Postmodernism cripples Christianity. It is not Christianity. It is an invasion of mushy-minded thinking into the very soundness of God’s Word, and it doesn’t belong there any more than a serpent belongs in the middle of Christianity. It is the devil’s attempt to disturb the foundation of how faith works. Faith is in the Word of God, not in feelings and emotions. In my new blog video, I introduce three leading characters that are important to Christianity — Fact, Faith, and Experience. Learn which should have the driver’s seat in your life with this week’s video.
Transcript
When you say “postmodernism,” that just sounds like a big term to some people. It’s like, “Oh, it’s a smart term. Smart people use that term.” But it’s a form of mushy-mindedness. If I could just call it what it is, it believes that there isn’t anyone right. There isn’t any one truth. Now, you have to recognize how that flies in the face of biblical Christianity, which says there’s actually one way to the Father. And so postmodernism, when it invades Christianity, really does a number on it. It really bungles it up, mixes it up, and makes it mushy and goopy and Jello-y.
If you can’t tell, I’m not a fan of postmodernism because it lacks a backbone. It lacks a spine. It lacks anything concrete, and as a result, what do you put your faith in? In a postmodern version of Christianity, you are putting your faith in your feelings and your experiences which are very unsteady foundation stones. As a result, most people that go in the postmodern direction fall to pieces in their Christian life and abandon it.
The only way to function in Christianity is to have rock beneath your feet. The postmodern is going to argue against rock. They think that rock is anti-human. And so, they feel like it is the great threat to good mature thought, when in actuality, God is the One that came up with it, and as a result, His truth is just truth. So, it’s funny when you mix me with a postmodernist, it’s like, we’re really a funny pair because we are approaching things from two completely different worldviews, if you want to say it that way. I believe the Word of God is the Word of God. It comes from God, and when He speaks, I trust Him. He’s the One that created everything after all, right?
Postmodernism is not a new thing necessarily. It’s always been there. It’s the mushy thinking of, “Did God really say that? Are we sure it was God that said that?” You could rephrase the serpent’s question a thousand different ways. “Are we really certain?” You see, the devil wants to create question marks, and if he can do that, he undermines foundation. The Christian’s response is, “Yes, He did say it.” It’s that simple.
Fact, Faith, Experience
So, Fact, Faith, and Experience are three characters, and they’re all commissioned to walk a ridge pole of a barn. The first character gets up and his name is Fact. Now, we don’t typically use the word “fact” in Christianity. We use the word truth, because to us, the facts are personal. It’s a person named Jesus Christ. However, the reason to use the word fact is actually helpful for some of us because we need to recognize we’re not dealing with wishful thinking when we have our faith. What are we putting our faith in? It’s actually facts. It’s truth.
Truth has no exaggeration. It doesn’t hyperbolize at all. It just is what it is, and it never alters. It never changes, and it is no shadow of turning. And these three are all commissioned to walk a ridge pole, and this ridge pole, you just need to imagine it’s a razor’s edge. It’s impossible to walk, but Fact gets up there and pulls it off. Well, His name is Jesus. He’s going to come and live an impossible life. He is going to do what no man can do. He is going to do what only the truth, or the facts in this situation, can do.
The second character is Faith, and that’s where you and I come in. And if Faith fixes its gaze on Fact, it gains balance and is able to walk out the impossible life and walk that ridge pole. Now, it’s a terrible story, isn’t it? You’re listening to my story, and you’re like, “Wait a minute. It’s impossible. Your first two characters pulled it off.” I know, I know. However, that’s because Faith is following Fact. When Faith follows Fact, it pulls off the impossible, and life would be all easy and good if there were only two characters, but there’s a third character, and his name is Experience. Now, you could give him all sorts of other names like Feelings, Emotions. This character is unsteady and wants to get Faith’s attention. Experience says things like, “Oh, remember Great-Aunt Martha? She was a Christian. She prayed to be healed from her cancer and died anyways. Remember Uncle Frank? He was a Christian. He was the most foul-mouthed character that ever existed.”
And as a result, you’re basing your view of Christianity and God on experiences you have instead of what the Word of God says, and as a result, you’re creating a very unsteady foundation. You begin to follow that. Well, I’ve never seen anyone overcome sin, so therefore it must be impossible to overcome sin. So as a result, your doctrine and your faith is being placed in emotion and how you feel about things. “I don’t feel God would ever build a hell to throw people into.” Well, that’s an interesting thought, but what does God say? “Well, it doesn’t matter what God says. I feel this, okay?” This is postmodernism brought into Christianity. You feel your way to a conclusion.
Now, if Faith follows feeling, it loses balance and falls off the ridge pole of the barn and lands in that manure pile at the bottom of the barn. That manure pile is one every one of us has spent a good deal of time in, and stares longingly up towards this lofty ideal of Fact, who’s walking the ridge pole. But we can never do that. And so, postmodernism starts with a premise that we are human and unable to do anything, so therefore we have no expectations of God to intervene, no expectations for God to do anything, because our experience testifies the opposite of that. And, as a result, we never break out of the manure pile.
Postmodernism cripples Christianity. It is not Christianity. It is an invasion of a doctrine of demons into the very soundness of God’s Word, and it doesn’t belong there anymore than a serpent belongs in the middle of Christianity. It does not belong there. It is the devil’s attempt to disturb the foundation of how faith works. Faith is in the Word of God, not in feelings and emotions.
Now, what about feelings, emotions, and experience? Does God care about them? He does, but let me give you the secret to getting them running correctly and gain balance in walking ridge poles. Faith must first ignore them and say, “You know what? I don’t care what Aunt Martha did, and I don’t care what Uncle Frank did. What I care about is what the Word of God says.”
When Faith follows Fact and chooses to ignore the emotions, ignore the experience and ignore all those feelings that seem to swirl about us, Faith will start walking and then Experience will gain balance, feelings will gain balance and follow Faith as it follows Fact. Christianity — that’s how it’s always worked, and that’s the only way it ever will work.
If you’d like to take these truths deeper, join us here at Ellerslie for one of our upcoming discipleship programs.
Resources
If you desire to build an unshakable foundation upon the True Rock, consider joining us for the upcoming Fall 5-Week Program. It will give you the tools you need to follow Truth and not the voice of emotion. Learn more here.