Post-Modern?

Post-modernism ... it's the buzzword today. It's the "in thing" to the intellectual elite which, of course, means that it is also the "in thing" for those who value the intellectual elite. On the other hand, it is the "enemy" to the Church. (I don't use the capital "C" there lightly.) It stands in direct opposition to 2000 years of Christianity.

The question for most, of course, is "What is it?" Obviously post-modernism follows on the heels of ... say it with me ... modernism. Therefore, by way of contrast, we can look at modernism and find out a little about post-modernism. Modernism was a product of the Enlightenment, the rosy 19th century movement that held that there is truth, that we can know it, and if we know the truth, life will get better. Science and education reigned in this movement. It flew in the face of Christianity because Christianity held that only through Christ could you personally get better, and the world would never get better. Enter the 20th century and wars on the scale that had never been imagined. Things, it seemed, were not improving. They were deteriorating. Enter post-modernism. Sitting on the back of modernism, post-modernism denies truth. While modernism said that finding the ultimate truths would lead us to paradise, post-modernism says that there are no ultimate truths. First on the hitlist for the post-modern mind is words. Words, they say, have no intrinsic meaning. They mean whatever you want them to mean. If this is true, then it obviously follows that texts have no meaning. Regardless of what the author meant, the texts only mean what you think they mean. The next obvious conclusion is the death of what is called the "metanarrative". A metanarrative is the "grand scheme of things", the "big picture". It is that which explains ... everything. Christianity, for instance, is a metanarrative, explaining the origins of the species, the reason for life, the source of morality, the way we are to live and why we don't, and so on. Well, if words have no intrinsic meaning and texts only mean what you want them to mean, then the metanarrative is a lie. All that is only means whatever you want it to mean. The other fundamental in this post-modern viewpoint is that logic is meaningless. This should be obvious once you start examining the post-modern view ... because all of it flies in the face of logic. They use words (which they claim have no real meaning) to argue for their interpretation of texts (which they claim have no real meaning) to give their own metanarrative (which they claim doesn't exist) that all that is truly is without fundamental meaning ... an argument from logic. (That is, if nothing is true, then I cannot be regarded as false because I hold a differing viewpoint ... and the disagreement disappears in a post-modern puff of logic.)

Christians are largely unaware that this perception is out there. The problem is this. Being unaware, they are also unaware that it is creeping into the church. Let's look at some examples. Have you ever been to a Bible study where you read a verse and ask, "So, what does that mean to you?"? That's a post-modern approach. The Bible is truth, and what it means it means. What it means to you is irrelevant. What we need to find is what it means, not what it means to you. The approach "What does it mean to you?" is a post-modern approach. Or how about the death of certainty? In our world and in growing amounts in our churches there is the perception that it is wrong to believe that you are right. That is perceived as "arrogant". True Christians are humble, and they would never suppose that they were right while everyone else was wrong. Never mind that this is in direct contradiction to the Bible. James says, "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways" (James 1:5-8). You see, Christianity holds that we can know the truth (John 8:32). If God says it and we say, "Well, actually we can't know it", that is arrogant. Yet uncertainty is being heralded as virtue in too many church circles. It's wrong to be exclusive. It's wrong to be sure. The only right, humble thing to do is admit that you could be wrong. And to claim that the Bible is what God says ... that's arrogant.

Evangelicals tried to hold their ground against modernism, and they did for some time. It was only as it passed that they got swept into it. We used to believe that a relationship with Christ informed by the Word of God was what was important. We've come to believe that education and apologetics was the key. If we could just inform people, they'd see the truth. That's modernism, not biblicism. Exit modernism and enter post-modernism. Evangelicals have held their ground ... but as the rush continues, we've started to cave. The Emergent Church tries to argue that Christ certainly saves all who call on Him, but He'll likely save others as well -- certainly not this exclusive claim of Christianity. That's post-modernism. You don't have to go far in the "Christian blog" world to find "Christians" arguing that "There is no reason to think we are right; everyone could be right." That's post-modernism. Without us paying much attention, it is leaching into our churches and our thought processes.

Where does this assault come from? It comes from the same place that modernism and Darwinism and all the other anti-Christian "isms" came from: "Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field" (Gen. 3:1). You see, Satan has always had the same agenda. His first attack was on Adam's wife. His approach was to question God. "Did God actually say ...?" His approach hasn't changed. After the arrival of the Second Adam on the scene, Satan has shifted his attack to this Adam's wife, but the approach is the same. "Did God actually say ...?" Did God actually create everything (as He claims and as denied by Darwin)? Is God really the focus of all that is (as He claims and as denied by the self-esteem movement)? Is Christ the Truth (as He claimed and as denied by post-modernism)? It's not that Satan can end the truth. God said it. Christ promised to "build My Church." It's not that this will end. But if Satan can mitigate it, mix it up, and put us on the defensive, well, perhaps that will slow it down.

Let's not do this. Let's not allow the shift. We need to be ready to make a defense, but more importantly we need to know the Truth. That includes knowing the truth in a mental way, sure, but more importantly it means having a personal relationship with the Truth -- Christ. We need to be about the process of renewing our minds, but if we focused more on that relationship and what it means in our life and character, and less on the debate, we just might be ahead in this game instead of being "like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind."