Why Truth Matters

The dominant worldviews today are postmodernism (which affirms no truth) and pluralism (which says all truth claims are equal and valid, even those that oppose each other), both of which work overtime to eclipse God's revealed truth. When you force the postmodernist and pluralist to face their own claims with examples of why truth matters in the physical world, they quickly retreat back into a shell of agnosticism and say they maintain their position because you can't know the truth about spiritual matters. But is this true?

I don't think so.

I've just uploaded a new set of materials (article, summary sheet, powerpoint presentation, and podcast) where I demonstrate why truth matters both in the physical and spiritual worlds, and I present the steps that are necessary to discover ultimate spiritual truth. Check them out and let me know what you think - you can find them at www.confidentchristians.org/resources.html under the link Why Truth Matters.

The fact is, most really don't want to know the truth about spiritual matters because when they find it, it might run contrary to how they want to live. It was Nietzsche that said, “It is our preference that decides against Christianity, not arguments.”

God, being gracious and granting us personal freedom, gives us the option of discovering the truth or knowingly continuing to run in the opposite direction of His revealed truth. It's a lot like the movie The Matrix, where Morpheus gives Neo the option of knowing reality or continuing to live a lie:

“You take the blue pill, the story ends. You wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.” I’m only offering you the truth… Nothing more."

Which way will you choose?

New materials on absolute truth

I just completed a new article, summary sheet, powerpoint presentation, and podcast on the question: Does absolute truth exist? It's amazing to me that nearly 2/3 of people in the latest Barna poll think absolute truth doesn't exist. But when you examine the facts and look at the definition of what truth really is, it becomes clear that absolute truth is just inescapable and that any ideology that opposes it is either self-defeating or just illogical.

Check out the new materials on my web site at http://www.confidentchristians.org/resources.html

Irreconcilable Differences

I'd like you to meet Anne Holmes Redding of Seattle. Redding has been an Episcopal priest for twenty years, but now on Friday nights, she puts on a black head scarf and heads down to Seattle’s Al-Islam Center where she joins in prayer with her fellow Muslims. Ms. Redding became a Muslim as a result of an “introduction to Islamic prayers [that] left her profoundly moved.” As she told the Seattle Times, “I am both Muslim and Christian, just like I’m both an American of African descent and a woman. I’m 100 percent both.” So while on Friday nights she puts on a black head scarf, on Sunday mornings she wears a clerical collar. Ms. Redding doesn’t deny that there are differences between Christianity and Islam – she simply does not think that they ultimately matter. Redding rejects the Christian doctrine about Christ’s divinity. But she still believes that Jesus was resurrected from the dead, which Islam rejects. As she put it, “at the most basic level, I understand the two religions to be compatible. That's all I need"

Compatible? Well, both Islam and Christianity are theistic faiths (belief in only one, supreme Being), but then the waters start to get muddy pretty quick when you move on to the areas of who Jesus is, the plan of salvation, the nature of man, and what happens when you die (you know, the small stuff).

Focusing on one key item, how can Redding call herself a Christian and yet deny the core doctrine of Christ's divinity? For Muslims, this is perfectly OK, but for real born again believers in Christ? At first blush, Islam seems to affirm a lot of what the Bible says about Jesus, including the following:

• Jesus was born of a virgin (sura 3:47, 19:27-28)
• Jesus is proclaimed to be the Christ/Messiah (sura 3:45)
• Jesus is confirmed to be righteous (sura 6:85)
• Jesus was sinless (sura 3:46)
• Jesus performed miracles (sura 3:49)
• Jesus had disciples (sura 3:52-53, 5:111-118)
• Jesus was sent with a gospel (sura 5:46)
• Jesus’ words should be believed (sura 4:171)
• Jesus was taken into Heaven by God (sura 4:156-159)
• Jesus will have a second and visible coming to the earth (sura 3:55)

But then, digging deeper, we find these claims about Christ in the Koran:

• Jesus was not crucified on a cross (sura 4:157)
• Jesus did not die (sura 4:156-159)
• Jesus was not resurrected (implied from prior point)
• Jesus prophesied the coming of Muhammad (sura 61:6)
• Jesus was just one of the prophets (sura 2:136, 5:75)
• Jesus should not be worshipped (sura 5:116)
• Jesus was not the Son of God (sura 19:35, 4:171)

Any knowledgeable Christian will immediately see the contradictions with what is declared in the New Testament concerning Jesus. Further, Islam believes that Jesus will come again, but he will marry, have children, die like everyone else, and be judged by Allah. Again, not the picture the Bible paints of Jesus.

If you want to be a Muslim, God has given you the freedom to choose that path. But please don't try and say that Islam and Christianity are the same or that the differences don't matter.

Whenever I see things like this, I'm always reminded that apostasy rarely if evers outright denies God's truth, but just distorts it so that it appears palatable to many. Just as R.C. Lensky, a pastor, theologian and commentator has said, “The worst forms of wickedness consist of perversions of the truth”