Ethics Experts? Who is Qualified to Determine Right and Wrong?

Sign of the times:

The Wall Street Journal (January 12, 2017)[1] reported that President-elect Trump put all his assets in a trust to be run by his children. According to the article, ethics experts say the trust and other measures do not create the firewall needed to fully insulate him from his holdings.

Ethics experts? We need ethics experts to tell us right from wrong? Who are they? Where did they come from? By what standard do they judge? Who appointed them? I suspect they are self-appointed elitists.

The problems they say they want to avoid are potential conflicts of interest. They anticipate problems because of crony capitalism, that is mercantilism, national socialism, or whatever other name you care to apply to what is just another form of collectivism. The government's favorites win the big-buck government contracts so the political entrepreneurs compete to satisfy the politicians and bureaucrats. The consumer is no longer king or, at least, his authority is severely limited.

If we had a judicial instead of an executive state, this would not be a problem. The president would be the chief judge of disputes between the people in a truly free market according to God's law. He would not be the CEO of the U.S. economy. If there were no legal plunder through unbiblical taxation, there would not be so much at stake to win or lose, so much temptation to corruption. And, we would not need the farce of “ethics experts” to tell us right from wrong.

I’ll tell you a secret: We already know right from wrong but we, ethics experts included, are pretending not to know what we know.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of people who suppress the truth by their unrighteousness, because what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world his invisible attributes—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, because they are understood through what has been made. So people are without excuse. (Rom. 1:18–19)

I think we are in a heap of trouble, and not because Trump doesn't have enough of a firewall between him and his assets. We need a firewall to protect us from God's judgment, and all the “ethics experts” in the world cannot save us. There is only one way out of this: repentance and the cross of Jesus Christ.

[1] The Wall Street Journal Audible.com, “The Morning Read Five Things You Need to Know in the News,” January 12, 2017.