Relative to What?
If you attended last Sunday night you heard Pastor Glenn attempt to disprove the idea of moral relativity. Some agreed, some disagreed, and I imagine some didn’t care. I mean, what does a bunch of philosophical proofs have to do with today, and my life with Christ? Nothing, but understanding the dilemma we’re placed in as Christians: EVERYTHING
Here’s the deal, if you’re a Christian it means you’re a follower of Christ because He is the only means to eternal life, which begins the moment you know Him. So, each morning you wake up ready to face what life has for you, and your only goal for this life is to serve Christ each day, whatever that looks like. He’s given you a simple mission to make disciples of all nations: to help the poor and destitute, and to share your faith with others. That’s it. That’s the life of a Christian.
Here’s the problem, you wake up each day and you know you’ve got the winning ticket. You know Jesus is the only way to eternal life with God. Plain and simple. The problem is other religions believe their belief system is the only right one. So, it used to be a Christian needed to know the right stats, archeological evidence, and theological jargon to prove Jesus is right and others are wrong. But it’s no longer that simple…today, Christians need to address more than just a person’s religious belief system, we have to understand and address an entire worldview. You see we say Jesus is the only way to heaven and people no longer have as much trouble with the Jesus part as they do the only part.
We claim an absolute truth in a world that believes in relative truth, and it’s not just on the issue of salvation; the same is true with moral views on sex, drinking, marriage, divorce, etc…I mean isn’t this the same problem with gay marriage, we claim marriage is meant to be between a man and a woman and people don’t have a problem with it. It’s when we add the word only people throw a fit.
So what’s the answer? I would disagree with some of what Glenn said, I don’t think philosophical proofs are the answer, being aware of them is helpful, but they’re not the end in and of themselves. Although, I did love Glenn’s idea of using the information in conversation. The problem is I fully believe in the equality of others and I also believe truth is often relative to one’s context in the world, but I also believe in certain theological and moral absolutes. So how do you communicate these absolutes to a relativistic society? And how do you do it with Christ’s love? These are the questions of our day.
I’d love to hear your thoughts. There may be no question more pressing to the lives of Christians today.
I know you’ve got an opinion…let’s hear it!
Because He lives!
Josh
posted by The Rising Community at 7:15 PM
2 Comments:
I think that the key to relating to a relativistic society is just that- relating.
Which I think should be the point anyways. The whole point of Christianity is a fellowship with God, and inviting others into that fellowship. That doesn't happen by proving one viewpoint is correct and another isn't. It happens when we show others love and they want to find out what gives us the love that we have. I don't think having the right logic or archealogical evidence was ever really the deciding factor.
Now don't get me wrong. I'm not saying we don't engage relativism and that we don't hold to the absolute nature of the truths we believe in. I'm saying that those conversations are more ones we need to have within the church to make sure we're on the same basic theological page rather than having them as arguments with others as part of trying to "convert" them.
8:28 PM
Hi again all,
This is an interesting topic because it has always been an issue through history.
I get a kick out of people who actually think its new today in postmodernism.
Satan was was being relativistic when he challenged Eve's understanding of God's word.
Unfortunately, there is no way to argue such things and make any headway about relativistic thinking when talking with someone who's convinced it is so. It is always possible to say that its ok for someone to believe something for themselves, and feel its right in their context, but as for me, I think that there can be other ideas and interpretations of things that are just as valid for me. So nothing can be proved because there's always another angle to invent to look at things.
Unfortunately, all of this is cleverly disguised as being open minded and more willing to see truth in everything than a narrow minded old fashioned way. Every new generation seems to think they have a better way of seeing things. They enjoy pointing out the older generation's hypocrisies. At least until they become the older generation and have it happen to them. :-)
This is nice at a purely humanistic level. It makes so much sense. We just all need to be more open to each other and the experience of the moment is the only real truth that we have. Nothing else matters.
The problem with this is that God is not contained to our small little plane of existence that we are so impressed with. There are realities outside of our physical plane of existence that are actually more powerful and important than the physical. By physical I mean our emotional makeup as well.
Of course we can choose to ignore this and pretend there is nothing else and operate at the physical plane only, but it doesn't change the realities of the more important spiritual plane. People that are not followers of Christ are dead in their sin. This means that they have no capacity to relate to God in any way. The Bible teaches that we are dead in our sin. Adam and Eve died when they sinned.
Notice I didn't say they couldn't somehow seemingly tap into a part of the spiritual realm, or seem to know about it. But the problem is we are not the power brokers in this realm. Not even a little bit. In fact we are the lowest on the totem pole to make it blunt. The spiritual world is full of true power and we don't usually come close to getting that. It pains us to think that we aren't in control, but we really aren't. As much as we like to make ourselves out to be powerful independent beings that create a destiny etc, we are truly pawns before coming to Christ. Only with God's help can we actually begin to see ourselves as much more. This is what the Bible means when it talks about freedom. Freedom from sin, deceptions, and deceiving ourselves into believing we are greater than God.
Of course if a person chooses to be a pure humanist and see things relativistically then they will usually ignore the spiritual. Even those that say they are spiritual only see it from a purely humanistic point of view which is folly.
Even after we become Christians and God REGENERATES us (makes us new spiritual beings) we don't have any power of our own. We are completely dependent on Him for our strength and understanding in dealing with this new dimension of existence. We are truly babies and novices just beginning to walk in a new way that involves God's Kingdom versus the enemy's domain. As we grow, we realize how dependent we are. We are maturing when we realize and accept this dependence and see it as our strength and power as we move around in God's kingdom. Any other attitude is either arrogant or naive.
In the end, there is much more at stake for eternity to ignore God and try and poo-poo absolutes and a spiritual dimension of reality that is far above our small abilities. If a person chooses this path, they need to understand that such thinking has no authority in the spiritual realities of God's kingdom. Evenutally we will all face Him, and there will be no arguing over our funny theories. It will all be clear, concrete and undeniable as every tongue confesses that Jesus is Lord.
Even then, not all will participate in this confession from love and that is the tragedy. Some will even then, only do it with malice in their heart toward Him.
This is truly a mystery in my small mind. What Lucifer did in the midst of Heaven has absolutely no explanation or sense. It is truly the essence of evil and absurdity.
Well, sorry for the longwinded dump. But its fun to stir the pot and get some discussion going!
Have a great weekend!
Dale Fleming
10:51 PM
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