Radical Claims

Sunday, January 31^st we’re going to talk about “Truth Decay” and we’re going to look at the most radical claim that Jesus ever made. And it was radical.

In a culture and time when truth is so relative. How do we really know what truth is. Some come on out and let’s explore this together.

Discussion Groups

It really isn’t too late to join a discussion group. But if you are nervous about it, don’t join anything – but dip your toes in at our Tuesday night gathering at Church (7:00 pm) You can disappear into the crowd, or stand out like a sore thumb. Either way you are welcome. And you don’t need to bring anything, except a pencil and paper (if you like to take notes or keep track of your questions).

Small Group & Study Materials

If you are in a small group that is doing the series “Framing Your Worldview” – let me remind you that you can download free materials. If you are not in a small group just go to this website: www.4salem.org/fyw.htm and search through our different options.

===================

DID YOU KNOW?

People are still talking about the message on January 17th. Rumor has it that you could actually pick up a DVD copy at Eastgage Family Christian Book Store for just $5. You may want to check on that, first. Just ask for Louie Giglio's DVD "How great is our God"

Tuesday January 26 2010

TRUTH DECAY.

In a national poll, it was stated that 70% of Americans expressed concern about the “decline in moral values” in our society. There is what we would call a crisis of credibility in our nation. You can find corruption pretty much everywhere. You can find it in politics. You can find it in business. You can find it in sports. You find it in academics. You can find it in entertainment. You can find it in churches.

What is the cause of this “decline in moral values”? I can say it into words – truth decay.

Jesus said “You will know the truth
and the truth will set you free.”

Freedom comes from truth. The more you know the truth the freer you are in your spirit, in your life, in your family whatever. The opposite is true. The more you give up on truth the more you forfeit your freedom.

The past half of a century there has been a shift away from truth as the foundation of our society. It wasn’t that long ago that people genuinely agreed on what is right and what is wrong. If people didn’t do right at least they knew right. They knew what they were doing was wrong. Now today many people claim they don’t even know the difference between right and wrong. A lot of people even claim there’s no such thing as truth. How do you even know there’s truth. It may be truth for you but not truth for me. So there is no right or wrong.

POSTMODERNISM RELATIVISM
This idea that there is no such thing as truth is called postmodernism. Or relativism.

Here’s the big idea behind postmodernism. What’s true for you may not be true for me. And what’s right for you may not be right for me. This is very convenient philosophy because it means I can do whatever I want to do. It basically lets me off the hook saying there is no objective standard of behavior and I can do whatever I want to do.

When Jesus said “You will know the truth and the truth will set you free” He’s talking about The Truth will set you free. Not a truth, not any truth, not the truth you make up for your own agenda. That’s not the truth that sets you free. It is THE TRUTH that sets you free.

Last week when I began this series on worldview we talked about the sincerity myth. The sincerity myth says it really doesn’t matter what you believe if you’re sincere. That’s all that matters. We talked last week in detail that you can be sincerely wrong. I’ve been sincerely wrong many, many times. If after this service you decided to get on I-275 and you went up what you were thinking was the on ramp to the interstate but it was actually the off ramp you could be sincere about it but you would be sincerely wrong. And you would head into traffic and inevitably you would cause a collision and there would be damage to your car and most likely to you because you were sincere but you were sincerely wrong. And as angry drivers are yelling at you “Wrong way!” It’d be kind of silly for you to say, “Who are you to tell me what’s the truth? It may be wrong for you but it’s right for me.”

NO ABSOLUTES

Postmodernism, relativism, is built on the idea there are no absolutes. Have you heard this one? There are no absolutes. That is absolutely a dumb statement! Because it’s not only illogical, it’s unreasonable. In the first place when you say there are no absolutes you’re making an absolute statement. So it’s illogical. Whenever somebody says there are no absolutes I want to say, Are you absolutely sure? Because you’re stating an absolute it is an illogical statement.

Not only that it’s just unworkable. It’s unusable. It’s irrational. The entire world operates on absolutes every single second of the day. When you go into a pharmacy to get a prescription filled you don’t say, “Just give me anything.” And the pharmacist doesn’t say, “I didn’t have what you wanted but this is kind of like it. It’ll do. I know it’s for your back but this is a good thing for your head.” You want the pharmacist to give you absolutely the correct prescription in the right dosage. You don’t want anything kind of true. You want it to be absolutely true.

When NASA shoots a rocket off they don’t want it to go near the moon. They want to hit the target! They want to be directly on line. There are thousands of absolute corrections to keep it on course.

What if the law about stop signs was “You don’t have to absolutely stop. You just stop when you feel like it.” No. Can you imagine what traffic would be like if we had no absolute traffic laws? What would that be? Total chaos! The whole world, every single day of your life, operates on absolutes.

In postmodernism, in relativism, what’s happened is people now value tolerance more than they value truth. The supreme value in our culture has become tolerance. It’s more important to be tolerant than it is to be truthful. In fact, if you are truthful then you are considered intolerant. And how dare you say that something is always right and something is always wrong. That’s intolerant and that’s being judgmental. We’ve even redefined the word “tolerance.” Tolerance used to mean we may totally disagree on something but I still treat you with respect because you’re a human being. You’re made in the image of God. Although we may totally disagree on politics or morality, whatever, we’re still going to treat each other politely. That used to be tolerance.

The word now means all ideas are equally valid. That’s nonsense. All ideas are not equally valid. If I say, “The moon is made out of rock,” and you say, “The moon is made out of Swiss cheese,” that is not an equally valid idea. If I say, “The sun rotates around the earth,” and somebody else says, “The earth rotates around the sun,” those are not equally valid ideas. If I say “The earth is flat,” and you say “It’s round,” those are not equally valid ideas. There are a lot of things in life that are absolutely true and there are a lot of things in life that are absolutely false. They will always be true and they will always be false.

Truth is not new. It has been around forever. We now know that we’re made up of DNA. But that’s not a new truth. It’s just new to us. God knew it all along. So truth is something that’s discovered. But today if anybody dares to say, “This is always right,” then they’re accused of being intolerant and judgmental. It’s not judgmental to tell the truth.

If you’re in an accident and you’re laying along the side of the road bleeding to death and I walk up to you and say, “You need a doctor! You’re bleeding to death.” You’re not going to say, “I don’t want to hear that! You’re being judgmental!” That’s not judgmental. It’s just the truth. You’re bleeding to death and you need help.

Free Study Guide Discussion Guide
for
" THE GOOD LIFE"
We just happen to have two extra "used books" available of Chuck Colson's "The Good Life" for just eight bucks, and they are in good condition. email us at sumcsail@fuse.net

FREE DISCUSSION GUIDE
If you just want to study up on your own, or you’d like to supplement the small group experience, or you’d like to just go deeper then click here.

Salem Community Church
6137 Salem Rd
Cincinnati Ohio 45230
Phone: 513-232-1188
Fax: 513-232-2959
Email: sumcsail@fuse.net
URL: http://www.4salem.org