Dennis Regling preached “What Is Truth?”  at Manchester Baptist Church in October 2016.In addition to Bible exposition on the topic, Dennis exposes post-modernism for what it is and its attack on Christianity. A must read for Christians that want to understand what is happening in American society today. You can listen to the sermon at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4G0hn14I0-I

 

John 18:37, 38  ^” Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice. Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find in him no fault at all.“

That is the question. What is truth?  Man has been looking for the answer to that question since the beginning. What is the truth? Adam and Eve had it and straight away, were cast into doubt. The serpent asked them, “Yeah, Hath God said?” And they doubted God’s word. Today, people are still looking for the answer to that question.

 I’m going to try and give you some ideas to think about because as we’re witnessing to the world out there, we need to understand how they think. We will look at some of the thought patterns of the men going out over the years and where we’re at today.  This might give you a better understanding of even some of the things that are going on in the churches and government and society. So it will try to do that. I need the Lord to help me.

In 2 Corinthians 10:5, the Apostle Paul is writing, he says, “ Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;”

Spiritual warfare is an ideological battle. It’s a battle of minds, a battle of truth. We’ll start simple and then we’ll get a little deeper and deeper into the spirit of this age.  Paul was saying that spiritual warfare is an ideological battle. Yes, our main enemies are demonic “principalities ,powers , the rulers of the darkness of this world, [and purveyors of] spiritual wickedness in high places.” But the battle is an ideological one, not a mystical one. That’s why “the weapons of our warfare are not carnal.” We don’t fight with swords and guns, but with truth and specifically, “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” Spiritual warfare is not waged by shouting verbal rebukes at evil spirits, by using spoken incantations that invoke the blood of Christ or by any other magical or superstitious nonsense. (Demons aren’t like vampires, who can be chased away with the sign of the cross.)

Real spiritual warfare requires us to refute false ideas with the truth. True spiritual warfare (according to this passage in 2 Corinthians 10) involves tearing down the ideological strongholds of false belief systems.

We don’t win spiritual warfare by casting out demons. We don’t  bind Satan  by walking around town and praying God, will cast the demons out of the city as some churches, have taken to doing. This is not spiritual warfare.

It’s casting down false ideas. When the Bible talks about doctrines of demons, they bring false teachings. Society is so willing to receive these doctrines, but they also integrate the churches through false teachers. And affect believers who have not studied, who not learning, as the Church of Corinth which was  still carnal, but they should went past that and they hadn’t. We’re not gonna fight the spiritual war, you know, with sayings and chains and spells and casting out demons and Satan. 

^” Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.” Jude 9

This is how we fight spiritual warfare. Real spiritual warfare requires us to refute false ideas with the truth. Oh, about the ideas.

What’s going on in society now? There’s been a series of thoughts and times in this country and the Western world. I’m sure you’ve heard a lot of preaching   about the modernists and the modern era, which started about the time of Thomas Paine.  Before the modern era was the premodern era. The premodern era would extend from the birth of science and philosophy in the Greek culture until the age of the enlightenment (roughly from the time of Thales to the French Revolution). That would mean the premodern era of Western intellectual history covers almost 2500 years.

Obviously, over that span of time, multitudes of human philosophies and various world views arose. Everything in the philosophical world from Plato’s Republic to John Locke’s empiricism falls in the premodern era, as well as everything in the religious world from Greek mythology to the paganism of the Druids. There were multitudes of philosophies and religions that flourished in the premodern era.

The modern era or “The Age of Reason”, after the title of the famous book Thomas Paine wrote in 1794. That book more or less summed up the spirit of the Modern era. The Age of Reason, both the book and the era, was an overt attack on biblical Christianity, and it elevated science and human reason to the position of highest authority.

While many Enlightenment thinkers did not completely reject belief in God, they banished Him to the remotest realm of the transcendent. If God did exist, He was neither concerned, nor involved with His creation. 

They believed in three things and these things have changed. The first thing they believed in was an objective ultimate truth. They believed in truth. It can be found, and if it was true for me, it was true for you. It was true today. It was true yesterday and will be true tomorrow. There was truth and men could find it. We know it. That’s what they used to believe. The premodern man believed in the supernatural. They believed there was some supernatural world, they believed in God or gods. They believed there were things we could not see. And this supernatural world touched our world and they also believed that there was an ultimate authority and that authority came from God not man.

It transcended man.  We who are grounded in the faith still believe these three things. We believe in this ultimate objective truth, “a truth is truth,” and it doesn’t change. It doesn’t change. We believe that there is a supernatural aspect. Okay? We don’t see it, but we know it’s there. We talked about the spiritual warfare. It’s there and we believe authority comes from God. All Authority and all truth come from God. Yeah, we believe that.

