Is Absolute Truth Still Relevant?

Wednesday of last week we woke up to a world in chaos, and as the week continued on, it just got worse.

Everywhere you looked, the media was more than a bit disoriented, and this place we call home felt unsafe. Our foundation felt a little shaky, and we weren’t sure of our footing. In the middle of the media screaming, our Christian culture didn’t know what to do or think. Hate upon Hate. Condemning, unloving posts went viral, and our culture’s platform grew seemingly bigger than the Truth.

As always, Wednesday of last week, the six of us ate around our big farm table. You could feel the tension in the air and see the confusion in our children’s eyes. See, they didn’t understand why the world around them felt unsafe, they just knew it did. Honestly, we weren’t prepared for this either. How could I have known our country would be in such an uproar over one man becoming president? I wasn’t ready to talk with my kids about the issues that arose from this election, but I couldn’t hide.

My husband and I teach our children that the Bible is the absolute Truth. It is what we live by and always go back to. As believers, more than ever, we have to continue to go back to the Bible…our Truth.

“God’s Word is our standard, even if truth is shifted in our culture,” the six of us chanted.

And maybe you need to chant it too.

Our world is longing for a generation to stand up and believe in absolute Truth.

Like the culture around us, we are being shaped by posts and tweets rather than the Word of God. We are allowing mere men to form our theology, never questioning if it lines up with the Word of God.

The Bible warns us of this, “For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.” (2 Timothy 3:3NIV).

“We need to always go back to the Word of God and ask, ‘Is this true?’” I stressed to the children.

Jesus was and still is our perfect theology. He is The Truth.

Somehow I wonder how we can be the light of the world if our truth is always changing?

It all started in the Garden of Eden when Eve said, “God didn’t really say…”

God didn’t really say, don’t murder, when the baby is still in the womb. After all woman deserve the right to their own bodies.  

He didn’t really mean man and woman. He would just want them to be happy…right.

According to Webster, “absolute truth is defined as inflexible reality: fixed, invariable, unalterable facts. For example, it is a fixed, invariable, unalterable fact that there are absolutely no square circles and there are absolutely no round squares.”

What draws the line in the sand is if we believe the words in the Bible are absolute Truth. If we did, would we be so divided as Christians?

I love what Lisa Bevere said in her newest book, Without Rival, “What they wanted from us was shallow answers that sounded deep. Christians have become wishing wells instead of deep wells. They want their wrong to be blessed and they want others to tell them their evil is good. They really just want others to bless their sin and they want to feel good about themselves. If anyone tries to tell them their sin is wrong, they just label them as judgmental. And I am afraid if Christians continue just to turn the other cheek and not call out the sin, we will be left with people with deep longings but shallow lives. The reality is, ‘the word of God alone has the power to give us clarity when circumstances have muddied the water. Without the counsel of Scripture, you will mistakenly call foolishness wisdom.’” from Lisa Bevere’s book Rival.

Do we actually believe every word in the Bible is absolute truth? Do we live this way?

Wrestling with these two questions has brought me to one simple fact: If you don’t stand on absolute truth, then the gospel means nothing. Jesus’ blood loses its power to a lost and dying world. 

We can’t afford to allow the culture to shape our theology.

This week I preached to myself…

“Be bold. Be strong. Be brave. Stand up for what is right. Do it in love. Seek Jesus’ face and ask him how to love others that are different without compromising the Truth. Don’t be afraid to teach your children to stand on the absolute truth.

Stop preaching from a platform without action and get into the pits with people. Stay off social media to allow let your soul to rest. Stop talking and listen. Fill a need. Abide in the Holy Spirit and watch miracles happen.”

My challenge this month is to read through the Gospels to see how Jesus lived. He is our great example. He is the Word made flesh, our Perfect Theology.

Let’s learn together how to let the Gospels keep us relevant and teach us how to live the Word of God without compromise.

For the month of December, I will be doing a series called He is: Exploring Jesus as Healer, Restorer, Provider, and Comforter. We won’t know who we are and how to live, until we know who He is. Won’t you join me?