“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires; and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to fables.” (2 Timothy 4:3-4)
That time came and continues to this day. Each generation has those who succumbed to the enticement of the new and novel in religious belief. In Protestantism, it started in earnest for the generation of the 1920s and 30s with the coming of what was called “modernism.”
Modernism isn’t something modern. It can be simply defined as the ideology of not believing what the Bible says. For more liberal churchmen and seminary scholars, to be modern was to adopt the theological critics “more advanced” views of the veracity and sufficiency of the Bible. The Bible was simply not inspired verbally. It was full of inconsistencies and errors, newly discovered by the more elite. These views created a battleground with those who held to the inspiration and inerrancy of the Scriptures.
In our generation modernism was traded in for a more “sophisticated” and avant-garde term: “Postmodernism.” This term can be easily defined and traced to its source: the Garden of Eden. Post modernism is simply a repeat of the oldest question addressed to our first parents: “Hath God said?” That is, is what is recorded in the Bible really accurate, or has it been distorted in some way? Is it archaic and not sufficient to satisfy the cravings of our more technological world? Surely we have better ideas. We are better educated and have so many scholars who reject such dogmatic ideas like the record that God created the whole universe out of nothing by His commands uttered in six days!
To the postmodern mind, there is no such thing as “absolute truth.” Truth is something each successive generation decides and defines for itself. After all, isn’t the idea of truth relative to one’s time and culture?
Well, you can swallow the lies of postmodern thinkers and educators, if you want. But I won’t. I’ll stick with God’s own word, as uttered through His prophet Isaiah:
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts; nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there without watering the earth, and making it bear and sprout, and furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; it will not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:8-11)
If you want to stick with the prattle of today’s postmodern thinkers and writers, go ahead. Adam and Eve believed the lies of the Tempter, look where it got them – and all of us. Personally, I’ll stick with the words taught to me and those believed by my forebears – Puritans who left England for a land where they could hold to the Truths of God’s Word. I think they were probably inspired by such men as Martin Luther, who proclaimed,
“Feelings come and feelings go,
And feelings are deceiving;
My warrant is the Word of God–
Naught else is worth believing.
Though all my heart should feel condemned
For want of some sweet token,
There is One greater than my heart
Whose Word cannot be broken.
I’ll trust in God’s unchanging Word
Till soul and body sever,
For, though all things shall pass away,
His word shall stand forever!”
In order to truly be postmodern, you need to be pre-modern. Get back to Eden. See how the curse of postmodernism had its origin in the rebellion and lies of the one still deceiving people to doubt and deny the absolute truth of God’s Word, the Holy Bible.