Game Rules

When I was a kid, I would often invent my own games. And although I would have defined the rules before testing the “funability,” on willing participants, I would often fail to communicate all said rules, and then suddenly remember one as we were playing. I would then be blamed for cheating and changing the rules in my favor. But I have to wonder, if it’s my game, why couldn’t I have changed the rules? There was no rule in the game that stated the rules had to remain fixed. Besides, how could I be cheating? I made the rules.

So I was thinking the other day about how people want to take the Ten Commandments down from our government buildings, how that supposedly is a conflict of separation of church and state. Somehow I don’t think that’s what the founding fathers had in mind.

Historically, monarchy has been the preferred form of government. And in a monarchy, the king writes the laws. Some may say these “governments” were often terribly corrupt. But I don’t see how. It was the king’s game. He made the rules, so how could it be cheating?

But this country, especially in its inception, was unique. For the government decided that they were playing someone else’s game, ascribing “inalienable rights” to its citizens. Even though government still held great power, it was under a greater authority: God.

But what if there are some who don’t believe in God? So what. There are also some who don’t believe in gravity, but that doesn’t keep them from falling to the ground when they trip. Truth is truth. Without God, man becomes the measure of all things. And then there is no such thing as right and wrong. Naturalism then leads to this type of thinking: “Equality is a herd mentality,” said Nietzsche.

We follow too closely to the teachings of the Greeks that came incredibly close to the truth. We talk of value and virtue, but without God, we have no foundation to stand on. We’re just making up our own rules. And those rules can be changed.

Ravi Zacharias said it this way. “The Hebrews are the ones that told us, "I am the Lord your God. You shall have no other gods before me." Morality for the Hebrews was based inextricably on the person of God. Which means morality and personhood are inseparable. It's not just an idea, but the essence [of who we are]."

In conclusion, we must always remember (especially those in government), that we’re playing someone else’s “game.” We don’t really make the rules. And we must remember that morality is not just a set of rules that God made up, but is intrinsically attached to who He is. And if we are made in His image, then the same applies to us. Morality is what makes us human. To deny its importance or even its existence is to reject the very fabric of our being.