Is abortion wrong? Is homosexuality wrong? Is looking at porn wrong? Is being a porn star wrong? Is killing your wife wrong? Is manipulation wrong? Is lying wrong?
Is every woman beautiful? Is every child a blessing? Is it better to die for someone else, or live for yourself? Is marriage a beautiful thing? Is the sunset real, or is it a figment of my imagination? Are shadows really shadows, or are they only things we see when we want to?
Is it possible to understand these things? Or do each of have our own idea of things? Your surroundings taught you to be a certain way, so now you perceive the world and right and wrong through that perspective, while I perceive mine through my perspective and we go on our dandy way believing our own lies.
Or, is it that the universe is not fully comprehensible, we can never fully know the answers to anything, whether something is right or wrong, therefore we should stop having our debates about right and wrong and live with each other in perfect harmony?
Or, does everything we touch, see, and perceive have simply to do with our own mind?
In relativism, all points are equally valid. We can fuss over my opinion versus yours all day. You think lying is okay if it's going to keep someone from a painful reality. Pinocchio doesn't agree with you. You think abortion is perfectly fine because it's not a baby until it comes out of the womb, and Joe-Shmee thinks it's perfectly fine to kill a baby even if it does come out of the womb alive so long as the woman didn't want her child. Simba doesn't. You think it's okay to murder your wife as long as you have a good reason for it. Belle doesn't.
So, what do you do?
Sit around pondering your thoughts all day, trying to figure out what to believe and who is right, only to realize that you are the only person in the world who knows what's right for you?
Or perhaps you seek the counsel from someone you look up to, someone you admire, maybe you ask a pastor what he believes and you decide that's right for you.
Or, maybe you don't believe you can have an answer to anything. Maybe you believe right and wrong exists only in each person. Pinocchio can lie, it's okay for him. Scar can murder his brother, it's okay for him. Belle can leave Ugly in the dust and go after Prince Charming, have an affair with him, and watch Cinderella sink into depression.
It's all good in the hood so long as you believe it.
Sounds like chaos to me.
I don't believe that I can be wrong about all things. Some things, sure. Most things, yeah, sure, why not. But the reality of Jesus? No, thank you.
There is an absolute to me.
I don't need a bible to tell me. I don't need theological truths to show me. I don't need historical evidence to disprove my skepticism. I don't need to question whether or not I'm making Him up to feel good about myself, or whether it's okay or not to say for a fact that Jesus is Lord.
No.
I don't need this world to show me Jesus.
As my blind, special-needs friend says, "Oh, yes. I know Jesus. He's right here in my heart."
He may not know much, but he knows that.
Forget relativism, universalism, monism, thinking-thinking-thinking-too much isms.
I don't need Psychology to tell me Jesus is God, He is my savior, my rock, and right here in my heart... He lives.
"Today, a particularly insidious obstacle to the task of education is the massive presence in our society and culture of that relativism which, recognizing nothing as definitive, leaves as the ultimate criterion only the self with its desires. And under the semblance of freedom it becomes a prison for each one, for it separates people from one another, locking each person into his or her own 'ego'" Pope Benedict XVI
25 comments:
I should add, though, that the bible, theology, all that can help in other areas... but as for knowing Jesus is real. I look to Autistic people who've never read a bible in their life, couldn't think about theology if they wanted to... but they know. And I think they know in a much deeper way.
Well....psychology won't tell you Jesus is God, because the whole premise of psychology is that man is capable of deciding his own truth and fixing his own problems. God is taken completely out of the picture.
You hit on something very true in your post - the need for absolute Truth. Who, or what, sets the standard? How can we know it? Can what is really, absolutely true be known objectively? Obviously, as Bible-believing Christians, we know the answer - and faith, as you know, should always be based on fact (not exclusively on feelings), which is pretty much why the whole field of apologetics exists.
