"Again, if the trumpet does not sound a clear call, who will get ready for battle?" (1 Cor. 14:8, HCSB).
"...[I]n the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth" (1 Tim. 3:15, NKJV).
Postmodernism has not only infiltrated ("crept in unawares") our institutions of higher learning among elitist types but now clerics are being infected with its heresies. Their goal is to completely revamp, retool, and rework the church with their distorted concept of "truth." Postmodern Christianity, aka the "post-conservative" or the "Emerging Church movement," is gaining converts--if you can call them that. This avant-garde wave of pseudo-evangelism is not so much against churches per se, as against the authority of churches, and especially the established Church, especially Romanism. They firmly believe in keeping faith privatized as much as possible--the jury is still out on whether they are truly evangelical and spread the Word, or if they are just leaches and proselytizers on other existing churches and believers.
This philosophy insists truth is relative, incommunicable, unknowable, subjective, and certainly not universal or absolute. They extend this to theology in saying that no pastor can be certain of his teachings and rightly present them as dogma or in a dogmatic way, but must leave room for disagreement and personal interpretation. They must admit they could be wrong; it's just true for them, and that's just their interpretation!
Typical Postmodern inquires: Why not sing ballads from The Beatles, such as "All You Need Is Love?" Why does the pastor get to preach and the churchgoers don't? Shouldn't church be democratic and not exclusive, but as inclusive as possible, open to all faiths? Isn't all truth relative? What does this passage mean to you, as opposed to what is meant? (When you do surgery to the Bible's text and eliminate propositional truth you can believe anything and become subject to no one's authority, wisdom, or guidance.) They are not against God, just anyone person telling them what to believe about Him. Consequently, they resent authority (which they see as leading to controversy, which is always to be avoided), and authority figures, but all in the name of collegiality and getting along singing "Kumbaya".
You might hear them as if they have come full circle in the Protestant mainstream church saying: "I don't believe in the inspiration of Scripture anymore!" They way they now "follow Jesus" is by the teaching of the church! This is a reversion to pre-Reformation days when the Roman Church held absolute power and authority over all dogma and the parishioners were bound by church dogma and faith itself was even defined as a simple agreement with church dogma. It was the Reformers who set us free from this authority and gave us the right to interpret the Bible ourselves; however, with this privilege comes the responsibility to interpret it correctly, as 2 Tim. 2:15, NKJV, declares "... rightly dividing the Word of truth." We are no longer slaves to the church's interpretation and dogma, and that is meant to mean that churches are now autonomous and compete with each other for the truth--competition meant to keep them honest.
What else do they believe, or not believe in Postmodernism? They believe that if something works for you it is true for you--truth is personal or subjective and we must find our own truths--relativism. What the logical conclusion is that we will have churches teaching such heresies as there is no hell to shun because some people prefer not to believe in it and it doesn't work for them. Some Christians prefer not to see God as the Judge, but only as a doting, indulgent Father that is a genie. Interpreting the Word no longer depends upon learning and the science of hermeneutics, but of sharing ignorance and Christians deciding what they believe the Bible means and what it means to them, not what the author meant. This is all the result of believers being ignorant of basic doctrine and not knowing what they believe or being learned in how to arrive at truth objectively.
We don't go to Bible study to become dependent on the teacher, but to arrive at a point of maturity, possibly being able to start one ourselves, by virtue of learning how to learn and study. We cannot kiss twenty centuries of scholarship goodbye because of some newfangled philosophy of uncertainty and hermeneutic of skepticism and doubt. Postmodernists deny that we have arrived at an orthodox gospel yet, or that we know the truth at all as a group, but must keep the door open and challenging. It is dangerous to posit that someone else's truth has no power over you.
