Live out your truth. Yolo (You only live once). You do you. Live your best life now. Truth is relative. Be your authentic self.  I’m sure you’ve heard phrases like these before and weren’t sure where they had come from or what to make of them. 

You do you and be your authentic self, in particular, are very appealing to a lot of people because they encourage people to let it go and to be free from expectations, and rules and live as their ‘true’ self. 

This kind of thinking and philosophy stems from postmodernism, which has been prevalent in our education systems and culture for a very long time. In a nutshell, postmodernism encourages people to be very critical about any claim that is made, to question everything, and to let people think they can be in charge. 

While I think it is good to think critically about many aspects of life, postmodernism doesn’t really do this. It tends to criticise, dismiss and not come up with real solutions. It focuses more on thinking emotionally than logically, which when played out never ends well. 

Of course, being passionate and caring about something is important. God did not make us like robots. But if we are taught to think with our feelings rather than think through an idea or a situation, then we will almost always make poor decisions. And that is not what God wants for us. 

No one is immune to postmodern thought. We have all been affected by it one way or another. Even some churches have been heavily influenced by postmodern ideas so much so that they reflect and imitate how the world acts and what it says and not what Scripture teaches. 

Here are three ideas from postmodernism that some churches have embraced and are seriously problematic. 

1. Everything Is Relative

Relativism is the backbone of postmodern thought. It is the belief that the way we view truth and reality is based on social, cultural and nowadays political norms. 

Many Christians are attracted to the idea of relativism because on the surface it appears to be non-confrontational and accepting of others. In our culture today, people are more divided than ever and many Christians don’t want to cause division. 

As a Christian, you feel the pressure to live at peace with everyone (Romans 12:18) and lead a quiet life and mind your own business (1 Thessalonians 4:11), so it makes sense why you may be drawn to relativism.

Relativism also, on the surface, appears to take the pressure and weight that you feel to evangelize to the lost as relativism claims that there are many ways or paths to God, there is no way to know who is right, and people can get to heaven by being good. 

The harsh reality is relativism causes a Christian to commit adultery with God. It encourages them to adopt a moral system that is opposed to God and what He has said in His Word. It leads Christians to a position of being God and deciding what is right or wrong, which breaks the first commandment “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3). 

In addition, adopting relativistic thinking leads Christians to construct God by their own language or create a god they would like to follow, which breaks the second commandment “You shall not make idols” (Exodus 20:4-6). While the context of this verse refers to making objects, such as the golden calf, and giving worship to them, creating a god in our own image applies here. You are worshipping a god that you have created in your own mind that is not the God of the Bible. 

The first of Jesus’ two commandments “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Matt. 22:37; Mark 12:30) reiterates Exodus 20:3-6 as it states that Christians are to dedicate every part of themselves to the Lord and to worship Him only. Relativism would only get in the way of that and hence why it would seriously harm the Christian. 

Relativism also affects the Christian morally. If morals are relative, that is there are no universal moral values that are true for all people in all times and places (ethical relativism),  then murder, rape, torturing of babies for fun, genocide and slavery would not be seen as morally wrong. Even a non-Christian would know this is absurd because their conscience tells them so. 

For a Christian to embrace relativism, they would have to throw out Jesus’ second commandment, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself” (Matt 22:39; Mark 12:31), which encompasses the latter half of the 10 commandments. 

Therefore embracing relativism and or postmodernism is serious in God’s eyes and it leads people away from Him. 

2. Being Certain That Something Is True is Arrogant 

Postmodernism strongly discourages the idea of having absolute certainty that something is true. It views this as intolerant and quite simply arrogant. 

With any belief, we need to first believe something and find out if that belief is justified by looking at enough evidence. If there is reliable and sufficient evidence to back up the belief, we can humbly and confidently say that the belief is true. We could be wrong, but there is no real reason to doubt the truth given the evidence. 