Things changed in 1794. Thomas Paine wrote a book called “The Age Of Reason,” and even the period was known as the age of reason. During the age of reason, they still believe in a meaningful objective, ultimate truth.  But truth was something established by science and human understanding. You can test it, you can see it, you prove it. It’s true the belief in truth and existed, but they rejected the supernatural. 

If you could not test, touch it and prove it then It’s not real. They’re rejecting the supernatural. That entered the church by 1820 and up through the 1900’s , With the rejection of the supernatural with it.  If there was a god, well, he created the world and now he has nothing to do with it. He’s not acting on the what men were doing.  Man now rejected the supernatural. They weren’t necessarily sure it even existed. They elevated science and human reason. Science became their authority. It was no longer supernatural as before.  Truth came from my reasoning, what I can see, what we can know. There is ultimate authority. Yes, that was true, but it’s because the laws of nature, they rejected the alternate authority, the authority of God.

Darwinism is part of that and we know it. Darwin caused a revolution against God. We can see what it has done in this country. It led to planned parenthood, it led to Hitler and it led to communism and socialism. Modernism led to all this wickedness.

Now Spurgeon preached against it. Other preachers preached against it, but it infiltrated the churches. The major denominations all died because  they went to human reasoning. They rejected the supernatural. The thinking became, “We’re not sure if there’s an afterlife now we’ll make this life a better. You know, we can’t be guaranteed eternal life, but we’ll put springs on your wagon. You know what? Make this life better.”

It killed the church because that was their reasoning. You know where you get women preachers from? They reasoned it out. Other things, they reasoned it out and they brought it in and we started using natural means. It killed the churches. It killed. It became pervasive among the churches. Because I can trust my reasoning. Even still today so many preachers are not preaching the Word of God as authoritative. They give you what they feel, what they think,  because they just can’t accept authority from God anymore, because They know better and all men are good now. The Bible teaches man is lost and wicked without God. They teach man is good and God wants to make them happy. Their God will not require a man to forasake his sin, rather they make him comfortable in his sin.

All men are rebuilding. They stopped preaching the Gospel. They want to bring people in and so they reject God’s truth for man’s truth. 

But now we’re in what’s called the postmodern age and the postmodern age basically rejects all of modernism. Postmodernism is a radical reaction to the failure of modernism. It rejects virtually every distinctive of modernism, starting with the notion that truth can be objectively known.  It takes God off the throne so it must be better, but it’s different than the other two.

The premodernist believed there was ultimate truth. The modern also believed in ultimate truth. They just had different sources. But the postmodernist rejects ultimate truth and ultimate authority. Man becomes his own authority and establishes his own truth. What might be wrong for you isn’t necessarily wrong for me. Your truth and my truth may be different and even contrary to one another.  This has been taught in the colleges since the 1980’s. The believe is, that if there is objective truth, we can’t know it.

There won’t say there’s not ultimate truth because that would be an ultimate truth. So they won’t even say it doesn’t exist, but they’re saying if it doesexist, we can’t know it. The thinking in this country, Europe and the western societies worldwide is that we can’t know truth and it doesn’t. We can’t know it. It becomes very subjective. What’s true for you might not be true for me. Have you heard that? That’s what the teaching centers, the colleges and high schools teach. Morality is based on situational ethics. We’ve heard of situational ethics. The idea that what may be considered wrong is not wrong under certain conditions. The idea that the ends justifies the means.

It’s postmodern thinking and that’s what we are not fighting. We’re out there trying to witness to people and we still have the premodern mindset. We believe in a supernatural God and ultimate authority and truth from that God. We’re saying this isn’t true, and they’re saying you can’t know it. That’s why it’s gotten so much more difficult in the last 20 years. This is true. They reject it in every area of their life. It makes it so hard, so hard with this belief system.

The supernatural. That pretty much was next. They did believe in the supernatural before the late 1700’s. The modernists rejected it and rejected it for 200 years. The postmodernist, they believe in the supernatural, but for them it’s. It’s a mystical thing. It’s an inner thing. It’s something we find in ourselves.

They say, “I’m not religious. I’m spiritual.”  So we have yoga and meditation and the influence of the eastern religions. Even churches now have prayer labryniths and other mystical experiences as they try to reach the supernatural without God or God’s Word. If you search the internet you will find many, many church webpages in support of thes practices.

