Hello everyone! Lately I have been studying postmodernism, which is becoming more common. If you are not familiar with postmodernism, let me tell you that it is a major obstacle to preaching the Gospel to save souls. Postmodernism is a reaction to modernism, a mindset that truth can be understood, analyzed, and dissected with empirical study and logic. Postmodernism is the opposite; it is a worldview that says no true worldview exists. Postmodernists simply live in the quandary of not knowing and of potential meaninglessness. Trying to understand the world through a certain lens, trying to deduce a pattern into which history fits (metanarrative), or any objective, concrete truth, are all rejected by postmodernism.
Let me put it simply: postmodernism rejects objective truth, holds that all stances are valid and true, holds that you cannot completely understand another person’s view but their view is true regardless of what it is. I am not making this up–recently there were professors arguing that 2+2=4 is cultural and 2+2=5 is just as valid–that is postmodernism to the extreme. Usually people who hold to postmodernism don’t go to such extremes but that is actually the logical conclusion of this philosophy. There is no truth at all, so everything is true. A common thing to hear from these people is, “That’s your truth, but that’s not my truth.”
Can you see how this may be an issue when it comes to sharing the Gospel to people who believe such things? They will come to the Bible and make their own truth. Postmodernists will question the meaning of God’s word, strip it of any intended meaning, and produce their own to fit their desires. This means they will strip God from God’s word. Perhaps this method of creating meaning works when it comes to certain artworks but in the realm of any linguistic medium meaning is created by the author. You can interpret an artwork to whatever you want, but words have inherent meanings which are constructed by the author, in the Bible’s case, God!
Plus, let me point out that postmodernism shuts down all conversation; there is no debating a postmodern’s view because they will simply say, “Well, that’s not my truth” and their stance doesn’t have to make sense either. Don’t miss this point: if there is no truth then the idea that there is no truth cannot be true. Saying there is no objective truth is an objective truth! Postmodernism doesn’t make sense on its own.
Proponents of postmodernism may be offended by a human declaring a single viewpoint as valid excluding all others, but the simple line to be drawn is that God’s viewpoint is valid because God is not just another human. God’s identity is greater than a human so his viewpoints are greater than a human’s viewpoints as one of many. The distinction has to be made as Isaiah says, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isa. 55:8-9 ESV). Postmodernism would argue by treating God as a viewpoint rather than one who holds a view and that is where we must be prepared to emphasize the apologetic arguments for the God of the Bible, to show the evidence for God’s existence, the Bible’s inspiration, and Christ’s divinity. If God is the creator of this universe, then his truth is the truth. We serve the God of truth (Isa 65:16) whose Son is not just full of truth (Jhn 1:14), he is the truth (Jhn 14:6). Know the truth and the truth will set you free (Jhn 8:32).
with a PRICE 