doc Committed to Excellence in Communicating Biblical Truth and Its Application Orcutt Christian Church

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1 doc Committed to Excellence in Communicating Biblical Truth and Its Application Orcutt Christian Church A Grace Driven Church for Grace Needing People! Burning Question #70 What is Relativism? Isaiah 55:8-9, 11; Proverbs 11:3 Communion: Genevieve Williams Care Calling: Archie Miller Host: Mark Robertson Saturday 10/6: Clean Up: Sheila Decker 1 How Majestic Is Your Name Trust and obey [v.1,3,4, 5] Tell me the old old story [ALL] Doxology 5 Love Theme (handout) {new song} 6 Stand up stand up for Jesus [All 4] Find Us Faithful [Once] 456 Isaiah 55:8-9, 11 (GW) 8 My thoughts are not your thoughts, and my ways are not your ways, declares the LORD. 9 Just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts are higher than your thoughts. 11 My word, which comes from my mouth, is like the rain and snow. It will not come back to me without results. It will accomplish whatever I want and achieve whatever I send it to do. Proverbs 11:3 (GW) 3 Integrity guides decent people, but hypocrisy leads treacherous people to ruin.

2 Proverbs 16:11 (NASB) 11 A just balance and scales belong to the LORD; All the weights of the bag are His concern. John 8:31-32 (GW) 31 So Jesus said to those Jews who believed in him, If you live by what I say, you are truly my disciples. 32 You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. Romans 1:25 (GW) 25 These people have exchanged God's truth for a lie. So they have become ungodly and serve what is created rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen! On September 13, 1987, two unemployed young men trying to make a living entered a partly demolished radiation clinic in Goianaia, Brazil, an 18-hour bus ride from Rio. They discovered and then dismantled a cancer therapy machine, the parts of which they peddled to various junk dealers. One junk dealer in particular purchased for US $6.50 a stainless steel cylinder, about the size of a gallon paint can. Inside the cylinder was a cake of crumbly powder that emitted a mysterious blue light. The dealer took the seemingly magical material home and distributed it to his family and friends. His 6-year-old niece rubbed the glowing dust on her body, and danced while she glowed in the sultry darkness of the tropic night. The dust was cesium-137, a highly dangerous radioactive substance. The lovely light was the result of the decay of the cesium atoms. You know, of course, the rest of the story. The girl is dead. Most of those who handled the cesium-137 died.

3 More than two hundred people were contaminated. A beautiful, incandescent dust, taken from an instrument of healing, had become an instrument of death. The junk dealer's niece was not the only child who rubbed the cesium on her body like carnival glitter, and the mental picture of those incandescent children dancing in the darkness haunts the imagination. It's an image that won't go away because the story is a moral fable of the church's ministry in our pluralistic world -- a world where healing instruments can become death machines in split seconds, a world where the best and the worst are a hair's breadth distance apart. I was asked at Thursday Bible Study what I thought was the major problem the church was facing today. Well, Our world has become a can of cesium-137 evil with glisteningly appeal. So my immediate reply was our society no longer believes in TRUTH. We are where Israel was in the time of the Judges. Judges 21:25 (NASB) 25 In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes. In this age of relativism, people are not as concerned about truth as they once were. There was a time when someone like Pilate could ask, John 18:38 (NASB) 38 "What is truth?" and everyone assumed that the question could be answered. Today the question is different. People are saying, "There is NO truth." With this rejection of any absolute and ultimate truth has come an increasing indifference to life. And, I just used the word in our inquirer's question.

4 I. What Is Relativism? Well, let me introduce you to Kelly Monroe Kullberg, who was the Chaplain for the Harvard University Graduate School. She interview staff and students about their belief in Jesus Christ, and from those interviews, wrote a book titled Finding God at Harvard. She told of a first hand experience of going to see her own medical doctor for a check up. I'd like share a little of her conversation with her medical doctor. "Do you believe that morality is absolute? Or are all people just out for themselves?" "What do you mean by morality?" "Well, simply put, what's right and what's wrong?" The doctor seemed confused about the concept of morality, so Ms. Kullberg took another tack. "Can we say that taking innocent life is moraly acceptable?" "I guess it depends," she said. "Depends on what?" "It depends on what other people think. Or decide." "Do you think torturing babies for fun is wrong?" Again, the doctor seemed confused. So Ms. Kullberg asked "Do you believe there is any circumstance in any culture, in any time in history, in which torturing babies just for pure pleasure could be justified? Is it objectively wrong or is it just a matter of opinion?" There was a long pause. Finally she answered, "People should be allowed to decide for themselves." That is the world of relativism, a world where no one wants to take a moral stand. And, it comes as a shock when our society has the "whatever" approach to life.