But here's where it gets really messy: the moral relativism and popularity of one's own subjective truth being elevated above what GOD has declared Truth does not exist only among agnostics and philosophy students - it's invaded the Church. The so-called "Emergent Church", while admirably committed to social justice, has attempted to re-define the Gospel. Standing for the truth of orthodoxy is seen as the highest arrogance. Uncertainty about anything is mistaken for humility - folks like Rob Bell and Brian MacLaren, who grace the covers of Christian magazines, have in essence denied every single major tenet of the Christian faith (in particular, the doctrines of substitutionary atonement and the necessity of faith in Christ for salvation - a claim that's made over 100 tiimes, direcly or implicitly, in the New Testament).
The EC motto is "how can we be sure that we're sure of anything anymore?" and the related "Who are we to say...?" That last one in particular makes me cringe. WE are NOT the ones to "say". GOD IS. And He already DID say -- it's called the BIBLE. If someone like me, who's never been to seminary, or you or any other disciple of Christ, can read His Word and know the major tenets of Christ's teachings (not to mention 2,000 years of Christian theological writings within the bounds of orthodoxy), sorry, but it ain't rocket science. How you can have lesbian priests calling abortion a "blessing" (here in Cambridge, btw) who claim the Name of Christ is beyond me. It shows you how powerful that delusion is to which God gave them over.
This is one way we know for certain we're in the last days. Those WITHIN the Church have fallen en masse to the siren call of relativity, and the Emergent Church, much of post-modern evangelicalism, and the myriad cults in existence affirm that. People won't put up with sound doctrine anymore Ash - like the Bible says, they will listen to those who tell them what their itching ears want to hear. This transcends denominational lines - I don't even need to name names, because there are so many false teachers (and so many "salad bar" Christians).
A book on this subject that I think you'd REALLY enjoy is John MacArthur's "The Truth War". He talks a lot about this whole development of subjective "theology" where there are no absolutes, and he gets into Church history a little bit - the heretical groups in the first centuries (but in layman's terms). I was so engrossed New Year's Eve reading all about the Arians and Athanasius that I completely missed the ball dropping....
Anyway, great observations. Keep up the fight of faith and always remember where our one and only, final standard of Truth comes from: God's inspired, inerrant, revealed Word.
I'm re-reading Alice Von Hildebrand's "The Privilege of Being a Woman", and the quote you shared from Pope Benedict reminded me of it:
"The world in which we now live is a world whose outlook is so distorted that we absolutize what is relative (money-making, power, success) and relativize what is absolute (truth, moral values, and God)."
Relativism is the most irritating and pervasive problem of our time, and it completely stonewalls any attempt at explaining truth.
Ashley,
Thanks for the great post! I particularly liked your point about knowing that the reality of Jesus is an absolute. Knowledge can be an obstacle to some believers--if they can't sort out all the paradoxes and apparent inconsistencies in the Bible, their faith is seriously shaken. But we won't be given a theology test at the Second Coming. All doctrine (all of life) converges at one point: come to Jesus to receive abundant life. If that's a daily, living reality, who cares whether or not we fully understand the Trinity?
We have an autistic son. When he's on the verge of a tantrum, he asks us to pray with him, and he almost never has them anymore. At the age of nine, he knows that Jesus gives him victory of his sins. Not bad for someone who can't carry on a conversation.
This post really spoke to me today. I feel like I 've been to caught up in "thinking"
Your friend is right. Jesus is right there in our hearts. We travel great distances in our minds, when really he was with us all along.
This reminds me of when Jesus said, God takes pleasure in revealing truth to the humble and childlike before the proud and learned.
Thank you for this post Ashley.
"I am the way and the Truth”
With that being said I will quote our friend Mr. Daltrey “ Nothing more needs to be said I’m just banging on my old piano, getting in tune to the straight an narrow".
My gosh - i keep coming back because I like to try and try and try before I give up. But you know... in this instance it's the comments on this blog that prove the biggest hurdle for me. The only thing I could get because of the highly 'intellectual' language, nominalisations and general jargon was an undertone of judgement seeping through. 'We know better don't we wink wink.' I don't know you Marie and you probably are lovely but your post just bled arrogance to me. Again... i didn't get any Jesus out of this. Maybe it's the cultural differences - I live in England. So I'm prob missing some references there. Anyway... i think it's best for me to bow out and leave all of you to your speeches. I'll have to try and figure out Jesus elsewhere. Kind regards.