Pragmatism is about what's practical and what works, not what's true, just as the usefulness of an idea is tested by results, not truth, which we don't have the right to ascertain for another, according to Postmodernists. That's why they may say: That doctrine doesn't work for me, so, therefore, it's invalid. Go for whatever works for you, rather than be a seeker of the truth. But Jesus came to bear witness of the truth, and those of the truth will listen to Him (cf. John 18:37)! Many things that are not true work: illicit drugs, such as cannabis; yoga; TM; hypnotism; astrology; channeling; crystals; Ouija boards; karma; and even reincarnation. These methodologies do work for some and give them purpose and meaning in life, but they are not true. The point of Christianity is that it is not true because it works--and it does work--but that it works because it's true! Viva la difference!
Postmodernist Christians have denied the power of the living, abiding Word, the very foundation of our orthodoxy--scholarship of our church history, and even the inerrancy and infallibility of the Word, opening it up to misinterpretation and any stand for dogmatism of any doctrine as being in vain. They claim to be evangelical, but believe that, if they convert atheists to theists, they are converts! The ultimate truth is said to be unknowable (cf. John 8:32 which says that "you shall know the truth"), and we cannot boast of having arrived at orthodoxy or even the gospel yet. There is an underlying contempt for all certainty, and truth is said to be ambiguous at best, even unworthy of debate--all controversy is inherently evil. They deny the basic premise of Scripture that God alone delimits and defines the Truth, and it's not subject to or open to debate but is absolute, universal, and eternal.
To conclude: Christians are to love the truth, seek the truth, know the truth, and desire to live it in out in love by consequence. Nonbelievers "reject the truth" and refuse to "love the truth so to be saved" (cf. Rom. 2:8; 2 Thess. 2:10). We need Christians who will "contend earnestly for the faith (cf. Jude 3, NKJV) and recognize heresy creeping in by virtue of having a foundation in the truth. The best witness a Postmodernist believer can utter is that they think Jesus "has worked for them." Buddhists say this of Buddha. Caveat: refusing to acknowledge, defend, and consequently know the truth is a sort of unbelief. A word to the wise: Never forget that there's eternal, knowable, universal, absolute, objective Truth with a capital T. Soli Deo Gloria!
"...[I]n the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth" (1 Tim. 3:15, NKJV).
Postmodernism has not only infiltrated ("crept in unawares") our institutions of higher learning among elitist types but now clerics are being infected with its heresies. Their goal is to completely revamp, retool, and rework the church with their distorted concept of "truth." Postmodern Christianity, aka the "post-conservative" or the "Emerging Church movement," is gaining converts--if you can call them that. This avant-garde wave of pseudo-evangelism is not so much against churches per se, as against the authority of churches, and especially the established Church, especially Romanism. They firmly believe in keeping faith privatized as much as possible--the jury is still out on whether they are truly evangelical and spread the Word, or if they are just leaches and proselytizers on other existing churches and believers.
This philosophy insists truth is relative, incommunicable, unknowable, subjective, and certainly not universal or absolute. They extend this to theology in saying that no pastor can be certain of his teachings and rightly present them as dogma or in a dogmatic way, but must leave room for disagreement and personal interpretation. They must admit they could be wrong; it's just true for them, and that's just their interpretation!
Typical Postmodern inquires: Why not sing ballads from The Beatles, such as "All You Need Is Love?" Why does the pastor get to preach and the churchgoers don't? Shouldn't church be democratic and not exclusive, but as inclusive as possible, open to all faiths? Isn't all truth relative? What does this passage mean to you, as opposed to what is meant? (When you do surgery to the Bible's text and eliminate propositional truth you can believe anything and become subject to no one's authority, wisdom, or guidance.) They are not against God, just anyone person telling them what to believe about Him. Consequently, they resent authority (which they see as leading to controversy, which is always to be avoided), and authority figures, but all in the name of collegiality and getting along singing "Kumbaya".
