THE POSTMODERN MIND AND THE CHRISTIAN

A large percentage of people today have a naturalistic worldview and a relativistic morality. For them truth is perceptual and subjective rather than objective and absolute. Experience and observation determine whether something is true or false, and that renders a variable reality, which differs from person to person and culture to culture.

CHALLENGING THE ONE WAY STREET

Christianity avows its uniqueness and asserts that it does matter what a person believes. In fact, speaking of absolute truth, Jesus Christ declared himself to be the Truth: "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6, NIV). Postmodernism denies Christ’s claim to be the truth. Postmodernists do not believe that there is only one way to the Father and/or to heaven. Christianity’s claim to uniqueness is interpreted as conceit and intolerance. In the modernist’s mind, all religions, faiths and philosophies are of equal legitimacy. Who are you going to believe? And why?

LABELS SUCK - Metanarrative, Postmodernism

Seriously, terms slurp and labels suck, but we speak with them so I must deal with them, usually to define them before we can carry on normal conversation.
Metanarrative, there’s one, a slurp. It means a grand story or the big story. The Bible may appear as a collection of unrelated stories among a select nation, yet a comprehensive appraisal suggests the Bible is God’s self revelation to the world through a chosen people who experienced God and so give meaning to life as well as define what is true.
Postmodernism, there’s another one, a label. Postmoderns do not believe in metanarratives. They contend that there are no grand stories which convey meaning to life and which define what is true. Postmodernism is a philosophy that says absolute truth does not exist. Typically, postmoderns deny long-held beliefs and maintain that all perspectives are equally valid. In fact, postmodernism rejects absolute truth, and accordingly discards the Bible. In postmodernism, all religion is abridged to mere opinions. Can an opinion get you to heaven?