The word ethics can have several different meanings. Typically ethics deals with what is wrong and right or good and bad. Ethics are important because every day we find ourselves having to make moral decisions. To Christians ethics is based on God’s will. “Christian ethics is a form of the divine-command position” (Geisler, 2010, pg. 15). God’s will for us is in unity with his own moral characteristics. “For I am the Lord that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy” Leviticus 11:45 (King James Version). There are six major ethics systems. The two major categories of ethics systems are Non-absolutisms and Absolutisms. Antinomianism, situationism, and generalism are non-absolutisms.…show more content… It claims that there are not any objective moral principles by which the issue can be judged wrong or right. It is required that the issue be decided on subjective, personal, or practical grounds, but not on impartial moral grounds. There are no moral laws to guide us when making our decision on this or any other moral problems.
The situationism theory states that there is only one absolute moral law. Surprisingly that one law is not truth-telling. Love is the only absolute, and in some situations lying might be the loving thing to do. If you have to lie to save a life, that is the loving thing to do. This is basically saying that lying is sometimes right. Any moral rule other than love can and sometimes should be broken for the sake of love.
The generalism theory states that lying is usually wrong. However, in certain situations, this common rule is allowed to be broken. Whether or not a certain lie is right will ultimately depend on the results because there are no universal moral laws. The lie is considered right if the results are good. The majority of generalists believe that lying to save a life if right because in this situation the end result validates the…show more content… This theory claims that in inevitable conflict, it is our moral responsibility to do the lesser evil. This theory has also been called the lessor of two evils. We must break the lesser law and beg for forgiveness. For example, we should lie in order to save a life and then plead for forgiveness for breaking the absolute moral law. Sometimes our moral predicaments can be unavoidable, but we are still held responsible. God cannot change His moral law because of our dilemmas.
The graded absolutism theory claims that there are several moral absolutes and sometimes they conflict with one another. Some laws are higher than others. When unavoidable conflict takes place, it is our responsibility to follow the higher law. God will not blame us for things that we cannot avoid. He will excuse us from responsibility to follow the lower law in sight of the overruling responsibility to obey the higher