Over the past few decades, the religious pluralism of the Far East has increasingly influenced people in Western Europe and North America. The decline of Christianity has coincided with an explosion of interest in eastern mysticism and eastern religions, and all this has resulted in an outlook that says, in effect, that it does not much matter what we believe, as long as we are sincere in it. The thinking is that, as all rivers flow into the same ocean, so all religions lead to the same ultimate reality. This view has been common in Asia for centuries, but now even professing Christians have taken up this pluralistic belief and see Jesus as only one of many gods.
For the believer, the destructive aspects of this approach are not hard to see, although it is sometimes difficult to characterize and explain this “postmodernistic” thinking, as there are so many variations of it. But implicit in its outlook is a suspicion of all absolute truth and the rejection of God’s Word as alone being divinely inspired. Any claim to truth is relegated simply to its being relative, and any basis for truth is dismissed as having no final authority. The practical consequence of this philosophy is a virtual smorgasbord of “truths,” which allows the individual to pick and choose what suits him. With no absolute way in which to judge competing “truths,” we are left with a wide diversity of viewpoints and an atmosphere of “tolerance.”
Distorted Thinking
Eventually this leads to distorted thinking in moral issues of right and wrong, for if there are no absolutes, then right and wrong can be judged by the individual. Ultimately, murderers and terrorists have as much validity as those who may try to stop them. At the more personal level in everyday life, right and wrong become defined by consequences, and people operate on “situational ethics.” Recently a cleric in England publicly advised poor people to steal, if necessary, to satisfy their hunger, but stipulated that they should steal only from large corporations, not from smaller, family-run businesses.
This way of looking at life is very attractive to the natural man, for it allows him to define his own morality. Because man has a conscience, there is some sense of right and wrong in every individual, but without divine revelation and absolute truth, it is invariably badly distorted. The end result is what we find in Israel in the time of the judges — “every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” One can be considered “spiritual” without having his conscience reached, and he can profess to have a “religious experience” without having to define it. The concept of sin is rarely mentioned, and some things (such as sexual immorality) are considered private matters, again left for the individual to decide.
The Word of God
How then should believers respond to this kind of thinking? In the first place, we must take seriously Paul’s injunction to Timothy: “Take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine” (1 Tim. 4:16). We must, first of all, take care that we ourselves do not fall into this way of thinking. The Word of God must be our only authority, and we must realize that the Holy Spirit is here to interpret it for us. “Thy Word is truth” (John 17:1717Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. (John 17:17)). Our own ways as believers must be “without rebuke,” for we are in the midst of a “crooked and perverse nation.” We cannot shine as “lights in the world” without this, for the natural man is quick to judge the believer’s behavior, even if excusing his own. Tolerance and plurality have a certain appeal to the natural man and certainly make for an easier pathway for the Christian too. The world would not have condemned the Lord Jesus, except that He exposed their sin. “The world cannot hate you; but Me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil” (John 7:77The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil. (John 7:7)). So the believer who is tolerant toward that which is contrary to God’s Word will not suffer the same reproach. We must be willing to suffer the reproach and ostracism that will surely come if we maintain God’s claims, for “all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” (2 Tim. 3:12).
God Only Is Absolute
Second, we must realize in our own souls the complete irrationality of pluralism and relativism. As another has said, there can be no absolute knowledge in man by his own reason, but only relative. God only is absolute, and if man gives up God, his knowledge of necessity must be only relative. However, the one who insists that there is no universal truth is really saying, “The only universal truth is that there is no universal truth.” He is being just as absolute as the believer who claims that “there is none other name under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:1212Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. (Acts 4:12)). He is really using what he considers absolute truth to teach that all truth is relative. With similar distorted thinking, I well remember a woman telling me that she was tolerant of everything except intolerance! Truth by definition excludes what is not the truth, and thus we cannot logically insist that all religious and moral truths are equally valid, if they contradict one another.
Not Walking in Craftiness
Third, and most important, we are not to be “walking in craftiness,” but “by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God” (2 Cor. 4:2). Arrogance and condescension have no place in our witness; rather, we should seek to reach consciences by manifesting the truth and using God’s Word. As Christians we deal with people, not logic, and seek to reach the heart and the conscience. There is occasionally a time to “answer a fool according to his folly” (Prov. 26:55Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit. (Proverbs 26:5)), but more important than winning the argument is winning the soul for Christ. A logical argument may silence the opposer, but only a work of God in the soul will change him. Man may argue against the truth, but his conscience is always on the side of the truth.
In summary, “let us not be weary in well doing” (Gal. 6:99And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. (Galatians 6:9)), for the gospel is still “the power of God unto salvation.” Many are weary of the emptiness of pluralism and relativistic thinking and long for something solid. If we believe in and preach absolute truth — “as the truth is in Jesus” (Eph. 4:2121If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: (Ephesians 4:21)) — we may be opposed and ridiculed, but truth will have the victory in the end. The world crucified the Lord Jesus, the One who is the truth, but God vindicated truth in the resurrection. The One who is now “the way, the truth, and the life” will one day sit on the throne of His glory, and truth will be vindicated publicly.
W. J. Prost