Choosing to believe in the truth and sufficiency of the Bible is not the path to popularity. It is quite the opposite. “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” —1 Corinthians 1:18
Christianity is built on a pre-modern worldview. Even writing that feels embarrassing.
Much has been said about our current age of post-modernism. In a post-modern worldview, the ultimate authority for what is true, right, noble, and good is me, my feelings, and my experience. I am the ultimate arbiter of truth. Therefore, I can have my truth, you can have yours, etc. If it feels good to me, then it is good for me. You don’t have to look far to find Christians decrying the evils of post-modernism and its destructive effects on the souls of this generation.
However, some of these critiques seem to imply, “If only we could return to the modern view of the world, which was supportive and compatible with biblical Christianity.” But what is the ultimate authority for what is true, right, noble and good in the modern worldview? Human reason is the arbiter of truth for the modern mind. If it can be studied, examined, repeated, and made to submit to logic, then we can believe it.
The Christian rejects the worldview of this age (post-modernism) and the worldview of the previous age (modernism). We do not believe our feelings and personal experience determine truth for ourselves or for anyone else. We also don’t believe our human reason is the ultimate measure of all things. Instead, we believe our experience, feelings, reason, and logic are all fallen and thus potentially dangerous.
So where does that leave us? As followers of Christ, we embrace a pre-modern path to ultimate truth. My feelings will not lead me to the truth. My experience will not lead me to the truth. My reason will not lead me to the truth. I need supernatural revelation from God. God has graciously revealed His truth, for all people, in all places, and in all times, in the Bible. God calls His children to stand up and declare, “Our experience is unreliable. Our feelings are unreliable. Our reason is unreliable. We must rely on the Word of God alone.” To utter such things is a sure path to ridicule and rejection from the world.
Excerpted from the upcoming book, Reclaiming the Sufficiency of Scripture, Randall House, September 2012.