Absolute truth humanity won't yield to

Here’s an outtake from this morning’s sermon at my church about how “Truth is a Person”:

The world is at odds with the idea that Jesus is truth—you know, an uncomfortable, inconvenient truth. That’s the problem with humanity, says Alex Kurz.

You know what our culture does: “Your truth, my truth.” Kind of the mentality that Pilate had: “Well, who are you to impose your quote ‘truth’?" There’s no absolute truth; truth is relative.

You hear all sorts of nonsense like that and so the resistance is a far deeper spiritual antagonism against truth. That’s why culture relegates truth to this subjective, “Truth is based on what I feel; truth is based on what I experience.”

They scoff, they reject the idea that there can be absolute truth because they reject that Jesus IS the truth.

You see, God is the one who defines truth. God is the one who defines reality and what is man’s problem?

Romans 1:18: [18] For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;

They hold it; they suppress it. Notice verse 25: [25] Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.

The truth has to do with the identification of the one true God in the universe and man in his hard, alienated, dark, ignorant, blind heart—they reject the very idea that there can be an authoritative, absolute truth because they reject there is a God.

Listen, truth isn’t just a set of ideas. Truth isn’t just a system of principles or a system of concepts. Truth is about a Savior who needs to be received.

John 18: [37] Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.

Look at this pagan, godless response: [38] Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find in him no fault at all.

He’s standing right in front of you. You see what just happened? Pilate didn’t need more articulate, philosophical engagement. He needed submission. He needed to recognize, “You are ALL that you claim to be. You are the proof.”

This is a snapshot of the mentality of the world where they’re going around with their hands over their eyes: “Where’s truth? I can’t see it.” Truth is standing in front of Pilate and he makes such a foolish, ignorant statement.

That’s the problem with humanity; they don’t want to yield, they don’t want to bend. They don’t want to receive the truth that, “Truth is a Person.”

*****

Here’s an old study by Richard Jordan:

"When you have paganism, the symbol of it is the circle. The band Travis had a hit song some time ago that said, ‘There’s no wrong, there’s no right. The circle only has one side.’ That’s it; it’s a circle. In the movie Lion King, there was that circle of light and everything’s in it.

“Now, understand the new culture is very spiritual. It’s very into the supernatural. It’s very into the superstitious. That’s why everywhere you look you see vampires and zombies and avatars. The Barnes & Noble by the Woodfield Mall has a ‘Teenage Paranormal’ section as long as that wall to the door.

“I was raised in the Phil Donohue age where everything was naturalistic and there was no supernatural, miraculous intervention by God at all. Einstein said, ‘Well, I believe in a God but not one that intervenes into history.’

"All the philosophy then was about God being an ‘absentee landlord,’ as Al Pacino called him. That was the idea. 'If there’s a God, that’s okay; He just doesn’t get involved.’

“Naturalism says the world just works on the laws of nature like a washing machine. It just works because it works. That’s the way it is.

"Before you had to spend your time defending there’s a resurrection or a virgin birth or that there could be miracles. Now you don’t have to convince young people there’s a resurrection. What you have to convince them of is there’s only one! Because they believe in all kind of resurrections; all kind of life after death. UFOs, zombies. What is a zombie? It’s life after death! What are vampires? That’s animal and man put together in one creation.

“There’s no distinction; it’s gone. There’s a thinking and a social impact of that. Oprah made it chic to be spiritual. She said over and over, ‘It’s okay to get in touch with your spiritual side; just don’t use the Bible.’ Why? Because the Bible says there are two buckets and paganism says there’s just one. It's, ‘Can’t we all just get along.’ 

*****

“Paganism requires the philosophy of tolerance in order to be able to function. The only sin is believing that there is a sin. To say that any action is wrong, or any condition needs to be changed, is abhorrent. That’s why Bible-believing Christianity is presented as intolerant. It’s presented as unloving. It’s intolerant because it’s got two buckets.

“The old culture said that truth is what corresponds with reality. The correspondence idea of truth: ‘If it’s real, it’s true.’ That’s the fundamental thinking of the Bible. How do you know there’s a Creator? There’s a creation. Duh! The first-cause demands that.

“In the old Judeo-Christian thinking paradigm we all recognize truth is out there somewhere. We might not know what it is, but if we just keep searching and dialoguing, it will be there.

“You know the story of the three blind men that tried to describe the elephant? One felt his trunk and said it’s like a rope, another felt his leg and said it’s like a stump and the other felt his belly and said it's like a wall. That’s their perceptions, but the old thinking would say, ‘It’s STILL an elephant!’  It’s still the whole, not your part.

“The new thinking is, 'Whatever you experience it to be, it’s truth.' For you the elephant is a stump or it’s like a big old wall because the elephant is whatever you think it is. Because we’ve only got one bucket and any thinking process that you have, everyone’s experience and participation is right. It’s truth. And it’s not right to say there’s only one way. Truth is really just by experience, so it’s not right to say, ‘You’re wrong!’

“We have terms for the moral ethic that holds paganism together; egalitarianism is one. Multi-culturalism--that’s where the so-called feminist movement came from. That’s where the environmental stuff comes from. That’s where the homosexual stuff comes from. All of that comes from a completely different paradigm of thinking where there’s just one bucket and everybody’s in it. And that’s what paganism is all about."