Are People Afraid of the Truth?

I was walking in to my workplace when a fellow employee whom I did not know spoke to me.

"Is that a murder mystery? ... That book you are carrying."

In my hand was The Case for the Real Jesus by Lee Strobel. I planned to do some reading in the book during my lunch break from work.

As we walked, I explained that the book was a work of apologetics. It responds vigorously to the numerous modern attempts to discredit the historical accuracy of the Bible and, more specifically, its depiction of Jesus.

A strange look spread across the face of the woman. She backed away and said, "It's because of all the translations and all the edits. That's why it doesn't have any credibility." The same unsupportable, incoherent, historical fact denying, vapid popular culture, anti-intellectual charges that we hear over and over and over!

She sped up and walked quickly away, probably to escape from the crazy religious person. She never looked back. Perhaps she feared for her life.

My thought was, "Wow! You really do need to read this book." Perhaps she was afraid that she might hear something which challenged her shallow postmodernist views.
 

Film Comment: This Is the End

Collect up at least one hundred film actors, singers, and entertainers at a wild drug and alcohol fueled party, then start the end of the world, complete with giant monsters and demons. The Earth cracks open and people fall into a burning Hell. Have the actors portray themselves, thrown into this situation.

This Is the End (2013) has a cast filled with big name celebrities: Jamez franco, Seth Rogan, Jay Baruchel, Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill, Dany McBride, Michael Cera, Emma Watson, Mindy Kaling, David Krumholtz, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Rihanna, Paul Rudd, The Backstreet Boys, and many others.

When the trouble starts everyone runs outside as the world begins to burn and explode around them.  Too dumb, selfish, cowardly, drug-addled, gluttonous, etc. to “escape” some do not even notice the disturbance.  But they soon will. The six main protagonists run back into the “safety” of the house.

The guys tell themselves they will survive because they are “good people,” but they realize that they are not.  The film does not show any of these people in a good light.  They all realize that they are damned.

The film, a comedy with some undeniably hilarious moments, features violence, gore, impalement, decapitation, penis jokes, nudity, profanity, cannibalism,  homosexuality, demons, intentional blasphemy, obscenities, betrayal, alcohol and drug abuse, self-righteousness, taking God’s name in vain, urination, vomit, obscene gestures, discussion of intent to rape in the presence of the intended victim, masturbation, demonic possession, prayer for the death of another person, sexual slavery, cowardice, self preservation at the expense of other’s lives.  Did I forget anything?

The supposedly ”happy” messages of the film are:

1.     Self-sacrifice confers instant entry into Heaven.

2.     In Heaven, we become angels.

3.     In Heaven, you can have anything you want, even a dooble.

4.     There is no need to be a “Christian” to enter into Heaven.

5.     Heaven is just another wild party.

6.     The Rapture looks like an alien abduction with a beam of light pulling the person up into the sky.

This highly offensive film intends to offend in every way imaginable, showing a contempt or disregard for any conventional understanding of propriety or morality.  It made me wonder.  The actors, portraying themselves, know that they are damned.

In the film, they are facing evidence which, at the very least, proves that God and the supernatural are real.

These are extremely talented, supposedly very intelligent comedians who have gone out of their way to intentionally offend nearly everything related to Christianity and the End Times.  Should not this film prod these actors into actually thinking about their real-life situations?

To some, or most of the actors, I am sure that this was all just a big joke.  Perhaps they are like many people and do not believe anything at all.  Post-modern moral and intellectual relativism at its logical conclusion.

…………………………………………

This is an end of the world film where the Earth is not merely damaged, but is actually destroyed.  Two other prominent films of this type are When Worlds Collide (1951), which depicts the chaos which erupts when a planet the size of Earth is on a collision course with our planet.  The other is Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (2012), a surprisingly tender and bittersweet love story.  Either of these two films would be an infinitely better use of your two hours than This Is the End.

Film Comment: The Art of Getting By

I first saw Freddie Highmore in Five Children and It, a children’s fantasy film.  Basically he portrayed a cute little boy.  Probably, Highmore’s most well-known role is that of Charlie Bucket in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005).

As a twenty year old, Highmore still has the cute innocent look but the character he portrays in the comedy, The Art of Getting By (2011), is a decidedly different person.

George Zinavoy (Highmore) is a sweet natured, gentle, and very talented artist.  He is an obviously intellectual and capable high school senior.  He has decided to do nothing, not even in art class.  When he meets a girl (Emma Roberts) who likes him, he cannot bring himself to admit that he also likes her.

