“When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do?” (Psalm 11)
Sometimes it seems like the very foundations of our culture are being destroyed, especially after conversations with bright young people who are rejecting not just the foundation Christianity provides but now even the foundations of scientific truth.
We were talking with a philosophical college senior named Michael at a coffee shop who, after hearing a clear explanation of the Gospel, told us that he prefers “the comfort of uncertainty”. I asked what he meant by this and he explained that he likes not having all the answers and sees Christianity as having truths that are too rigid and set in place, that he enjoys the excitement of “not knowing what else is out there”.
Michael is one of a growing number of young people who could be described as “postmodern”; who reject both traditional faith and the certainty of modern, scientific thought in favor of relative truth and mystical experiences.
If the Bible is "revealed" knowledge, and modernism is "acquired" knowledge, postmodernism might be thought of as knowledge relative only to lived experiences. A “modern” thinker might reject Christianity as being too arbitrary and faith-based, but in turn a "postmodern" might view modernism and science as too logical and predictable.
But are the foundations really being destroyed, or is history just repeating itself? Human nature was the same in Jesus’ day, when criticism came from those who knew him, saying “Isn’t this the carpenter?” and from those who did not – “…as for this fellow, we don’t even know where he comes from.” Some rejected him due to familiarity and others due to uncertainty.
But in Jesus, we don’t find either/or, we find both/and. Yes Jesus is human, someone who is knowable, someone we can relate to and trust in. But He is also God – omniscient, omnipresent, eternal, infinite, unfathomable.
We told Michael that, with Jesus, we really “don’t know what else is out there” in terms of knowing where our relationship with Him will take us. There is knowledge about Jesus that can be known and described, and there is knowledge that can only be experienced. And it all started with that “old-fashioned” knowledge that came long before modernity and postmodernity were even considered – it started with revelation – God’s revealed truth in the pages of scripture and in the life and person of Jesus.
What to do when we think the foundations are being destroyed? That verse from Psalm 11 continues “The Lord is in his holy temple; the Lord is on his heavenly throne.” God is in control, and that is the foundation we can stand on!
No comments:
Post a Comment