Upon this rock I will build my church,
and all the powers of hell will not conquer it.
(Matthew 16:18)
I’m concerned about the intensifying embrace of postmodernism. The result of this is that we have eroded from a Christian era to a post-Christian era. I remember when we used to say that about Great Britain. I now say it about the United States of America, the land I love, a land I have served to help protect. But over the past decades we have slid into the murky waters of a post-Christian swamp.
Instead of life being interpreted honestly, it is now interpreted emotionally. Instead of real being real, virtual reality has taken charge. And since reality is now distorted and viewed as distasteful, the younger generation prefers virtual reality. Reality bores them. We have changed our thinking based on objective instruction from the truth of Holy Scripture to subjective, secular thinking based squarely on a horizontal, humanistic perception, where self is always predominant.
Need a good definition of postmodernism? A description might be more helpful than a definition. Postmodernism thrives on chaos. It desires to destroy all moral criteria and replace it with no criteria. It seeks a world in which everything is relative, where there is no truth, and perception alone is reality. Since God’s eternal truth has no place in such a world, with the rise of postmodernism we witness a commensurate decline in biblical knowledge.
The way this has evolved is interesting. Postmodernism began in the rarefied atmosphere of the academic literary community. It soon began to ooze from the erudite eggheads in academia to virtually everyone in any position of leadership. It has morphed from the halls of academia to the halls of Congress, to the halls of public schools, and finally into our private homes
I say all this not to point fingers but to point to the hope that God offers in His Word. “All the powers of hell will not conquer” the church, Christ’s body. Even postmodernism, as pervasive as it is, has no power over Christ or His church.
Taken from The Church Awakening by Charles R. Swindoll. Copyright © 2010 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. Reprinted by permission of Faith Words, an imprint of Hachette Book Group, Inc.
