The church is constantly faced with one form or another of denial of the truth, or a modification of the truth, or a re-slanting or re-shaping of the truth. So in that sense, there’s nothing new when that happens today. There are some forms of such debates that have novel features to them. But as in Paul’s day, as in Jesus’s day, so in our day.

Same Old Challenge

The greatest challenge that the church faces today to avoid thinking like the world is the same as the greatest challenge that the church always faces to avoid thinking like the world. Now, one can specify peculiar temptations today that have not been dominant in another time or culture.

For example, if I’m speaking at a university mission today in the Western world, somewhere along the line in the Q and A that follows, people are going to say, “Well, that’s just your view of truth. People have a different view of truth.” The truth question, and the subjectivity of human claims, and knowledge attributions, and so on will always come up in the discussion.

But if I’m speaking at a university in the Middle East, nobody asks the question, “Yeah, but what is truth?” They may have some disagreements about what truth is and where it’s hidden and what it says, but very few people think there’s no such certainty as something called truth.

Read More