When we say stealing is wrong, or lack of truth is wrong, we are told that that may be wrong for us and so our critic is saying that all these things are relative and not absolute. But when they touch him he is the first to use absolutist language. Listen to him after the thief has broken into his home or when he believes the politician or the business man has been sparing with the truth.
Modern and Post Modern man has a problem with language. To us God's laws are true and right at all times for all people in all places. For the materialist they are socially produced and can be altered and re-written by society. Yet when we say "truth" we mean something which answers to objects or phenomena in the material world or the world of abstractions. We do not say truth and mean preference or expediency. If the material was all there was. In a world which came into being by chance over aeons of time by accident, then there could be no such words as "truth" or "right" or "wrong", or "good and evil". There could only be expedient, or liking or preference.
Time to fight back.
For the materialist what is, is what exists and what is, is right. It is the materialist who has the problem not the Christian nor the Jew who is consistent with his Judaism.
We have all the advantages of rationality and we have nothing to be ashamed of. In the past we were overawed by the assertions of science. The evolutionists did a very good P.R. job for themselves and many of the saints gave in and compromised. They came up with Theistic evolution or believed in Creation on Sunday and in evolution during the week. We are not mired in the swamps of wishful thinking. It is the materialist who inhabits the airy realm of cloud cuckoo land and we must burst the bubble of pretence that surrounds their fear of God and of the truth.
One of the Modern thinkers, Jean-Paul Sartre, the Existentialist, argued that for a true perspective on the universe we need a fixed cosmic reference point. We are the people who have that for we have the Words of the Creator of the Cosmos who has told us all we need to know to be able to speak true truth and to live in goodness and in righteousness. The perspective of the materialist, of whatever persuasion, is deeply flawed and it is as if he views things “through a glass darkly”. (1 Cor. 13:12.) Imagine trying to look at the world through the bottom of a glass bottle. That is how the materialist, whether he be a scientist or a poet sees the universe. His picture is all distorted and he thinks the distortions are the reality.
The Bible holds good under three tests which no other set of ideas can pass. It tells us the answers to the big questions such as Who am I ? Where do I come from? Who is God? What happens after we die? And so on. It also works in practice as anyone who has read it and applied it can confirm. Finally it is internally consistent. Frequently we hear people assert that “the Bible is full of contradictions”. There is a simple answer to that and it is, “then show me just one”. That is usually enough to silence the opponent and to put him to shame. Sometimes people do come up with perceived inconsistencies but on examination these are found to be mistaken as when people contrast law and grace, understanding neither.
Let us not weary in well doing. Let us take unto us the whole armour of God and use the “sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God”. We may have some difficult arguments but each one will make us stronger and more confident and we shall be able to put to silence all our enemies and to help our fellows to a clearer way of thinking.