George’s problem is his philosophy, which is one version of the worldview known as Postmodernism.  We are born alone.  We die alone.  Everything else is basically nothing.  Life has no meaning because, in the end, we will all die, alone.

A great many people today, possibly nearing a majority, have a postmodern view of reality.  This is why you hear so many people saying that “you have your truth, I have my truth.”  How they choose to respond to the philosophy can lead to apathy, rage, cynicism, hedonism, manipulativeness, withdrawal, and any number of other pathological lifestyles.

The challenge for Christians is to show these people that life does have meaning and to help them see what that meaning is.  We cannot “save” them but we can present the Gospel and let the Holy Spirit do His work.

Book Comment: The Challenge of Postmodernism

The Challenge of Postmodernism.  An Evangelical Engagement, edited by David S. Dockery, 2001

The modernist philosophy, the prevailing worldview of the 19^th, 20^th , and early 21^st  centuries, holds that there is a truth to be known and that it is knowable by the scientific method.  In its most developed form, it holds that everything which can be known is knowable only from measurable and observable phenomena.  There is an absolute denial of the supernatural and a denigration of knowledge derived in other ways than the scientific.

A new worldview is replacing the scientific/modernist philosophy.  Postmodernism has been building since the early 20^th century.  It rejects the idea of a knowable single absolute truth and stresses the idea of pluralism.  There are many truths.  Community is favored over individualism.  Truth is mediated through social relations, true because it is accepted with a particular community.  In effect, anything can be true because it is accepted by a particular community.  The truth of one community is just as true as the truth of another community, even if the truths are incompatible.  Since there is no absolute truth,  truth becomes subjective and relative to the situation and community in which It is believed.

Meaning is defined by how one feels.  Your truth may not be my truth,  but all truths are equally valid.  Reality becomes a social construct.

To a postmodernist, truth, if it exists at all, is a social relation.  It is what a particular group declares that it is.  To assert truth is to assert domination over other groups that define truth differently.  Absolute truth claims are seen as oppressive and imperialist.  Those who uphold traditional orthodox Christianity are derided.  Pope Benedict XVI has called it “the dictatorship of relativism.”

Postmodernist H. Tristam Engelhardt has said, “Insofar as individual do not share in the consensusof a common religious belief, including the divine roots of state authority, appeals to religious consideration will appear to those without faith or with a different faith as an appeal simply to force in order to support private interests.”

Obviously, then, postmodernism is a direct and hostile challenge to Christianity because Christianity declares that  “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”  Acts 4:12

The point of The Challenge of Postmodernism is that Christians must not be caught unaware.  Postmodernist philosophy is all around us; perhaps you have heard it expressed by someone you know.  Postmodern thought can even be found in many Christian churches, especially those which pride themselves on their inclusiveness and those which accept Christianity as merely one religion among many.  

The Challenge of Postmodernism discusses the background information Which Christians need to know in order to understand postmoderism so that they may counter it intellectually and successfully evangelize the new culture.

I would strongly recommend this book to pastors, theologians, and those others who are not intimidated by a bit of “heavy” reading.  It is good to be aware of the bear before he attempts to eat you.

………………………………………………………………………

I bought a trade paperback copy of The Challenge of Postmodernism at 2^nd and Charles, a used bookstore.  When I got it home, I realized that it was a signed copy.  The inscription reads, “Soli Deo Gloria, David S. Dockery.”

“Soli Deo Gloria” is Latin and translates as “glory only to God” or “glory to God alone.”  Some have translated it as “glory to the only God.”

What They Think Of Us: Thomas Paine

"My own mind is my own church." Thomas Paine (1737-1809)  This quotation is a foreshadowing of the  post-modernist philosophy which states that there is no objective reality, no absolute truth.  Truth is whatever each observer decides that it is and there may be multiple truths, all equally valid.

Rise Above Hate

Today I saw a young man wearing a T-shirt bearing the logo “Rise Above Hate,” a truly laudable sentiment. As with many things, though, in this modern world, there is more to the story, hidden below the surface.  The phrase, “Rise Above Hate”  has become a code phrase for the moral relativist movement.  This philosophy, which leads to the world view called postmodernism, has become the prevailing sentiment of the modern world's culture.  Pope Benedict clearly understands; he has called it the "dictatorship of relativism." 