...Marie said, "Anyway, great observations. Keep up the fight of faith and always remember where our one and only, final standard of Truth comes from: God's inspired, inerrant, revealed Word."
Amein to that!
There is a movie that was made several years ago that drives home that comment Marie, "The Time Changer" I'm not a great fan of 'Christian' movies but this one speaks volumes, huh, that must be why it was a big hit with the christian audiance.
Shalom,
YahChna in TN
Noelle, if people on this blog bother you so much, please feel free to stop reading it. Marie did not come across the way you have made her out to be. Marie is not like you, and it's okay for her to be her. Even if she was displaying some charaterstic that is not Christ-like, so what? We're not Christ. Which is why He died for us. Because we'll never be Jesus. He lives in us. We try our best to choose Him instead of ourselves, but guess what? Sometimes we fail.
That's why we need each other, love, and the grace He gave us on that cross.
Christians are failures too, we just bring our failures to the foot of Jesus instead of something else. So if you keep looking for the perfection of Jesus in people, you will always be disappointed.
Instead of picking on people's failures, look at their failures and realize how beautiful Jesus is, and then look at that person's failures through Jesus' eyes and you will see a different picture.
I'm not looking for perfection Ashley - and it's funny because everything you just said could totally apply to marie's post. I did explain it may have been my own cultural differences and I did say that I'm sure Marie is lovely. I just thought people might want to consider how they come across to others who are genuinely looking for some truth. Seems to me you only want to see what you see. As I said I am bowing out.
Noelle, not sure what you mean since you spoke negatively about Marie. Does that mean you think arrogant, judgmental, highly intelligent people are lovely?
You said her comment was a hurdle to you... which means you were looking for something in her that you felt didn't measure up to what you think she should be like...
Perhaps if you really were just confused about cultural differences you could have just emailed her and she would have explained.
We gave George a book. Read the first three chapters.
Tremendous insight on this present subject and current relations with others on this and friends blogs and todays culture.
Noelle,
I didn't see a problem with Marie's post, but I wanted to tell you that your comments convicted me. I'm often guilty of "bleeding arrogance" in my theological points, and you reminded me that I have a sacred responsibility to represent Jesus in love and humility. There is no excuse. If my faith is real, it will transform my heart and my life.
The fact that you keep coming back demonstrates the power of the gospel to transcend human failures. Please don't give up. I appreciate your honest search for truth. It means that God is at work in your life.
Right on Annette!
Wha...?
Why am I being picked on now? Because I went into some depth explaining the differences between Christianity and secular psychology, or because I defended the existence of objective truth...?
Noelle, Ashley knew that I had written a book which deals extensively with the first subject, and asked for my input. I was not trying to be arrogant or judgmental, if that was the charge. Part of the point I was trying to make was that WE aren't the "judges" or the ones who set the standards; GOD is.
Part of the whole issue with the liberal/emergent streams of Christianity is their denunciation of all absolute standards. This isn't my opinion; it's something I've read on extensively. Ashley highlighted a problem with the whole relativistic way of reasoning, and I pointed out how it has become (largely) acceptable in the Church. According to the EC, the only real "sin" is being certain in your convictions. Standing for the truth (doctrines that have been spelled out biblically for the last 2,000 years) is considered arrogance. I respectfully disagree with this. Saying (for example) that Jesus Christ is fully human and fully divine (the hypostatic union)and being categorical about it is not "arrogance".
Why am I justifying myself...there was nothing wrong with what I said or how I phrased it.
YahChna, I also saw "Time Changer". Good movie and a perfect example of what we're talking about.
Marie,
I hope you didn't take anything I said as an attack on you. I agree with everything you said, and you expressed it well. You obviously love theology, and so do I.
But Noelle's comments reminded me of my constant struggle to distill all theology to one overarching command: to come to Jesus and receive abundant life. True faith expresses itself through love. I'm not saying that you lost sight of that--just that I sometimes do.
