Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians states:
"But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God."
I Corinthians 4:3-5.
When was the last time you heard this statement in the media regarding a secular event? "The reminder by the prosecutor that the witness would face God in the final judgment seemed to cause the witness to change his story." This future event - the final judgment before God - was one of the reasons that the oath required of a witness in court included the requirement that the witness swear that he believes in a future afterlife of reward and punishment. This belief helps keep people honest. Biblically, the principle is termed the fear of God.
The belief in a world in the next life where good is rewarded and evil is punished has a significant effect upon the mind of the one testifying. First, truth as a fundamental good is a given. Second, the witness must use his imagination and place himself in front of God on His throne explaining what he's about to do. Third, this thought process can get complicated. Consider the testimony of a witness about their brother on trial for murder and facing the death penalty. You are the only witness who can corroborate his alibi. You're his blood. If you cannot honestly testify that his alibi is true, you must weigh your loyalty, affection, and the after-effect of basically telling a court of law that your brother is a liar, whether he committed the underlying crime or not. Even so, the lie by your brother could call into question his innocence as to the underlying crime; therefore, the effect of your testimony that he's lying could be the "final straw" that results in his conviction.
Standing before the God of the universe in your imagination, you realize that there's no place to hide and that no rationalization of a lie can be justified. You must use the law of this God to accurately judge how you will respond to a question about this testimony and to determine what would be the right thing to do and the wrong thing to do. You remember that one of the ten commandments is "Thou shalt not bear false witness." Fundamentally, it means that you shall not lie as a witness in court. Your lie would indicate not just a violation of a commandment but a greater loyalty to your brother than to God because he's a blood relative and you love him. You would be violating the greatest commandment if you lie for your brother: "Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment." Matthew 22:37-8. You ask yourself the question: "Do I risk it? Maybe God will forgive me, and my brother won't have to face punishment for his crime, at least, not in this life. Besides what if his punishment is severe? What if it's death?"
What about the witness who does not believe in an afterlife or a final judgment? What holds him to the truth in the same circumstance? You could lie and save your brother's life. Or you could tell the truth and essentially doom him to death. Which do you do? It's possible the law of perjury would subject you to several months or a year in jail. But you may not get caught. Even if you were caught, what's a few months in jail compared with your brother's life? Weighed in the balance of this life and this life only, your lie could appear to be a greater good to you than telling the truth. What would be the incentive to tell the truth? Some principled commitment to an orderly society that punishes criminals, even if they're my blood relative? Is that all? What else would there be to outweigh the love, loyalty, and commitment to my brother? What about other relatives who would hold me responsible for his death because I didn't lie? What about the loss of a companion, a human being who may have been my soul-mate, someone I could talk to and laugh and cry with? What could possibly be weighty enough to cause me to tell the truth? A commitment to individual conscience? I allowed my brother to be executed so I could keep a clear conscience, then die one day myself? Sounds practically narcissistic in the world of the atheist. What about living with a bad conscience? As an atheist, seeing there's no other consequence than feeling bad about one lie, the consequences of telling the truth - causing my blood relative's death, losing my brother's companionship, getting the ire of my other relatives, appearing selfish to myself and everyone else - why not live with a bad conscience if it means saving my brother's life?
Therefore, the society with no fear of God also has little justice, if the godless society even knows how to define justice. "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done" means, in part, that our society seek God's justice and truth in the judicial system. Without the fear of God's justice after this life, there will often be lies in the judicial system. Man needs to know that he will suffer negative consequences or be rewarded something good in order to do right. It is how we are made, and it is especially important after the Fall, when sin infects every aspect of our lives. To assume that people will tell the truth in court because they're "honest, upstanding citizens" is quite naive. Without a commitment to God's justice, all the judicial system has is an arbitrary standard of justice to which a witness may or may not be loyal. If we judged ourselves rightly, considering what could be the consequences in the afterlife, we would be more committed to God's justice than man's. It takes a combination of imagination about what could happen in the future and the factual truth of God's word and law to create the correct perspective for such judgment.
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