Whatsoever
Things Are True
by Dan Coburn
Pastor, Emmanuel
Baptist Church
pastordan@mtida.net
Christmas Absolutes in a Relative World:
I love this time of year. It reveals to me the heart of man perhaps more
than any other season. For those of us who are paying attention, the battle
lines are drawn each Christmas Season, and the secular world digs in its
heals, bitterly opposing any reference to Jesus, and all the while wanting
your money. It must be a fine line to walk. I love the word Christmas if
for no other reason that the first syllable. I love the word holiday, if
for no other reason than that it came from “Holy-day”. I love the word
universe, as it is a Latin compound word meaning “one-spoken word”. It
wasn’t always like this. I’m only 58 yrs old, and when I was a kid, in
public school, we put on Christmas Pageants, and called them such. We had
baby Jesus, the shepherds, wise men, Mary and Joseph, and various animals,
all on stage. We even sang Christmas songs, and used the J word.
So how did we get where we are? I grew up in a world of Traditionalism
which meant that God determined what is truth. Our country was founded
on this. If you go to Washington DC, and take a tour (I highly recommend
it) you will see the common theme is biblical principles, which determined
the decisions of our founding fathers. Most of our laws were derived from
the bible. In the 1960s, Science became truth. If something couldn’t be
reproduced in the classroom – say faith for instance, it was deemed superstition.
This is called Modernism, and the fruits of it were Supreme Court
rulings such as removing prayer from school, R vs W, and so on. Local governments
determined what is good for us, like what is porn, and how much of it is
OK. In the 80s, we evolved to Post-Modernism. This was the recognition
that science could not answer our fundamental questions. We decided there
is no truth. It’s all relative. What is right for me, may not be right
for you, and vice versa. Therefore, you can’t judge me. No right or wrong.
A recent Barna Pole concluded that 2 out of 3 adults, and 4 of 5 teens
believe there are no absolute truths. You don’t want your banker thinking
this way as she counts out your change, or your pilot as you’re landing
on a runway too short for your plane, so you see, relativism only applies
to moral values, and religion.
Fifty years ago, being tolerant was to recognize another person’s right
to their opinion. Today, it means you cannot disagree or tell them they
are wrong. If you do, you are bigoted, arrogant, dogmatic, and Evil. Soon
we will be like our neighbors to the north, where a pastor was actually
jailed for saying homosexuality was wrong. What has this to do with
Christmas? As far as our world is concerned, Christmas has no absolute
meaning. Next week we will look at three Christmas Absolutes. You
don’t want to miss it. Merry Christmas. |
Home
Classified
Ads
Template Design by:
 |