Postmodernism is the newest and the most rapidly growing of the modern world views challenging the Christian ἐκκλησία, and potentially the most dangerous.  It has permeated modern Western culture, even making its way into the thinking of many professing Christians.  Postmodernism rejects human reason and logic as a source of truth because it declares that there is no absolute truth.  Since there is no absolute truth, ethics are relative, all religions are equally true, and personal experience is more important than any external authority.  There is no ultimate basis for proven knowledge of any kind.  Modern  Western culture is seen as repressive to the individual.  There is a deep anti-intellectual distrust of reason and logic; truth is subjective, pluralistic, and collectivist, and is not reachable by reason.  One of the favorite phrases of the postmodernists is "Your truth may not be my truth."

Two films on which I have commented clearly express this world view: Crash Test and Rubber .

Secular Christians

"I am grieved by nit-picking, small-minded Christians, and deeply troubled about shallow Christians who think everything is black and white, who have simple answers for life's most difficult questions.  But I'm outraged by "secular" Christians who have been fully immersed in the moral relativism of a post-Christian world." Gary Kinnaman

Book Comment: Christianity on the Offense (Part 2)

This is a continuation of my comments on the book, Christianity on the Offense: Responding to the Beliefs and Assumptions of Spiritual Seekers (1998), by Dan Story.  


Story calls on Christians to challenge and examine their own world view presuppositions and also those of others and to think logically and clearly about what they believe and why they believe it.  He presents and explains the use of tools to carry out this examination.  He shows "that the majority of the arguments hurled against Christianity are relatively easy to respond to" by the use of these tools to examine the unprovable and unsupportable presuppositions of those challenging Christianity.   He also correctly states that "Secular humanism has usurped Christianity as the guiding social force in Western culture," and he identifies the most dangerous of the new world views. 


Taking the world views in the order of their appearance, Story uses the same set of questions to examine each.  Each of these philosophies has millions of adherents and each has affected modern Christianity as we know it.


Pantheism: Everything is God.  Each person is innately divine and, ultimately, everything is absorbed into the one reality.
Christianity:  God is personal and Truth is absolute.  This absolute truth can be known and understood.  Reality is ultimately rational.  "Christianity encourages people to confirm its truth-claims. (Acts 17: 11)
Naturalism: There is no God, there is only nature and natural laws.  Reality is what we can see, feel, taste, hear, and measure.  All of reality can potentially be measured and understood.
Secular Humanism: This is the prevailing world view in modern Western society.  It began as the rationalism of the fourteenth to seventeenth centuries.  Man is God and is the ultimate measure of what is true.  Humans are of ultimate value.  The human mind is potentially the master of all reality.
Postmodernism: This is the newest and the most rapidly growing of the modern world views challenging the Christian ἐκκλησία, and potentially the most dangerous.  Postmodernism rejects human reason and logic as a source of truth because it declares that there is no absolute truth.  Since there is no absolute truth, ethics are relative, all religions are equally true, and personal experience is more important than any external authority.  There is no ultimate basis for proven knowledge of any kind.  Modern  Western culture is seen as repressive to the individual.  There is a deep distrust of reason and logic; truth is subjective, pluralistic, and collectivist, and is not reachable by reason.  Your truth may not be my truth.

Story correctly points out that the postmodernist philosophy leads to chaos on may levels.  Since chaos is quite uncomfortable, it can eventually lead to the imposition of authoritarian measures to restore order.  If there is no standard on which to base judgement, how is it possible to oppose the Hitlers of the world?

Book Comment: Christianity on the Offense (Part 1)

I very strongly recommend that you read Christianity on the Offense: Responding to the Beliefs and Assumptions of Spiritual Seekers (1998), by Dan Story.  Story discusses the underlying presuppositions of several modern world views,presenting their strengths and weaknesses, their intellectual consistency or lack of it, and presents strategies to use in evaluating the truth claims of of each worldview.  This is a powerful book of Christian apologetics which shows us clearly that we do not have to back down from our Christian truth claims.  It also takes a novel, highly aggressive approach to the inadequacies and logical inconsistencies of non-Christian and non-orthodox Christian world views.  Here is a link where you can find the book.


Story examines traditional orthodox Christianity and shows how it stands up under historical, scientific, and legal scrutiny.  "People who claim that they are being open-minded by accepting all religions as gateways to truth are actually being empty-headed. ... If we are to make heads-or-tails out of reality and if religious truth is to be known at all, we must adhere to the rudimentary rules of logic that govern all other areas of knowledge."

