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CHAPTER 1

 

INTRODUCTION

 

 

I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season.  Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.[1]

 

These words from the Apostle Paul to Timothy, written over nineteen hundred years ago, are appropriate for the church of Jesus Christ as the twentieth century draws to a close. The current culture has experienced a paradigm shift from modernism to postmodernism. Truth is dead and intellectual anarchy reigns.

Experience and power are what people are seeking in postmodernity, and the church is not unaffected. Christians have been influenced by postmodern culture more than they have influenced the culture. In resistance to modernism, evangelical Christians created their own Christian subculture. But now they are letting their guard down and the Christian subculture is looking more and more like a microcosm of the larger secular culture.

Postmodernism has brought society from an age of reason to an age of relativism. The only thing postmodernists cannot tolerate is intolerance. The only absolute truth they believe is that there is no absolute truth. People create their own “truth” and all “truths” are equally valid. The result of all these equally valid  “truths” is known as pluralism.

The influence of postmodernism can be seen in the church in various areas and to varying degrees. One area is theology. Theology has classically been made up of three major branches: dogmatics, ethics, and apologetics/polemics. The fact that the average Christian, and minister, does not know what these words mean illustrates the point all the more. The postmodern attitude toward dogma is seen in the bumper sticker that reads, “My karma ran over my dogma.” Dogmatics, or doctrine, is not popular because truth is not popular anymore. While 88 percent of those in evangelical churches say the Bible is the infallible Word of God, 53 percent also say there is no such thing as absolute truth![2] Ethics is the study of moral values and practices. It is the application of dogmatics. Apologetics is defending Christian truth before unbelievers. If Christians do not believe in absolute truth, then it is no wonder that they do not engage in apologetics. Polemics is defending Christian truth within the professing church.

            In order to strengthen itself against the negative influences of postmodernism, a renewed interest in doctrine is needed by the church. The Apostle Peter wrote, “For the time has come for judgement to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?”[3] The most neglected branch of theology is polemics. The reason is because of the rise of tolerance in the church. The growing attitude of tolerance among Christians today is seen in the downplay of doctrine for the sake of unity. This position used to be considered repulsive by evangelicals who resisted ecumenism and groups like the World Council of Churches. But now the spirit of the ecumenical movement is back and can be seen in groups like Promise Keepers which is committed to interdenominational unity even with the Roman Catholic Church.[4]