then there is no final appeal to judge between individuals and groups whose moral judgments conflict. We are merely left with conflicting opinions.

Christianity is realistic because it says that if there is no truth, there is also no hope; and there can be no truth if there is no adequate base. It is prepared to face the consequences of being proved false and say with Paul: If you find the body of Christ, the discussion is finished, let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die. It leaves absolutely no room for a romantic answer.

In passing, we should note this curious mark of our own age: the only absolute allowed is the absolute insistence that there is no absolute.

If one starts with an impersonal beginning, the answer to morals eventually turns out to be the assertion that there are no morals.

If there is no final place for civil disobedience, then the government has been made autonomous, and as such, it has been put in the place of the living God.