Did you realize that the strongest legal evidence is eyewitness testimony?  Paul understood this.  Mosaic law said that two witnesses were needed to prove a point as true.

“At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, shall he that is worthy of death be put to death; but at the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death.”  Deuteronomy 17:6

Paul says that over five hundred people saw Jesus after His resurrection and that most of them were still alive at the time he wrote 1 Corinthians.  What he was saying was, "If you don't believe me, ask them!"

“For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,  that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,  and that he appeared to Peter,  and then to the Twelve.  After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.  Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.”  1 Corinthians 15:3-8

 After demonstrating that the Christian truth claims are internally consistent, logically consistent, consistent with reality, and based on provable facts,  Story examines several of the major world views, each held by millions of people and each having affected the modern Christian Church, the ἐκκλησία,  sometimes positively and sometimes negatively.  

Film Comment: Rubber

Rubber (2010) is a film only a true film geek (like me) could appreciate.  It is an absurdist horror film about a serial killer who is a rubber automobile tire.  This sounds silly, and would lead one to expect something similar to the inspired insanity of the comedic cult classic, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes.  Rubber is not a comedy.


Robert (the tire) rises up from the desert sand one day and stands up on his tread.  Then he starts to roll.  Along his randomly meandering way he learns that he can, by intense concentration, cause things (tin cans, birds, rabbits) to explode.  It is only one small step up from rabbits to people.  The killings are depicted in all the gore and visual nastiness of the most extreme horror films.


Killing randomly as he goes, Robert becomes obsessed with, and begins to follow, a young woman who is driving alone on the desert highway.


Robert, of course, is not real, he is a character in a film which is being observed by a group of people, the audience, standing in the desert sand, using binoculars to observe the events as they progress.


The audience is totally helpless, exposed to the elements and the desert, so engrossed in watching the action that they fail to take care of their own needs.  No one even thinks to eat.  Late that night they all fall asleep on the desert sand.  When the members of the audience wake up, they are very hungry and selfishly fight among themselves for their share when their desert guide throws a cooked turkey into the sand.  The guide doesn't tell them that he has loaded the turkey with poison and they all die a painful death.  Only an old man in a wheelchair survives, because he was suspicious and refused to eat the turkey.


Of course, none of this makes any sense.  That's the entire point of the film.  In the first scene, one of the main characters tells us, "The film you are about to see is an homage to "no reason," that most powerful element of style."


The internet is buzzing with discussions about this film.  Most say that this is not about the tire at all, but is about the relationship between movies and their audiences, more specifically, how skilled directors can draw their audiences in and cause them to become involved in the film, in some cases becoming part of the film.  I see something deeper, I see "no reason."


We all have underlying world-views, presuppositions we use to make sense of the world around us.  In the case of this film. "no reason" is the real message of this film.  Life is meaningless. There is no purpose.  There is no absolute truth.  The only constant is randomness.  Whatever happens, happens for no reason.  Whatever one believes or does is acceptable and no one has any basis for questioning the actions or beliefs of anyone else.  Does this sound familiar?  It is the aggressively and rapidly growing worldview known as post-modernism, the logical and inevitable end result of secular humanism.  Though it grew out of naturalism, rationalism, and humanism, it declares all religious, philosophical, and political paths to be equally valid, even when their truth claims are mutually exclusive.  In its declaration that all "truths"are true, it in effect declares that there is no such thing as truth, there are multiple truths.  Your truth might not be my truth.  Nonsense rules.  Logic and rational thought are rejected.


The Bible has an answer to this nonsense:

"And as they spake unto the people, the priests, and the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees, came upon them,  Being grieved that they taught the people, and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead.  And they laid hands on them, and put them in hold unto the next day: for it was now eventide. Howbeit many of them which heard the word believed; and the number of the men was about five thousand.
 And it came to pass on the morrow, that their rulers, and elders, and scribes,  And Annas the high priest, and Caiaphas, and John, and Alexander, and as many as were of the kindred of the high priest, were gathered together at Jerusalem.  And when they had set them in the midst, they asked, By what power, or by what name, have ye done this?  Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them, Ye rulers of the people, and elders of Israel,  If we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent man, by what means he is made whole;  Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole.   This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner.  Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.  Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus"
Acts 4:1-13.