Last week in my post, I stated, “It takes courage to stand for truth.” Throughout the ages, it has taken courage to stand for what is true, right and just, and in today’s postmodern culture, in many ways, it is even more difficult to stand strong for truth.
Postmodernity (or the postmodern culture) began to exist during the late 20th century. Most schools of thought believe modernity ended in the early 1980s and replaced by postmodernity. What difference does that make? It makes a tremendous difference if you are a Christian or anyone who believes in absolute truth. Postmodernists reject any notion of truth that is universal or absolute. Instead, they argue that truth is relative and what is true for one person does not necessarily have to be true for another.
This presents a major conflict for Christians who believe in the Word of God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ as “truth.” When we talk to a postmodernist and make claims to absolute truth, we are met with suspicion, ridicule, or worse. This is a major problem, Al Mohler reminds us, in his book, He Is Not Silent: Preaching in a Postmodern World:
“Christianity is meaningless apart from the gospel…For Christianity to surrender the claim that the gospel is universally true and objectively established is to surrender the center of our faith…Our claim is that the Bible is the Word of God for all – a claim that is deeply offensive to the postmodern worldview, which charges all who claim universal truth with imperialism and oppression.”
According to postmodernists, people who believe in absolute truth are doing so only to serve their own interests. Postmodernists believe that laws, traditions, and truth claims are only designed to oppress people and people need to be liberated. We see this in various groups today, and when Christians say we believe in the truth of God’s Word, we are labeled intolerant, mean-spirited, or foolish.
This becomes even more problematic when we realize that most students of this generation are being taught in our public schools and universities with a postmodern ideology. An ideology that is anti-God and directly opposed to absolute truth. This leads to a society that is morally relativistic and perverse. When alternative lifestyles that are sinful are celebrated as morally equal.
However, God’s Word gives truth, wisdom and encouragement from Philippians 4:8-9:
“Finally brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things…practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.”
May the Lord bless you with His grace, love and truth!