Commentary on First Peter (60)

The problem is that ethics cannot be judged by ethics. The proper foundation for ethics can be established only by first dealing with metaphysics and epistemology. Once we settle the questions concerning the nature of reality and knowledge, then we can settle the questions on ethics.

One prominent Christian apologist made the statement that unless God is presupposed, an objective standard of ethics is impossible. To this an atheist philosopher responded, "So what? Then let us have no objective standard of ethics." This Christian apologist was accustomed to emphasizing biblical theism as the precondition for an objective standard of ethics, perhaps because he thought that to focus on ethics would immediately bring to the surface the relevance of the debate about the existence of God.

Of course he was correct in asserting that biblical theism is the necessary precondition for an objective standard of ethics. However, it is unwise to make this the thrust of our argument for biblical theism. It could give the impression that we believe in God because we affirm a particular view of ethics or because we affirm the necessity of ethics, rather than the other way around. Or, to say it another way, we should not give the impression that we are using our ethics to determine our metaphysics and epistemology rather than the other way around.

This applies to both our defense and refutation. So, for example, we should say that Islam is wrong not because it commands its followers to deal in violence with its detractors, but it is wrong for them to do so because Islam itself is a false religion, and a false religion is false not because of its ethics, but because of its metaphysics and epistemology. If we must use ethics as an illustration or as a starting point – that is, the starting point of the conversation, and not the logical starting point of our belief system – we must clearly and quickly point out that our view of ethics is derived from our metaphysics and epistemology, namely, biblical theism and biblical revelation.