Design Law
In the beginning, there was God (John 1:1), and the Bible reveals that God is love (1 John 4:8). Our God of love is the Creator, the Builder of all reality: God built space, time, energy, matter, and life. The laws of God are the laws upon which reality is constructed to operate, such as gravity, the laws of health, physics, and the moral laws.
Created beings cannot build space, time, energy, matter, and life, so we make up rules that we call “laws” (such as tax laws and laws on commerce, advertising, and making substances legal to sell or not, etc.) and then threaten to inflict punishments upon people who break our rules. Humans can pass laws to make marijuana “legal,” but they can never pass laws to make it healthy. God’s laws are not like human laws.
Satan’s root lie about God, which deceived both angels and humans, is that God’s laws are like our laws: mere rules; God is then portrayed as a dictator who, in order to be just, must inflict pain, suffering, and death (punishment) for rule-breaking.
The first step in becoming a thinker is to know God and know God’s law. So we invite you to read the following blogs and reason for yourself. As you read these blogs in order, consider the evidence and come to your own conclusion, as you see how the question of which “law lens” — design or imperial/imposed — is used to understand biblical truths and differentiate various doctrines.
Seven Levels of Moral Decision Making
One reason there is so much disagreement about what is right and wrong is that people are at different levels of maturity and use different standards to determine what is right and wrong. As Christians, we are to grow up, mature, and advance. Hebrews describes the problem if we don’t:
We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. Therefore, let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity (Heb 5:11–6:1 NIV84).
Staying as spiritual infants means that we “are not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness.” Our goal is to mature, advance, and grow up to become righteous children of God. The links below will provide insight into the seven levels of moral decision-making as well as tools to assist in your continual development and maturity.
Integrative Evidence-Based Approach to Discovering Truth
This is the method of harmonizing Scripture, science/nature, and life experiences — finding truth in which all three threads come to the same conclusion. You can discover more about this method at:
Now, with your thinking caps on — understanding the difference between design law and imposed law, comprehending the seven levels of moral development, and utilizing the Integrative Evidence-Based Approach to truth — explore the many topics, blogs, seminars, TV shows, podcasts, and Bible Study Classes on our site and reason out the evidence for yourself. Make every day a journey of ever-increasing discovery and advancement in God’s kingdom of truth and love.