5 Some of the world's brightest minds are pushing us to denounce "truth" in any form. Remember when Jesus said John 10:10 (NASB) 10 "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. And, remember when Jesus told the Sanhedrin John 8:44 (NASB) 44 "You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Our culture has more and more come to embrace the most destructive lie that the devil has ever concocted. For the last 150 years this evil lie has been growing in acceptance; and in the last 50 years it has come dominant in our part of the world, and has produced the moral and civil chaos that is threatening to destroy us. What is this false belief? It is the widespread conviction that THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS ABSOLUTE TRUTH. All truth claims are relative. "You can believe whatever you want, but what's true for you is not true for me." What this means is that we have no fixed standards by which to measure or judge values, truth, purpose, or beauty. Once we embrace relativism, we live in a world of ultimate chaos. II. Relativism in the Church Look on the Internet and and Google "pluralism in the church."

6 Pluralism is the way relativism is played out in the American churches. According to the latest poll of Americans, in the shifting spiritual landscape of the United States, Christians too can no longer assume that their friends and neighbors believe in the God of the Bible, if they believe in God at all. To believe in God, is to believe in an absolute. And to believe in the God of the Bible is to believe that God has absolute standards. And this is highly resisted by many Christians today. You may have heard a congregation or a denomination proudly claim, We are a pluralistic church. This means that church welcomes all different kinds of theology and viewpoints. It is not merely a matter of diversity within unity. The Bible describes the church as a body. It is made up of diverse parts. Each part has an important role to play, an important function to perform. Just as the human body needs eyes and ears and a mouth, so the church needs various parts to it. We have different gifts, different tasks, different personalities. Yet in this diversity is unity. We have one Lord, one faith, one baptism. Ideally, we would all believe the same thing, but we do not all have a perfect understanding of the Bible. The Bible calls us to be patient, tolerant, and kind to one another in many points of disagreement. Yet there is an essential unity in truth. Certain truths cannot be negotiated. Denials of essential truths of Christianity are not to be tolerated in the truth. Pluralism suggests more than just diverse opinions in the church. It allows contradictory views of Christ, of God, and of the very essence of the Christian faith.

7 It considers them all to be right. Once a church embraces pluralism it is saying, It doesn t matter whether we agree on the essential points of the Christian faith, because it s all relative. That's why you can find Protestant congregations teaching Yogi, or Buddhism. What difference does it make, it's all relative. It's just your truth, but it's not my truth. The basic idea of pluralism is this: We have diversity here in this world. We have no access to ultimate unity, no way to bring the diverse things of our experience into a coherent whole. We have particulars but no universals; relatives but no absolutes. Printed on our currency is the motto of the United States of America, E Pluribus Unum From the many, one. It calls attention to the dream of our forefathers, that people from diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds could come to this country from all nations of the world and form one nation. Out of that plurality and diversity of background, unity was to emerge. The idea expressed in our Constitution and in the Declaration of Independence was straightforward: We would have one nation under God. In our present concept of pluralism, we have taken a significant step away from the original idea upon which this nation was founded. Originally, the idea meant to take from the diversity or the plurality and to bring them together into harmony. The new motto for this understanding of the culture would read something like E Pluribus Plurus From the many, many. In discussing plurality and pluralism, we must distinguish between the two. To speak of a plurality is simply to say there are diverse ideas or peoples or backgrounds.

8 However, as soon as we add that suffix ism to the word plural, we are saying something different. We are now saying that plurality is all that there is. There is plurality but no unity; there is nothing that brings ultimate coherence. You live the way you want to live. I live the way I want to live. That all truth-claims are relative, is expressed in this familiar poem by the ethicist, Dr. Abraham Edel: It all depends on where you are, It all depends on when you are, It all depends on how you feel, It all depends on what you feel. It all depends on how you re raised, It all depends on what is praised. What s right today is wrong tomorrow, Joy in France, in England sorrow. It all depends on point of view, Australia or Timbuctoo, In Rome do as the Romans do. If tastes just happen to agree, Then you have morality. But where there are conflicting trends, It all depends, it all depends What we are seeing in our culture is the fruit of Satan's evil lie. What he once whispered to Eve, is now broadcast loudly in all our classrooms and churches across the country. His poisonous lie is that there is no absolute truth. Relativism and pluralism are the antithesis of Christianity. III. Relativism Has It's Standard "Truths." No matter how hard one tries one cannot get away from rules ;