Ultimate Authority. The church, we accept the authority from God, the premodern, they accepted the authority. It came from God and the supernatural world. The modernist, their truth came from their own minds and reasoning while the postmodernist rejects all authority. We see it in this country and it’s been boiling for 10, 15, 20 years. They reject authority. They will ask, “How can you tell me this? No, no, no. Don’t make rules for me personally.”

We’ve gone from the sexual revolution of the 1970’s and 80’s to absolute sexual perversion. The most wicked and vile of practices are now to be condoned and even celebrated. We have the North American Man Boy Love Group, a homosexual group that preys on young men. We have men and women mutilating their bodies to try and become the opposite sex. Body modification has become the norm as even Christians are defacing the image of God, which is their body.

“But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.” 2 Timothy 3:13 

“Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” Isaiah 5:20

They can call evil good and good evil because they reject all authority. The reject the authority of science , which is no authority, but that’s what that was in this country during the modern era.  And they reject the autority of God.

Our children go to college and that’s what they’re teaching them. They’re teaching them to question truth and they deconstruct everything. They study literature taking it apart to uncover the underlying meaning. Which is good, if you don’t stop there. But they stopped right there and they leave doubt and skepticism, and we see this now. There’s what’s called micro-aggressions. You heard that term, micro-aggressions. For example, if we have a class, and there is only one minority in the group, that’s a micro-agression even if it was just coincidental. Ifthere was only one woman in a restaurant, that’s a microaggression against a woman.

They look for offense.  This craziness is killing Western society. The political correctness, the call for tolerance.  They rejecy truth, yet act as if it is the ultimate truth that we must tolerate everything. 

It’s because we all make up our own spirituality and we can’t know truth. How do you know that’s true? How do you know? How do you know? We’ve accepted it into our society as a whole. The worst thing is though, it’s got into the churches, as goes modernism, so goes the church culture. That’s the downfall of churches in America. That was the downfall. Methodists and Presbyterians and these other groups, they wanted to be seeker sensitive. We need to do things to make the world comfortable. The church says we need to adapt the church to the culture. And then we had what happened through the modern era, the age of reason. They stopped preaching the Gospel and the church replaced the Bible with reason. They abandoned the supernatural, and said authority came from science and reason and it killed the churches.

It killed every group that embraced the culture and rejected the Bible. Now the modernists have been replaced with the postmodernists. The Millenials. They say there is no objective truth. They won’t stand up front saying this is an objective truth. There are groups, it’s called the emergent church. The emergent church. They did already emerge. Tthey’ll tell you, we can’t know if it’s true or not. Okay. Joel Olsteen isn’t really emergent, but when he answered some questions, when they ask him about certain sins, you can hear his answer, and he doesn’t want to say this is sin or this is true. He will hem and haw around the question. He won’t take a stand against the rampant immorality the postmodernist accepts.

You say you believe what the scripture says, but when you have a pastor who won’t tell you what the scripture says, we believe his say so and opinion, we have a problem. They teach on the supernatural. and they’re teaching mysticism, that it all comes from within. “I feel this God clothing. ” Feelings instead of being Holy Ghost led. Instead of scripture, they say, “God told me this.”

I actually read an article about a Southern  Baptist minister who had an abortion. Now that tells you something right away. First, all it tells you have a woman pastor. God says a pastor is to be a man. We’re so thankful for the ladies, we are thankful for what they bring to the church, but they are not to be pastors.  This woman actually said that God told her to get the abortion. She prayed and God gave her permission. That was the right move for her. That came from postmodern thought.

We can no longer teach what is right and what is wrong.  No, we have to figure out for ourselves. That’s the thinking of this age. And it’s in churches, so they don’t preach the gospel at all because we don’t know. We can’t preach this is right. You can’t preach that is wrong. There’s churches that are lighting candles and doing prayer walks. They build labyrinths on the courtyards in church and they walk the labyrinth, pray, which is the old medieval spiritual thing. Nothing to do with the church, but it’s in there and they’re grabbing on this, trying to get something from within instead of opening the book and getting on their knees and studying and praying because how would we know? The thing with these emerging church teachers, is that the Bible, particularly the New Testament, is just stories. They’re good stories and they’re good teachers, but they’re stories. Well yeah, there are some good stories in there, but it is true and it is all scripture and it is profitable.

2Timothy 3:16, “all scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” Well, they don’t believe it’s profitable. They believe it’s useful and the stories are good. Yup. It’s why you’re having so much trouble up there knocking on doors, talking to people, they don’t believe in truth anymore, it isn’t taught in our society. The church people don’t believe in truth anymore. They reject the Bible as the ultimate authority.  It’s even worse in postmodernism. At least Modernists accepted that there was truth. There were rules for society. Today, all the rules are being cast out. Everyone establishes their own rules, their own morality.

