Monday, August 13, 2007

Truth Or Dead?

To most Americans, questioning the truthfulness of another person's religious view is showing intolerance. While intolerance in the past dealt with bigotry or prejudice, the postmodern usage of the word has come to mean simply disagreeing with anyone else's beliefs. In other words, according to postmodernists, to question another's view is to invade and pillage a different cultural context - or a different "reality" - than our own. Strangely, though, postmodernists grant one exception to this universal prohibition against intolerance. They teach that it is okay to question and even denounce the religious views pejoratively labeled "fundamentalism." They argue that those they label fundamentalists are unacceptable because they subscribe to universal truth claims. {Excerpts taken from The Death Of Truth by Dennis McCallum.}

While I will not get into a debate concerning the "logic" (if that is what you want to call what postmodernists do...) that is used to defend such teachings, we, as believers, need to be aware that such thinking has permeated our society. In fact, many churches have fallen prey to such teachings. For example, many "Christians" think that it does not matter what you believe concerning salvation, just so long as you are sincere or a good person. Well, that is incorrect. After all, you can be "sincerely" wrong! The Bible does not allow for such ideas in the area of salvation. Jesus taught that salvation is through faith (repentance and belief/trust in Jesus Christ), and there is no other way. There are many other examples, but for the sake of time, I will not dare try to list them all. And while there are areas we have freedom to debate and strive to understand, there are certain universal truths that we cannot change, no matter how hard we try.

So, I say it's time we stop backpedaling and start fighting for the truth. We need to fight for the truth in our families, communities, and churches. We need to fight for the faith against such pompous teachings as that of postmodernism. We must fight the good fight and be found faithful. Yet, how do we fight the fight without being hypocritical and condemning? We love others as God loves them, sacrifice for others as Christ sacrificed for all, and be faithful to God's calling in our life.

2 comments:

Philip said...

I told an atheist in an online discussion that I have never been too awefully concerned about offending others by my assertions that Christ has the market cornered on truth. Christianity is unashamedly EXCLUSIVE as to what is true, and INCLUSIVENESS by definition cannot be completely true. His reply was that regardless of ultimate, absolute truth, he'd choose to rely on personal life experience to be his "guideing conscience." He also took Christendom as a whole to task for being hypocritical in regards to our denunciation of Islam as being violent ("Remember the Crusades?" is a popular dart thrown my way).
From what I've seen and read, this is the sentiment of the overwhelming majority of the up-and-coming generation of Americans, not to mention Europe and the rest of the "free" world. We are an irritation to many of them. "OK, OK, I get it! You love Jesus! Now bug off!" seems to be the prevailing attitude. Online, I've learned to smile, knock the dust off my feet, and move on.
Face to face, however, it's a different story. Now we're talking about building a level of trust over time, living the Truth out in front of them, and generally being on our best behavior. This is where we sink or swim. Right now I feel like I'm dog-paddling...

Bro. Matt said...

I couldn't have said it better myself...