By Naomi Guachalla
“Yes, that tree is green” I said firmly and confidently without thinking that someone could deny it. However, the response was “maybe it’s green for you, but it’s blue for me and don’t you dare say I’m wrong”. Perplexed I just thought “wait! Are you seriously denying something so trivial?”
If you are a child who still does not distinguish colors well or a person who is color blind, then there would be no problem, it is just a matter of patiently explaining reality to them. But I was talking to a college student in his last years and, worst of all, a major in the hard sciences. The discussion, of course, did not end there, he still had much more to say: “maybe that is YOUR truth, but I have another and you have to respect it. You have your truth and leave mine alone. How arrogant of you to believe that you know the truth and want to convince others, you should be more tolerant”…. Sounds familiar?
After the failed attempt to find the truth through science and reason in the modern era, the world entered a new era: the postmodern, in which it decided to renounce all knowledge of it, denying the existence of a single truth. This era is characterized by distrusting all logical reasoning and embracing subjectivity. According to this current, the only thing we must accept as true is what we feel, so that everything one wants can be true.
This would not be a problem if only evil did not come out of our hearts (Genesis 6:5) and if it were not more deceitful than all things (Jeremiah 17:9), but that is the reality. So postmodernity ends up being just one more excuse to live delivered to our perversity. A world without absolute truth is a world without morality, without Word, without God… It is a world without meaning, since everything is relative.
Probably now you are thinking, what a sad reality that of the secular world, but obviously in the church these problems do not occur; Well, we do have the truth… Or well, at least… “our” truth.
Relativism and the Word of God
The relativism of postmodernity has infiltrated the church in such a way that some now hold that two contrary interpretations can be true and that we cannot say that either is wrong. This implies that everyone can have their own truth and cannot be judged. To say that an interpretation is incorrect has become evidence of great arrogance and lack of love towards others.
But this is extremely ironic, because it is rather arrogant not to be willing for someone else to judge and correct our truth.
“You continue with your truth and leave mine alone” is an idea that shows a great lack of humility, and not only that, but also shows that we carry characteristics of the so-called “crystal generation”; because we can’t stand someone else pointing out our faults.
All of this is also ironic because loving is not synonymous with shutting up and leaving the other in error, but rather correcting and guiding others towards the truth. It is essential to judge others, because the Word commands us to watch over each other, exhorting us so that we do not stray (James 5.20, Matthew 18:15-17). That truly is love.
This idea that different interpretations can exist and both be true is part of a subjectivism equally characteristic of postmodernity.
Feelings above reason
As we mentioned before, this era of postmodernism greatly exalts feelings overriding reason.
Unfortunately, many believers have indulged in this as well. There are those who justify their actions and thoughts based on subjectivisms that are impossible to verify objectively and rationally, even when these are contrary to the truths clearly expressed in the Word of God. Somehow his feelings have become the ultimate authority.
This is especially alarming when it is said that it is the Holy Spirit guiding us to these truths, since there is only one truth (John 17:17) and the Holy Spirit is supposed to guide us towards it (John 16.13).
It makes no sense to say that the Spirit, who by the way inspired all of God’s Word, guides us through our feelings to think and do things contrary to it. However, it is what many Christians think and defend, and for this reason they put themselves in danger; because where our feelings rule and there is no objective truth (the Word) about us, we have freedom to do whatever we want. Something very convenient for the sin that dwells in the believer, but of great harm to his soul.
The truth confined to private life
Unfortunately, postmodernism has not only affected our interpretation of the Word, but also our way of proclaiming it. This relativistic world demands that the truths expressed in the Bible be kept only for the private life of the believer, not being able to apply them to society. Sadly, we believers have given in to that demand many times. We believe that the all-powerful and wise Creator of the universe has given us the only infallible guide for faith and life, but even so we do not dare to apply it outside of our private and personal lives, because others may not share this truth and do not we can judge them.
Without realizing it, we put the truth aside to please others, that postmodern world that only wants to discard Christian ethics to continue sinking into its evil. But of course this is difficult to accept, so we usually disguise it as love for our neighbor, as if it could exist without the truth.
The evidence that we have given in to the world agenda of tolerance, as Pastor Parsons says, is that many Christians and churches consider it to be WORSE TO JUDGE THAN TO DO EVIL.
Perhaps this is the reason why we enjoy so much freedom as Christians and persecution does not break out where we are. A world that is not confronted with the truth of its sin because we dare not judge it, is calm with Christian ethics; because those who support it do not dare to apply it to others who may not want to accept it. We have ceased to be the light and salt by confining the truth to our private lives.
So, what can we do now?
Postmodern ideas have turned the world into a chaos in which there is no truth and therefore evil is given free rein.
However, we know that there is such a truth and that it is revealed in the Word of God to guide us in the midst of all this darkness. We must strive to study it deeply, being willing to have our interpretations evaluated and we can come to understand it in His grace.
And then we must proclaim it to the whole world, because regardless of whether they want to accept it or not, it is the truth and only in it will we find freedom.
Bibliography
- Dellutri, S. (2016). The world we preach to. Truth to live.
- Geisler, N. Brooks, R. Apologetics: Valuable Tools for Defending the Faith.
- Pearcey, N. (2014). full truth. YWAM.
- Parsons, B. (2021). Our unchanging ethic. Tabletalk. Ligonier Ministries.
- Lohmann, M. (2021). Do not fear persecution. Tabletalk. Ligonier Ministries.