It’s wicked. It’s wicked, and that’s what our society believes. It’s what they’ve been taught and unfortunately, it’s got into the churches with these new young pastors who refused to speak about truth. They try to create an experience. Matter of fact, I heard that they have conferences now instead of meetings. There is a speaker speaking and they don’t preach. They don’t want to preach. They have dialogue. They dialogue conversation. They don’t like to preach because that implies authority, which is offensive. They encourage attendees to just walk around and go light a candle up, go back and get a cup of coffee. The speaker is up front trying to share and people are mingling around. It’s a church for the adhd generation. It’s crazy. There’s a new term. You might hear this word. It’s a great one. They made up these churches, the emerging churches, they’re missional. 

They want to replace words like evangelism with jargon like this. Instead of actually going out and trying to reach people with the Gospel, they want to reach them through their lifestyle, which is good. We have to have a Christian life. If we don’t walk with the Lord, there was no testimony. James said, “look at my works. I can prove my faith by how I live.” Okay, but they stopped there. They don’t believe in truth so they can’t share truth.

What comes next? I don’t know what post-postmodernism is, but man is waxing worse and worse. They go after these philosophies and they grab onto them. We’re dealing with people out there, especially people in their thirties and younger, and we must understand they’ve been taught there is no truth. So you need to start from there to proclaim the truth, but you see rather than reject it, they hate it. They will. 

But the Lord uses us to take the gospel and it’s hard. You noticed that, right? It’s harder. It’s just harder.  

2 Timothy 3 :1-8 “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy. Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith.”

The last day started with when the Lord was crucified, resurrected and ascended. But now it is bubbling over in the Western society. They despise you if you speak about even the harmful effects of homosexuality.

They’re learning. They’ll admit they’re ever learning. But they are unable to come to the knowledge of the truth, because they don’t believe it exists The real truth does have super natural power. You should know the truth and the truth shall set you free. The real truth is supernatural. Jesus said, “sanctify them through thy truth. Thy Word is truth.” John 17:17. Truth is divine. Truth absolutely does not change. If it was wrong then it’s wrong, no matter what the modern mind says. 

Truth is immutable. God does not change and the truth does not change.  We need to stand and fight for the truth. What is truth? Jesus said,”Thy word is truth.” We must stand up in a world where truth is rejected. 

The truth cleanses and purifies. It penetrates into the deepest level of the human heart, cuts to the bone, and works from the inside out.

“For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12

It has life-changing power. It converts, sanctifies, and strengthens. It conforms, transforms, and reforms. Truth renews our minds, revives our hearts, and redirects our steps.

First, truth is divine. Ultimately, all truth is God’s truth. Truth is from above.

Romans 3:4 “God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.”

Second, truth is absolute. Without God, there cannot be any absolutes. Without absolutes, there can be no objective, universal truths. Without absolutes, truth becomes subjective, relative, and pragmatic. Without absolutes, truth gives way to mere personal or cultural preferences. But to the contrary, all truth is absolute because God is absolute truth.

Third, truth is singular. That is to say, truth is a single entity. It does not exist in bits and pieces of unrelated ideas or disconnected data. The Bible most often uses the definite article when speaking of the truth. Truth can never be merely a truth, as if it exists in fragments from various sources. Truth is not a collection of ideologies gleaned from detached sources. It can never be found in a study of comparative religions or competing philosophies. Instead, all truth is found in the one true God.

Fourth, truth is objective. This means that truth is not subjective. It is not discovered by personal feelings nor determined by private intuitions. Instead, truth is propositional. It is conveyed in narrowly defined words that have rational definitions and is stated in precise terms that communicate real meaning. Words mean something in regard to truth. Therefore, truth is black and white. It is definite, definitive, and conclusive.

Fifth, truth is immutable. God does not change and neither does His truth, which cannot be true today but not true tomorrow. Truth is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Truth is permanent, fixed, and established. It is inflexible, unvarying, constant, lasting, enduring, timeless, unchanging. Therefore, truth is always relevant. It is always current, always contemporary, always relevant. Truth addresses the issues of the day with penetrating insight. It is never outdated, never obsolete, never expired. Truth never tires, never wanes, never ceases to be true.

Sixth, truth is authoritative. It speaks with the supreme authority of God Himself. It always makes demands upon us and never offers mere suggestions.