Serve the Lord with gladness!
Come into his presence with singing!
Know that the Lord, he is God!
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
and his courts with praise!
Give thanks to him; bless his name!
A Christian friend who was studying philosophy once told me "you can't get an ought from an is." That puzzled me because Scripture seemed to be full of commands telling God's people what they ought to do and even what the must do because of what is the case.
Take the passage above from Psalm 100, which says we must praise the Lord with gladness because "the Lord, he is God." Last year another friend said that except for in the area of theology "we can't get an ought from an is." At least he recognized that the fact that "God is" means we ought to do something. But I had come to the conclusion that the whole dictum was self-defeating, so I said: "Do you mean to say that it is the case that we ought not get an ought from an is?" He just smiled.
Doesn't every argument end with an appeal to belief? Every argument says: "Look at this thing that is, now you ought to believe it." Right?
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