Page 114 - Apologetics Student Textbook

Questions to Ask
• Work toward the “center” rather than flirt with the “edge.”
• Ask yourself, “Would this pass the ’newspaper‘ test?”
• Keep short accounts.

10. Is There a Better Option That Would Allow Me to Make a Greater Impact for God’s Kingdom?
Proverbs 11:30The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who is wise wins souls.

Questions to Ask
• Ask yourself, “What story could God be writing?”
• Don’t assume that just because something is hard that it is not God’s will.
• Understand how God has uniquely gifted and resourced you.

Remember, even though you may consider all these verses, and ask all the questions, and seek to rely
on your reason and knowledge, that you still may make a wrong decision. That’s because our ability to
reason is flawed by our sin. Our natural man cannot even understand the things of God (I Cor 1). But
we can trust this scripture for all our decisions:

Trust in the LORD with all your heart
And do not lean on your own understanding.

6 In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He will make your paths straight.
Proverbs 3:5-6

Isn’t the right thing to do what makes me and others happy?

In asking this question, you have declared yourself to be a hedonist. The definition of Hedonism
is this - pleasure is the most important pursuit of mankind. The first basic idea behind hedonistic
thought is that all actions can be measured based on how much pleasure and how little pain they
produce. In very simple terms, a hedonist strives to maximize pleasure over pain.

Another way of looking at this philosophy is the idea that all action should be directed toward achieving
the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest number of people. Hedonists take two approaches
when applying their philosophy:

The quantitative approach: The value of a pleasure is to be its intensity multiplied by its duration - so it
was not just the number of pleasures, but their intensity and how long they lasted that must be
considered.

The qualitative approach: Higher quality pleasure is better than lower quality pleasure. So seek the
greater, higher quality pleasure, even if you have fewer of them.

Example: “I have a very important decision to make. What I am going to do is make two lists. One
column will be labeled, “Positives” and one will be labeled, “Negatives”. It will be like a balance scale. If

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