Also, truth does not depend on our confidence in it being so. For instance, my view of the Bible from a new believer until now, a more seasoned believer, has no influence on what the Bible actually is. The Bible is what it is, that is God’s Word, whether or not I am absolutely sure in my belief about it, or even if I thought it wasn’t. 

Of course, you as a Christian do not want to come off dogmatically in your beliefs. No one does. But just because you believe that the evidence for Christianity is overwhelming in favour of it being the truth is not dogmatic, arrogant or intolerant. It is a justified belief because you have done your due diligence to look into it and have come to the conclusion that it is true. 

At the same time, it is best to hold our beliefs with humility because there is a possibility of being mistaken (though there may not be any sufficient reason to think that we are mistaken) and we do not want to turn people off. It’s okay not to have all the answers, but it is important to go find them out as much as possible.   

You can be grounded and yet be humble in what you claim: as a Christian, you should be confident that you have the truth in the authoritative, inerrant Word of God, yet not hold all your Christian beliefs the same way. 

For instance, the evidence that Jesus literally and bodily rose from the grave is staggering and is a justified belief. There is more evidence for this belief, than say,  which end times interpretation is correct. It is possible that you could mistake some of the interpretations and applications of Scripture, but other passages are so crystal clear that there’s no room for you to doubt.  

3. Churches Need To Be Postmodern to Reach The Culture 

This claim is simply not true. Many young people today are moving away from postmodern-like churches because they are seeking truth. Fortunately, there are churches out there that believe there is objective truth, that truth can be known and that Scripture provides the foundation for truth. 

McLauren, who considers himself a postmodern Christian, describes a typical, modern evangelical church as controlling and not compassionate (legalistic). This does not hold much water because it is entirely based on his own experiences at one particular church.  

Granted, the experience can be true and of course, legalism is not the way to go (Jesus Himself opposed this often). But you cannot paint every church with one brushstroke and claim that Christian churches are like X. 

R. Scott Smith, who specializes in postmodernism, talks about how his church, Trinity Evangelical Free Church in Redlands, California, simply debunks the notion that churches need to become postmodern in order to grow: 

• The congregation has a variety of members (young, old, international, professors, business people, lawyers etc). 
• It is a missions-minded church that frequently goes out to serve the community in a number of ways (improve local schools, help disadvantaged families and train people in computer skills) and show the love of Christ. 
• They emphasize community and help people find fellowship through small groups. 
• They have a ministry called Pathways which is a support group for people who face a variety of struggles, including divorce, homosexuality, sexual abuse and so forth. The groups aim to show God’s compassion to people and do not try to fix their problems with simple formulas. 
• Trinity offers classes on understanding core Christian beliefs, apologetics and contemporary topics. 
• They believe in the inerrancy of Scripture and that there is objective truth. 

In sum, relativism and postmodernism are damaging ideologies to society as a whole, but also to the Church. It leaves people more confused than it helps them. It severely harms a Christian’s walk with the Lord as through relativism, they replace Him with an idol: either themselves or things they hold higher such as race, gender and identity.

Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). We cannot work out our own salvation. We cannot get to Heaven ourselves. If we could, then there would have been no reason for Jesus to die on the cross and be raised again. 

Being grounded in truth and in the truth of God’s Word is the cure to many of the problems we see today. The question is, are we humble enough to say that we might be mistaken and need to reassess our view of Christianity and God? 

References

• Melissa Doughtery, Why Relativism Works for The Powerful  https://youtu.be/OE0wQOu5DMc 
• R. Scott Smith (2005), Truth and The New Kind of Christian: The Emerging Effects of Postmodernism in The Church. https://www.amazon.com/Truth-New-Kind-Christian-Postmodernism/dp/1581347405

“We cannot hate someone because of God’s Word, but we cannot affirm someone because of God’s Word. We have to be prepared to say that we are unprepared to rewrite the Bible in order to accommodate a society that needs the Bible and who needs the Jesus who is the focus on the Bible.”

Alistair Begg