Absolute Truth

1
Absolute Truth

• And Western Culture

2
Modernism

• Where human reason is the final authority
• The Bible is subject to mans wisdom
• Science and technology are the Saviors of the
  human race
• We can solve all our problems
• Yet modernism failed to deliver an absolute
  standard

3

• Where once it was believed that liberal
  education and the application of science would
  abolish the problems of the world, these beliefs
  are now treated with open skepticism

4
Postmodernism

• There are no absolutesand for this reason
  authentic Christianity is rejected Of course such
  a claim is self-defeating. The statement there
  are no absolutes is an absolute

5

• And you will know the truth (John 832)
• I am the way, and the truth (John 146)
• The word of truth, the gospel (Col. 15)
• Who desires all men to be saved and to come to
  the knowledge (full and accurate knowledge) of
  the truth (1 Timothy 24)
• Walking in truth (2 John 4)

6
All beliefs equally valid

• Except the Biblical view
• Something is true if it is true for me
• Wanting to make everything a matter of opinion
  (Romans 14)
• No two people can see the Bible alike (1
  Corinthians 110)
• What the passage means to me rather than what
  does the passage mean?

7
What is true for me is not true for you?

• What about Hitlers truth?
• Postmodernism destroys all objective foundations
  and replaces them with nothing. Its values are
  anarchy, mutants, absence, anti-form, anxiety,
  irrationalism, and helplessness. It is a denial
  of objective truth in favor of humans making up
  their own realities

8
Deconstruction

• The text never means what it appears to mean
• All writers had ulterior motives
• Biblical writers were prejudiced and influenced
  by the times in which they lived
• Everyone has colored glasses that they can never
  remove

9

• Of course such claims do not apply to the
  writings of biblical critics. They always make
  exceptions for themselves. They do not have
  colored glasses on, they do not have ulterior
  motives, and they are not being influenced by the
  culture in which they live. In effect, they are
  inspired the Bible is not---in other words their
  writings are the absolute standard

10
When a culture is declining

• A sense of abandon, people yield to their
  impulses at the expense of their well-being
• Truancy, escapism, retreating in the world of
  distraction and entertainment
• Sense of drift
• Sense of guilt, self-loathing, moral abandon
• Uncritical tolerance

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The church in decline

• We cannot understand the Bible alike
• The more I study the less I know
• Everyone is guilty of believing some error
• You would do the same thing in the same
  situationso dont judge
• Love takes precedence over rules
• Spirit of the law not the letter
• Gray area

12
Moral Dilemmas?

• Look closer Rahab hid spies
• There are none 1 Corinthians 1013
• We are to be faithful in the face of death
  (Revelation 210)
• We are not allowed to avoid persecution (Matthew
  510-12)
• Compromising creates more problems than is solves
  (Genesis 1210ff)

13
Situation Ethics?

• Joseph, Daniels friends did not believe in them
• Men assume the outcome will be goodbut man
  cannot predict the future
• We cannot control the outcome
• Beware of manufactured situations
• What is the eternal picture of the situation?

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Applications

• Be salt and light now
• Actually follow Matthew 1815-17
• Confront sin early on
• Do not be cheap with your soul
• Remember your children are watching
• Draw the line early on