The Truth War Read Free Page B

to be demanding or costly. Such a self-willed approach to the truth is tantamount to usurping God (Psalm 12:4). People who take that route guarantee their own destruction (Romans 2:8–9).
    Moreover, God has revealed Himself and His truth with sufficient clarity. Even apart from the explicit, special revelation of the Bible, God has made some of the principle elements of spiritual truth clear enough for everyone. Scripture says, for example, that the cardinal truths concerning God, His power, His glory, and His righteousness are naturally known to all people through creation and conscience (Romans 1:19–20; 2:14–16). That truth is adequately clear and sufficient to leave the entire human race “without excuse” (Romans 1:20). All those who are condemned in the final judgment will be held responsible for rejecting whatever truth was available to them. The fact that a just and righteous God holds both unbelievers and believers alike responsible for obedience to His revelation is irrefutable proof that He has made the truth sufficiently clear for us. To claim that the Bible is not sufficiently clear is to assault God’s own wisdom and integrity.
    HOW TRUTH IS UNDER ASSAULT IN THE CHURCH TODAY
    The clarity and sufficiency of Scripture, the lostness of unredeemed humanity, and the justice of God in condemning sinners are all longstanding convictions in every major strain of historic Christianity. Christians have differed among themselves about peripheral questions or lesser points of doctrine. But historically and collectively, Christians have always been in full agreement that whatever is true—whatever is objectively and ontologically true—is true whether any given individual understands it, likes it, or receives it as truth . In other words, because reality is created and truth is defined by God, what is really true is true for everyone, regardless of anyone’s personal perspective or individual preferences.
    These days, however, people are experimenting with subjective, relativistic ideas of truth and labeling them “Christian.” This trend signals a significant departure from biblical and historic Christianity. Carried to its necessary conclusion, it will lead inevitably to the abandonment or compromise of every essential element of the true Christian faith. It is, I am convinced, another major onslaught in an ages-old battle against truth by the powers of darkness. The fact that this error is being taught and defended and promoted by people who profess to know and love Christ does not alter the fact that it is error. And the fact that relativism is often propagated in books found on the best-seller racks in evangelical bookstores does not alter the seriousness of the error. The remodeling of our ideas about truth and certainty poses a severe danger to the heart and core of the Christian gospel.
    PEOPLE ARE
EXPERIMENTING WITH
SUBJECTIVE,
RELATIVISTIC IDEAS OF
TRUTH AND LABELING
THEM “CHRISTIAN.” THIS
TREND SIGNALS A
SIGNIFICANT DEPARTURE
FROM BIBLICAL AND
HISTORIC CHRISTIANITY.
    As always, a war is being waged against the truth. We are on one side or the other. There is no middle ground—no safe zone for the uncommitted. Lately the question of truth itself—what it is and whether we can truly know it at all—has become one of the major points of contention.
    We also happen to be living in a generation when many so-called Christians have no taste for conflict and contention. Multitudes of biblically and doctrinally malnourished Christians have come to think of controversy as something that should always be avoided, whatever the cost. Sadly, that is what many weak pastors have modeled for them.
    Controversy and conflict in the church are never to be relished or engaged in without sufficient cause. But in every generation, the battle for the truth has proved ultimately unavoidable, because the enemies of truth are relentless. Truth is always under assault. And it