9 even relativism has definite prohibitions, including: A. Persuasion (seeking to convert someone) is prohibited On many university campuses, evangelism the taboo word is proselytizing is viewed as cramming your religion down someone s throat. Yet, God, the Creator declares evangelism to be what the world needs more than anything else. He did say Matthew 28:19-20 (NASB) 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you And, Paul declares that evangelism is a loving thing to do: 2 Timothy 2:24-26 (NASB) 24 The Lord's bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, 25 with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, 26 and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will. If we are eager to get recommendations on good and inexpensive ethic food or to ask for leads on shopping bargains, why not when it comes to discovering a life-changing message? There are many points at which relativism breaks down or ends up contradicting itself and here is one. If Christianity is true for me then why am I not allowed to fully practice it?

10 The reality is that relativism wants to limit the influence of Christianity. When relativism rules, Christians are not allowed to fully practice what they believe. B. To be exclusive is to be arrogant To say that genocide or rape is wrong are exclusive statements. Is one being arrogant to saying that rape is wrong or that Hitler was evil? It is easy to forget that the person practicing relativism is just as exclusive as the Christian. The relativist believes that the Christian iswrongand that his or her point of view isfalse, and in proclaiming this doctrine has become exclusive. C. Tolerance is a cardinal virtue What we need to understand about modern tolerance is that it has a definite standard. We are not being told to be tolerant. What we are being told is what we must accept as fact. Those who preach tolerance the most loudly are often very dogmatic about the need for everyone else to line up with their definition and standard of tolerance. It never seems to dawn on them that if relativism is reality, then no one needs to tolerate anything. IV. Where are the Absolute Truths In a shifting sea of relativism, how can we preach the Bible without trying to conform God s Word to this world? How can we refrain from compromising biblical truth while attempting to not to offend? I believe we can find great courage and clarity from what Isaiah

11 declared in Isaiah 40:6-8 (NASB) 6 A voice says, "Call out." Then he answered, "What shall I call out?" All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. 7 The grass withers, the flower fades, When the breath of the LORD blows upon it; Surely the people are grass. 8 The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever. Every one os needs to know that the word of mankind can never compete with God s Word. When our culture starts to say that some Biblical standard which has been taught for centuries needs to be redefined, then really what is happening is that culture is saying that they know more than God. That they know better than God. But Isaiah makes it clear that the word and wisdom of mankind can never compete with God s Word. What God s Word says the value of human life, the way to heaven, or anything and everything is what is right and true and will last. We can have confidence that God s Word is alive and powerful. Paul writes to Timothy 2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NASB) 16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; 17 so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. The source of mankind s words and relativistic ideas is mankind. The source of Biblical truth is God. Mankind will fade away. God will never fade away. We all can know that our God is alive and that His Word is alive!

12 We are called to preach God s truth without flinching in the face of the waves of cultural relativism. Why? Because our God and His Word does not change. The Bible says in Hebrews 13:8-9 (NASB) 8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. 9 Do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings; for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, If God s Word changes, then there is no standard. And without a standard, we will have completely lost our way in every aspect of life today and eternity. We are destined to remain in spiritual darkness. This is why must take a stand upon the authority and unchanging nature of God s Word. The need is greater now than ever before for all whom God has called to preach His Word to do so with clarity, courage, and conviction. God hasn t changed His Word. He hasn t changed His calling upon those who serve the people of God. That's why when I preach, I simply preach God s truth, because the denial of absolute truth is an insult to God. Our bedrock absolute truth is found in a person. John 14:6 (NASB) 6 Jesus said..., "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. And, He said John 8:31-32 (NASB) 31 If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.

13 If you are struggling whether or not there is an absolute truth, this verse tell you how you can find it. In this passage Jesus gives us a TRUTH CHALLENGE. This verse tells us how it is we can discover the truth. It starts by holding to Jesus teachings. Start with Jesus. If you can t quite believe that the whole Bible is the source of truth then at least start with the teachings of Jesus. Put them to the test. Use them as the moral authority in your life, and see what happens. So Jesus, in his own words, said that truth was found IN HIM, and in HIS TEACHINGS. But that s not all he said. He also said that truth was found in God s word. John 17:17-19 (NASB) 17 "Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. 18 "As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. 19 "For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. If you honestly take the TRUTH CHALLENGE, you will find your life changing for the better. What about it? Ready to live a new life built on absolutes? Prayer and Invitation See: His Truth written by Dr. Jack Cottrell