Hi Anette -
I completely agree with you. That's the standard to which I adhere (or TRY to) as well. Love and truth are not mutually exclusive - you can't have one without the other.
Noelle was the one who took issue with something I said, claiming my post "bled arrogance", which genuinely surprised me.
The general criticism about "people who post here" also caught me off guard, as I don't recall ever interacting with Noelle before (and don't post here all that much).
There are certain truths that can be known with certainty. Uncertainty about revealed truths is not humility, as the modern trend seems to think. By extension, standing for truth and saying there ARE things that God has revealed with clarity is NOT arrogance. Truth is not relative. (And that's not arrogance or judgmentalism speaking).
Marie,
Not only are love and truth not mutually exclusive, love is the only biblical way of embracing truth. If I love God, I will spend time with him and honor his reputation. If I love my husband, I'll be faithful to him (in my mind, as well as in actual fact). If I love my children, I would never abort. If I love the poor, I will take care of them. If I love unbelievers, I will treat them with respect and meet them where they are. If I love people, I will speak the truth gently when necessary.
We as Christians SO OFTEN put our Christianness before love. Love flow from an intimate relationship with Christ, and everything that matters flows from love.
(None of that is an indictment of anything you said. It was just something I needed to get off my chest.)
Annette, I see your point and for the most part agree... except that I love my husband and often get pretty irritated at him (my own fault). I love God and I don't spend a lot of time with him right now. I love my kids and sometimes I want to lock them away in a closet of my mind to tune out their whines. I love my friends, but sometimes I hurt their feelings.
I know someone who says she loves her children, but she also said if she could go back into the past she would never have them. Also, she loves her kids but also believes in abortion if she gets pregnant again.
The things that you said are things that we probably should be doing all the time, but fact is... we fail and always will.
Even someone with an intimate relationship with Christ is bound to hurt someone at some point. It just happens.
Love changes lives. Without love our spiritual gifts have no meaning. But it also hurts. Because we fail.
And that is why Jesus is so important to me. Because without Him... my failures would lead to more failures and more pain and more destruction, instead of a bigger love, a redemption, a forgiveness, a way to show how perfect He is in the midst of my weakness.
Sometimes love is something we have to choose out of the truth we know it to be.
:)
Ashley,
I hear you, but it sounds like you're talking about human love; that is, the amount of love we can muster on our own. I'm talking about divine love that empowers us to love the way Jesus does. You say that you don't spend a lot of time with God right now. That may be why you're irritated with your husband, etc. God's gift to us is his love, and we receive it through faith (i.e., a constant openness to his Spirit).
Warmly,
Anette
Oh no... I just wrote out an entire comment that got knocked off...
Anyway... I don't spend as much time with God right now as I used to. An hour in the morning, afternoon, and night. I just can't with babies.
It's more dispersed throughout my day now. But that's just how it is.
And as for being irritated with my husband. It's PMS. :) But I'm working on being able to get rid of those pesky emotional/hormonal imbalances.
I'm a little confused by what you said though... do you mean that we can perfectly love if we spend more time with God?
No, I'm not talking about perfection. It's a matter of degree in this life, and it comes from surrender to God's Spirit, or asking him to work through us.
Jesus illustrates this principle in John 15, where he talks about the vine and the branches. To the extent we abide in him we bear fruit. And the fruit is of course love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. (I probably didn't get that right, but at least there's nine!)
You used to spend three hours praying every day? Wow! I'm not even necessarily talking about concentrated prayer (although that's important too), but just surrender to God throughout the day. Confess your weaknesses to God and ask him to work through you. That's what Paul was talking about when he said that he would rejoice in his weaknesses, because when he is weak he is strong. In our weaknesses we're more likely to rely on God's power. And that's what faith is all about.
Gotcha, that makes more sense! :)
Ashley, I went on your husband's blog, and he says something similar in the post, "Have I fallen away?" (So I must not have expressed it very well before.) Our salvation is 100% grace, but that grace changes us from the inside out.
What a nice tribute to you on his blog! I enjoy reading both of your blogs.
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