July 14

 

July 14, 2012

 

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people living for today

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people living life in peace              John Lennon 1971

 

In his song "Imagine," John Lennon was saying that to believe in absolutes, truth and religion is not just narrow – it's dangerous. Religion has led to untold strife, division, and conflict worldwide. It may be the greatest enemy of peace in the world. It is ironic that no one taught David Chapman, the murderer of Lennon, that God says, "You shall not murder."

 

Isaiah 43:10-11  Before me no god was formed, nor will there be one after me.

                             I, even I, am the Lord, and apart from me there is no savior.

 

These verses completely unhinge a majority of Americans today. There is nothing more arrogant, intolerant, narrow-minded and bigoted as saying there is only one God and apart from him there is no salvation. Over the decades, liberalism has very successfully discipled us into believing that the absolute truth is dangerous.

 

According to the research of George Barna, two-thirds of American adults don't believe in absolute truth anymore. In fact, half of the people attending church don't believe Isaiah 43:10-11. We are truly seeing the twilight of Biblical thinking today in the west.

 

Here are three other statistics from Barna:

25% of born-again Christians said all people are eventually saved or accepted by God.

26% said a person's religion doesn't matter because all faiths teach the same lessons.

40% of born-again Christians said they believe Christians and Muslims worship the same God.

 

A Christ follower has the "world view" that believes in absolute truth and one God, who is all knowing, all powerful, creator of heaven and earth and he still rules the universe today. To top it off, we believe that we will all be accountable to him and he alone will determine the eternal destiny of all people based on their relationship with him. 

 

So why does it matter if there is one God or all gods are the same? Our worldview impacts every action of life. The logical outworking of believing there are many gods or we all worship the same god is postmodernism. It says there are no absolutes and every individual must be allowed to construct his own truth, to make up his own rules. Hence, as the Beatles put it, there is "nothing to get hung-up on." Everything goes.

 

If we don't believe that Jesus alone paid the price for the sins of the world and we neglect his sacrifice, that choice will have eternal consequences. Make no mistake about it; the issue of the exclusivity of God is a big deal. The hearts and souls of our loved ones hang in the balance.

 

So how do we hold onto absolute truth in a winsome way? This was the purpose of the book written by Art Lindsley of the C.S. Lewis Institute, True Truth: Defending Absolute Truth in a Relativistic World.

Lindsley argues that we need to hold to the "absolutes without absolutism." He defines "absolutism" with negative characteristics such as arrogance, close-mindedness, intolerance, self-righteousness, bigotry, and the like.  The secret is to hold onto the truth while at the same time being humble, broken, and loving. In other words, we must believe absolute truth without acting like we are the absolute truth.  Remember this absolute truth, "we have all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." This tells us the truth about ourselves. We are all mess-ups and in desperate need of God's grace. There is no room for pride and bragging here. We are beggars who have found the bread of life and we are simply showing other beggars where to go.

 

Jesus said in John 14:6 "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." This statement is either true or false. Notice Jesus didn't say, "I am "a" way, he said "THE" way. There are many gods saying "I am a way." There are many voices clamoring for our attention and allegiance. But only Jesus claims to be THE WAY, THE TRUTH and THE LIFE. There is no god apart from Him.

What a privilege we have to be in relationship with the true God.