John 18:38 “Pilate saith unto him, What is truth?…”

POSTMODERNISM’S BEGINNINGS
Ever hear someone say “there’s no right or wrong answers” or “all truth is valid”? Yes. Welcome to the postmodern world where there is no truth. Where did first postmodernism originate?

Postmodernism philosophy first originated primarily in France during the mid-20th century, it was largely influenced by French philosophers such as Jean Baudrillard, Jean-François Lyotard and Jacques Derrida. In the forefront of these men where also Søren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche from Germany. These philosophers denied the existence of an objective reality, and objective moral values. An individuals idea of what’s good is another’s idea of evil are to be equally valid from the viewpoint of a postmodernist.

Friedrich Nietzsche

THERE ARE NO ABSOLUTES!
Is that statement true?! The problem with a postmodernist worldview is they don’t believe in absolutes. Every statement the postmodernist makes is self-refuting because they are declaring an absolute statement.
The idea of what’s “true” is left to the individual, they determine what’s truth, good or evil, right or wrong. If a postmodernist had their wallet stolen they would agree it would be wrong for another individual to take their wallet. But by what authority can they claim this?
Another individual can argue and say that stealing a person’s wallet is justified, who would be right? In a world of postmodernism, everyone is reduced to preferences because no absolutes exist. Even Hitler would be justified by the atrocities he committed.

Christians believe in a higher authority which is God Almighty. God is the source of our morals and truth, He determines what’s good or evil. Therefore we have a point of reference in which all right’s or wrong’s can be justified.

Let’s look at other branches which shoot forth from a postmodern worldview.

HUMANISM
Is defined as the view in which an individual focuses on human value thoughts and actions, a belief in human effort. The humanist slogan is “good without a God”. Humans are considered “good” devoid of God. The word of God says otherwise about man being “good”.

The book of Romans says that none are righteous (Romans 3:10), additionally, in the gospels, the Lord Jesus says only God is good (Matthew 19:17, Mark 10:18, Luke 18:19). The American Humanist Association do greatly err in thinking themselves to be a god in their own eyes.

They elevate man as being the measure of all things. It’s agnostic or atheistic in origin with roots in naturalism. Here are 3 beliefs from the Humanist Manifesto directly quoted from their website.

1st: Religious humanists regard the universe as self-existing and not created.

2nd: Humanism believes that man is a part of nature and that he has emerged as a result of a continuous process.

3rd: Holding an organic view of life, humanists find that the traditional dualism of mind and body must be rejected.

I had to stop, I couldn’t continue reading such rubbish it’s grieving seeing people placing trust in themselves instead of the God who created, loves them and wants them to be reconciled to Himself. They worship the creation instead of the creator, creation is a testimony of the existence of God (Romans 1:20).

One humanist motto is “I think therefore I am”, basically because I think therefore I exist. If this is true then what happens when you don’t think do you cease to exist? For instance, someone involved in an accident who’s become a vegetable and is bedridden do they exist? Or if an individual is more of a thinker than another, does the thinker have more of an existence than the other? We can see how humanism quickly starts to fall apart.

Proverbs 1:29 “For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD: They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof. Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.”

NATURALISM
Is the worldview that “nature is all” it man’s attempt in placing nature in the position of being god while at the same time denying the true living God who created all things (Colossians 1:16). And because they worship nature they’ve created a false god for themselves, the same way the humanist looks at man as a false god. God calls this idolatry, the nation of Israel has also committed this sin when they were being led through the wilderness by Moses, they made a golden calf to worship (Exodus 32:4).

Psalms 135:15 “The idols of the heathen [are] silver and gold, the work of men’s hands.”

Naturalism also shares beliefs in paganism, native American Indians also worshipped nature and even giving themselves names such as Black Hawk, Crazy Horse or Cornplanter, and worshipping multiple gods like Ababinili (Chickasaw Tribe), Maheo (Cheyenne Tribe) and White Buffalo Woman (Sioux goddess) amongst many other gods. Native American Indians are most known for performing “rain dances” in order that crops might grow in times of droughts.

God is the one in control for He’s sovereign, He who holds the universe by the span of His hand (Isaiah 40:12). When man tries to remove God they are essentially looking to remove life itself, God is the source of all life He is the beginning and the end.

Matthew 5:45 “That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.”

Many people in the world believe in a false “mother nature”, the Bible never speaks of any such thing as if God has a “wife” the very idea is blasphemous. The Catholic’s have exalted or in their terminology “venerated” Mary as the “queen of heaven”, complete rubbish coming about from false doctrine of the Vatican.

Another lie that’s been spouted is the concept of a Greek goddess called Gaia. In these times we see how Satan has been trying to reverse the roles of headship which God established. Man (male) in the leadership role and woman (female) in the help role, it all goes back to the beginning in the garden when Eve took the role of making a crucial decision without consulting her husband Adam. All of this makes me think of how Paul the apostle came across these worldviews in Athens amidst false gods/idols calling the people superstitious (Acts 17:15 – 17:34).

Genesis 3:9–13 “And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.”

Atheism, Agnosticism and Scepticism

An atheist rejects the belief in God, they believe there is no God. Atheist are quick to say we don’t believe in anything but that’s just not so. It would be impossible to reject without belief because in order to reject you must believe in the opposite. There’s really no such thing as atheism what atheism really is is someone who doesn’t know there’s a God. The reason why I say that is for anyone to make an absolute statement is to say that you have complete knowledge.

“Atheism is not an affirmative belief that there is no god nor does it answer any other question about what a person believes. It is simply a rejection of the assertion that there are gods. Atheism is too often defined incorrectly as a belief system. To be clear: Atheism is not a disbelief in gods or a denial of gods; it is a lack of belief in gods.” - atheists.org

Therefore if a person says “there is no God” they are saying I know for absolute certainty no God exists. It’s like walking into a 200-acre field and saying there’s not one ant in this field. That would be an absolute statement, in saying this all atheist are in reality are agnostics with a strong will to reject God, as agnostics are those who simply say I just don’t know if there’s a God.

Psalms 14:1 “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.”

Scepticism also known as Pyrrhonism or Pyrrhonic Skepticism after the early proponent Pyrrho of Elis is the philosophical position that one should refrain from making truth claims, and avoid the postulation of final truths. This is not necessarily quite the same as claiming that truth is impossible (which would itself be a truth claim), but is often also used to cover the position that there is no such thing as certainty in human knowledge (sometimes referred to as Academic Skepticism).

Would a sceptic agree that we can know if a person jumps out of a plane without a parachute they will plummet to their death? Is it true that if you place your hand in a fire it would get burned? Is it true that if we don’t eat/drink water we would die? The very idea that one cannot know anything for certain is absolutely false.

Many of these people who are lost in these worldviews need to know God’s grace. The word of God says that they’re blinded by satan (2 Corinthians 4:4) they are caught up in the things of this world not realising they’re on the broad way and desperately need to find the narrow way (Matthew 7:13 – 7:14). Let’s continue sharing the gospel in hopes they will come to know God’s love and willingness to save guilty sinners.