Is Ignorance of the Law a Good Excuse?

9/21/20     Adam   (see HERE)

Suppose you are standing in court, guilty of breaking multiple traffic laws that put yourself many people in danger. Should a good judge just let you off the hook because you didn’t know any better?

A better question would be, WHY didn’t you know any better? Why didn’t you bother to learn the rules of the road, other than because of a complete disregard for the law itself, the government which passed them, or the people they are designed to protect.

Would it be enough to say that you started to read them, but got bored or distracted by something more interesting? Could you blame the laws themselves for not being interesting enough or relevant to your life? Maybe blame the lawmakers for taking away all your fun? How about just admitting laziness?

No matter what the excuse, it is the responsibility of citizens to know the laws of the land, imperfect as they are, and even more so it is our job as humans to do our best to learn and follow the moral laws of our Creator, perfect as they are. So claiming ignorance just won’t get us anywhere if we wish to defend ourselves when we are finally held to account.

I am meeting more and more people like a man named Adam, who claims both atheism and apathy. They tell me they can’t believe in a God who would condemn them for not believing in Him, as if this is their only offense. For most of my sidewalk conversation with Adam, he came across as completely apathetic to matters of spirituality or eternity. The only time he betrayed any sort of feeling or emotion about the subject was some bitterness or resentment toward the idea of being held to account for his lack of belief.

Adam seemed to have convinced himself that he is a good person, innocent of any meaningful wrongdoing, and that therefore any sort of god would be a tyrant for judging him in any way, especially for his atheistic beliefs.

So how can someone like Adam be more aware of his standing before God? The Bible tells us in Romans that all are without excuse, simply because the creation makes its Creator obvious, and we all have a God-given moral conscience. It tells us that in spite of this none of us seek after God on our own. If one tries to avoid guilt simply by not caring and claiming apathy, they will be in for a rude awakening when called to account on judgment day.

Adam’s seeming lack of interest made for a somewhat boring and even pointless conversation that didn’t last very long, but hopefully it might help him realize he will have some hard questions to answer one day, hopefully sooner rather than later before it is too late.

This conversation can be seen on my YouTube Channel at https://youtu.be/YyFwExene0w