Postmodern is hard to define, and it seems to be characterized within many frameworks. Postmodernism is characterized by relativism and irrationalism.  Its counterpart and predecessor, modernism, was engaged in the pursuit of knowing truth, and it could possibly be characterized by the term rationalism.  Postmodernism, modernism’s successor, could be characterized by the epistemological question, “How do we know… truth?”

The gospel, on the other hand, is easy to define, and although it can be approached in many different frameworks, it has one framework and foundation that it calls solid ground.  The gospel is characterized by an essential claim… truth.  Not truth in itself, but object truth and exclusive truth.  Its claim that it is the only truth has its confessors and preachers mocked, cursed, spit upon, beaten, arrested, and sometimes… killed.  

Do you see the dichotomy?  The gospel and postmodernism have a hard time co-existing together.  One claims objectivity while the other claims relativity.  Their worldviews are at odds, and the tensions are alive and well today.

Two news stories have recently struck me about the future of preaching the gospel within this ‘relative’ framework.  As postmodern grows and relative approaches to truth are embraced, the Bible’s truth claims concerning objective truth, heaven and hell, homosexuality, the problem of evil, sin, the heresies and lies of other religions (truth claims), heterosexual marriage, and evangelism for that matter lie waiting to be smashed down, adjectivally raped, and publicized as erroneous acts of hate and its confessors scorned, arrested, beaten, or worse.

Could preaching the gospel (or its implications) in a postmodern world soon be illegal?  Yes, and maybe sooner than later.  

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The other day I walked into a room and gasped in shock. I couldn’t believe my eyes, and I had to do a double take. No, they were really there. I was in a room with Dave Matthews, Oprah, and Lebron James. The funny thing, they were all watching TV. Receiving news; news of the purple line. This is my story of a line that leads home.

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In a culture where sex is flaunted and success and money are the primary means for which people live their lives, it is only plausible that marriage would be placed on the back burner until later on in life.

Opposing worldviews give us more than substantial reason and provide more than a solid foundation for why 2 people disagree.  With multiple languages, ethnicities, cultures, philosophies, and religions alive in the world today, there are multiple frameworks, sometimes countless frameworks, in which people might approach truth issues.  But for Christians the Bible is the source of truth.  The Bible’s claim that its story is ‘the’ story is the foundational approach that Christians should take in all the decisions they make. 

Even about marriage.  Even about sex.  Even about being a husband, father, and leader.  Even about being a wife, mother, and nurturer.

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, 

• The median age at first intercourse is 16.9 years for boys and 17.4 years for girls.
• Over half of males (55%) and females (54%) ages 15 to 19 report having had oral sex with someone of the opposite sex.  Approximately one in 10 (11%) males and females ages 15 to 19 had engaged in anal sex with someone of the opposite sex; 3% of males ages 15 to 19 have had anal sex with a male.
• The percentage of high school students who report having had four or more sexual partners declined in recent years from 18% in 1995 to 14% in 2005. Males (17%) are more likely than females (12%) to report having had four or more sexual partners.
• Among those ages 20 to 24, males have a higher average number of partners (3.8) than females (2.8). Men in this age group are also more likely (30%) than women (21%) to report having had seven or more sexual partners.
• Approximately nine out of 10 men (89%) and women (92%) ages 22 to 24 have had sexual intercourse. 

• The average age of first marriage has risen by over a year for both men and women since 1990, reaching 26 for women and 27 for men in 2003, suggesting that many young people have sex before they are married.

In letting the statistics above speak for themselves, I am a strong advocate for young men and women dating intentionally for short periods of time and getting married early rather than later in life.

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In Part 1 of this article, we looked at how the Speech Act Theory interacts with Post-modernism and critiques its generalized skepticism on truth. This should be encouraging for a couple of reasons. Not everyone in the world is Post-modern(!) no matter what your college professor leads you to believe. Also, even secular theorists realize the possibility of discovering truth from texts like the Bible despite what your college professors lead you to believe. I do poke fun at the academic culture right now, but the fact is there is more diversity than what you hear on the typical college campus and you need to know that.

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So here is the situation. Post Modernism thinks language fails and true communication between people is limited, if even possible. Christianity, on the other hand, affirms God has revealed himself through language in the Bible and eternal life or condemnation depends on this revelation.

Uh oh. That seems irreconcilable. Spoiler Alert: it is irreconcilable.

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Question:  Are all religions the same?

Are all religions equally valid? There is one philosophy of religion that states exactly that; philosophy and theology label this position as religious pluralism. Pluralism states that all religions lead to the same god (the use of the title “god” is meant to center the argument around a central idea, though the existence of a god is not completely accepted by many pluralists). There are two aspects to this argument worth analysis, because this philosophical position takes two forms that can be addressed in separate ways. The first form of this argument is a simple, usually unexamined, statement of preference expressed by the majority of people one will encounter in western society. The second form is a much more developed argument which one only encounters through the study of philosophy. In this article we will explore the popular expressions of religious pluralism and the common underpinnings that are used to support it.

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