Silly me. Since my conversion to Christ in 2000, I’ve been obsessed with the modern world’s refusal to even acknowledge God – let alone to repent and trust in Him for eternal life. I’ve thought of it as a special kind of stubbornness reserved exclusively for Him, a Satan-driven love of sin that blinds the majority of people to the truth about where we came from, what we’re doing here and where we’re going.
“If we can only get these people to consider Christ,” I’ve thought time and time again, “then the Holy Spirit can point them once and for all to God and His word. Absolute truth will win!”
Now I’m wondering how I could have been so blind to the flaw in this strategy: Because in today’s world, absolute truth no longer exists.
What woke me up was reviewing a Family Policy Institute of Washington video in which a short white guy interviewed students on the campus of the University of Washington.
To set the stage, he asked them about the current debate over the accessing bathrooms and locker rooms based on “gender identity” and “gender expression.”
Their comments were eye-opening. “Bathrooms should be gender neutral,” said one, and the others agreed, using frighteningly similar language.
The interviewer then turned it up a notch.
“What would you say,” he asked each student, “if I told you I was Chinese?”
The consensus? “Good for you.”
And so on.
“How about if I told you I was seven years old?” the interviewer said.
“If you feel seven at heart,” replied an oh-so-tolerant co-ed, “so be it.”
The interviewer was clearly looking for something that would cause someone to say “No, that’s not true!” He tried this, noting elsewhere that he is actually 5’9”: “If I said I was 6’5”, what would you say?”
“If you truly believe it,” replied one student, “that’s fine.”
“It’s not my place to say someone is wrong,” said another.
And there you have it. Faced with an obvious lie, these college students are unwilling -- perhaps unable -- to expose it. Whatever you say, buddy; who am I to tell you you’re wrong? It doesn’t hurt me if you want to think that.
It’s true that there are other contemporary influences shaping people’s thinking these days – most notably, the suppression of competing ideas in the public square and, increasingly, even in private conversation. Perhaps that’s why the world has been so quick to embrace false narratives on everything from Marxism to climate change to gender liberation – all while celebrating tolerance as the ultimate good.
But at the heart of such Orwellian “goodthink” is the persistent rejection of absolute truth.
And if you reject absolute truth, you are by definition rejecting the One who is “the way, the truth, and the life.”
I guess our only hope, if the Lord tarries, is that something will cause a future generation to cry out to Him in repentance and faith. After all, it happened repeatedly with the children of Israel in the days of the judges, when everyone “did what was right in his own eyes.” And the Lord was faithful to forgive them, and deliver them from whatever evil threatened to destroy them.
Maybe it’s not too late for us.
“If we can only get these people to consider Christ,” I’ve thought time and time again, “then the Holy Spirit can point them once and for all to God and His word. Absolute truth will win!”
Now I’m wondering how I could have been so blind to the flaw in this strategy: Because in today’s world, absolute truth no longer exists.
What woke me up was reviewing a Family Policy Institute of Washington video in which a short white guy interviewed students on the campus of the University of Washington.
To set the stage, he asked them about the current debate over the accessing bathrooms and locker rooms based on “gender identity” and “gender expression.”
Their comments were eye-opening. “Bathrooms should be gender neutral,” said one, and the others agreed, using frighteningly similar language.
The interviewer then turned it up a notch.
“What would you say,” he asked each student, “if I told you I was Chinese?”
The consensus? “Good for you.”
And so on.
“How about if I told you I was seven years old?” the interviewer said.
“If you feel seven at heart,” replied an oh-so-tolerant co-ed, “so be it.”
The interviewer was clearly looking for something that would cause someone to say “No, that’s not true!” He tried this, noting elsewhere that he is actually 5’9”: “If I said I was 6’5”, what would you say?”
“If you truly believe it,” replied one student, “that’s fine.”
“It’s not my place to say someone is wrong,” said another.
And there you have it. Faced with an obvious lie, these college students are unwilling -- perhaps unable -- to expose it. Whatever you say, buddy; who am I to tell you you’re wrong? It doesn’t hurt me if you want to think that.
It’s true that there are other contemporary influences shaping people’s thinking these days – most notably, the suppression of competing ideas in the public square and, increasingly, even in private conversation. Perhaps that’s why the world has been so quick to embrace false narratives on everything from Marxism to climate change to gender liberation – all while celebrating tolerance as the ultimate good.
But at the heart of such Orwellian “goodthink” is the persistent rejection of absolute truth.
And if you reject absolute truth, you are by definition rejecting the One who is “the way, the truth, and the life.”
I guess our only hope, if the Lord tarries, is that something will cause a future generation to cry out to Him in repentance and faith. After all, it happened repeatedly with the children of Israel in the days of the judges, when everyone “did what was right in his own eyes.” And the Lord was faithful to forgive them, and deliver them from whatever evil threatened to destroy them.
Maybe it’s not too late for us.
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