Postmodernism is a late 20th-century movement characterized by broad scepticism, subjectivism, or relativism; a general suspicion of reason; and an acute sensitivity to the role of ideology in asserting and maintaining political and economic power.
It is often said, albeit more prevalent in the postmodern worldview, that Objective Truth does not exist. Objective Truth is truth claims or statement that are or is absolutely true, regardless of subjective factors such as culture, experience, media propaganda, etc. I accidentally stumbled on a discussion recently between Christopher Hitchens – a late popular secularist, and some advocates of objective truth or absolute statements, as is usually the case in discussions with anyone with a postmodern mind (I have experienced the same); they try to ridicule by asking you to provide an example of absolute truth or objective truth claim. This is usually done amidst a debate on a subject where premises needs to be established before a claim is made, but in their case, you are expected to jump to the claim. If you oblige and give examples of a truth claim, on the surface, it may sound ridiculous, but upon reflection and established premises is validated.
When we talk about objective truth, even though truth by definition is anything that corresponds to reality, i.e. backed by empirical evidence, we still refer to a standard that is transcendent. In any discourse, the truth may not be established without appealing to an objective third-party who is able to see and judge opposing perspectives objectively. In weightier matters, such as morality, we have no objective third-party as everyone is within the framework. We appeal to a transcendent object moral standard whenever we make a moral claim or complaint.
God is our reference point whenever we mention objective truth because, as fallible human beings, our perceptions and understanding are skewed. We are bound to see things differently based on our experiences, cultural differences, and religious convictions, and most importantly, we are not all-knowing to be able to take every single factor into consideration in order to arrive at an agreeable conclusion. God transcends these factors and is all-knowing, His WORD is true because He is TRUTH.
In order to know or judge what is true about anything, we first must know what TRUTH is and said. GOD has revealed his knowledge to us through various means, but the most comprehensive and focal point is the Bible (2 Timothy 3:16). Another medium is the universe as we know it, all that we see in the universe communicates the knowledge and attributes of God to us (Romans 1: 20, Psalms 19:1) and we have made much progress in understanding God in nature through what we popularly know as Science. Contrary to popular opinion, the Bible and Science cannot contradict each other because they reveal the same being. God has also revealed Himself to us individually, directly in what we know as “Immediate Revelation” (Hebrews 10:16, Jeremiah 31:33, Hebrews 8:10).
Truth, Objective Truth can be known because it is rooted in God and is partly discoverable by our intuition* (in-dwelling knowledge of God), scientific discoveries (rooted in facts of nature), and the facts of the Bible.
Without objective truth, all we have is subjectivism, and we are really in trouble if that is all we have, as there are no absolutes, no wrongs, and no rights – this is the effect of postmodernism.
How do we bring objective truth to today’s issues?
Consider Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, for example; how should Christians react to this from the “truth” perspective?
We need to understand that the fall of man in the Garden of Eden resulted in the man being totally deprived of God, man’s heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9), and every imagination of man’s heart is wicked (Genesis 6:5), putting his interests above all other, man has consciously suppressed the knowledge of God, and God gave them over to there depraved minds (Romans 1: 28). While largely wars fought in the bible were acts of judgment by God on nations that consistently trespassed God’s standards, the wars we see today are a direct result of human depravity, which means all parties involved in the war each have agendas, none is innocent because innocent lives are lost. We should expect this as believers because it has been long foretold in the scriptures, but this does not mean we should be unperturbed or apathetic; we should condemn any government that contributes to the loss of innocent lives of image-bearers of God. We can join in support of sending humanitarian aid to the affected. If you are in a position to influence a nation’s decisions, stand up for truth, and resist evil anywhere you encounter it.
Another example is the sexual immorality or gender idealogy prevalent in our society; we have extensive objective truth references from the bible, from science (biology), and also our in-dwelling knowledge of God to dwell on to resist all falsehoods.
The WORD of God is clear and true, and it is our Objective Standard.
Leave a Reply