You might hear them as if they have come full circle in the Protestant mainstream church saying: "I don't believe in the inspiration of Scripture anymore!" They way they now "follow Jesus" is by the teaching of the church! This is a reversion to pre-Reformation days when the Roman Church held absolute power and authority over all dogma and the parishioners were bound by church dogma and faith itself was even defined as a simple agreement with church dogma. It was the Reformers who set us free from this authority and gave us the right to interpret the Bible ourselves; however, with this privilege comes the responsibility to interpret it correctly, as 2 Tim. 2:15, NKJV, declares "... rightly dividing the Word of truth." We are no longer slaves to the church's interpretation and dogma, and that is meant to mean that churches are now autonomous and compete with each other for the truth--competition meant to keep them honest.
What else do they believe, or not believe in Postmodernism? They believe that if something works for you it is true for you--truth is personal or subjective and we must find our own truths--relativism. What the logical conclusion is that we will have churches teaching such heresies as there is no hell to shun because some people prefer not to believe in it and it doesn't work for them. Some Christians prefer not to see God as the Judge, but only as a doting, indulgent Father that is a genie. Interpreting the Word no longer depends upon learning and the science of hermeneutics, but of sharing ignorance and Christians deciding what they believe the Bible means and what it means to them, not what the author meant. This is all the result of believers being ignorant of basic doctrine and not knowing what they believe or being learned in how to arrive at truth objectively.
We don't go to Bible study to become dependent on the teacher, but to arrive at a point of maturity, possibly being able to start one ourselves, by virtue of learning how to learn and study. We cannot kiss twenty centuries of scholarship goodbye because of some newfangled philosophy of uncertainty and hermeneutic of skepticism and doubt. Postmodernists deny that we have arrived at an orthodox gospel yet, or that we know the truth at all as a group, but must keep the door open and challenging. It is dangerous to posit that someone else's truth has no power over you.
Pragmatism is about what's practical and what works, not what's true, just as the usefulness of an idea is tested by results, not truth, which we don't have the right to ascertain for another, according to Postmodernists. That's why they may say: That doctrine doesn't work for me, so, therefore, it's invalid. Go for whatever works for you, rather than be a seeker of the truth. But Jesus came to bear witness of the truth, and those of the truth will listen to Him (cf. John 18:37)! Many things that are not true work: illicit drugs, such as cannabis; yoga; TM; hypnotism; astrology; channeling; crystals; Ouija boards; karma; and even reincarnation. These methodologies do work for some and give them purpose and meaning in life, but they are not true. The point of Christianity is that it is not true because it works--and it does work--but that it works because it's true! Viva la difference!
Postmodernist Christians have denied the power of the living, abiding Word, the very foundation of our orthodoxy--scholarship of our church history, and even the inerrancy and infallibility of the Word, opening it up to misinterpretation and any stand for dogmatism of any doctrine as being in vain. They claim to be evangelical, but believe that, if they convert atheists to theists, they are converts! The ultimate truth is said to be unknowable (cf. John 8:32 which says that "you shall know the truth"), and we cannot boast of having arrived at orthodoxy or even the gospel yet. There is an underlying contempt for all certainty, and truth is said to be ambiguous at best, even unworthy of debate--all controversy is inherently evil. They deny the basic premise of Scripture that God alone delimits and defines the Truth, and it's not subject to or open to debate but is absolute, universal, and eternal.
To conclude: Christians are to love the truth, seek the truth, know the truth, and desire to live it in out in love by consequence. Nonbelievers "reject the truth" and refuse to "love the truth so to be saved" (cf. Rom. 2:8; 2 Thess. 2:10). We need Christians who will "contend earnestly for the faith (cf. Jude 3, NKJV) and recognize heresy creeping in by virtue of having a foundation in the truth. The best witness a Postmodernist believer can utter is that they think Jesus "has worked for them." Buddhists say this of Buddha. Caveat: refusing to acknowledge, defend, and consequently know the truth is a sort of unbelief. A word to the wise: Never forget that there's eternal, knowable, universal, absolute, objective Truth with a capital T. Soli Deo Gloria!
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