According to George Barna’s research (www.barna.org) 34% of Americans believe in absolute truth that doesn’t change according to circumstances. Only 46% of Christians believe in absolute truth. As Christians, the Bible should be our standard. We hold that God’s Word is the basis of our beliefs. But if there is no absolute truth than the Bible is just a book of suggestions. And that is what it has become for many people, even those within the church.
When there is no absolute truth we have no basis to judge right and wrong. It suddenly becomes a matter of one’s opinion whether an act is acceptable or unacceptable. “Because my opinion is no more valid than your opinion, then we both must be right and we need to willing to accept all truths.” This is what happens without an absolute standard to base our morals upon.
The lack of absolute truth has pervaded in the area of homosexuality probably more than any other area. You constantly hear “who are we to judge?” That is the battle cry of a lack of absolute truth. We are not called to judge. God is the judge and He has already made the pronouncement. God doesn’t tell us to hate gays but He clearly calls homosexuality unnatural and indecent in Romans 1. People explain away these passages and remove the authority of God’s Word when they refuse to acknowledge what the Bible says.
Of course this doesn’t just apply to homosexuality. The lack of absolute truth has touched every moral or social area of our lives. Abortion is explained away as a woman’s right to choose and no one has the right to make such a decision for a woman. Stealing is ok because the bankers on Wall St have taken so much money from us that we’re really just taking back what is ours. The justifications go on and on because there is no longer a black and white standard to guide us. Anything is acceptable under certain circumstances.
Even within the church we can’t take a stand on issues any longer because of this lack of absolute truth. We pick and choose the parts of the Bible that we want to accept and ignore the parts that we don’t like. We explain away these parts by saying that they were written for another culture and aren’t meant to be upheld today.
When you look around the world today and see the many problems that we have, the lack of absolute truth is the starting point of it all. We can’t call something wrong if we have no basis for that opinion. Your opinion is just as valid as mine without a standard to base it upon. In a democratic society we base many things on the majority but what if the majority is wrong? Or what happens when the majority shifts its opinion? What was acceptable yesterday is wrong today and what was once wrong is now ok. How do we judge without an absolute standard?
Christians must hold the Bible as their highest standard. We can’t pick and choose what parts of the Bible we like and ignore the ones that don’t match our definition of the world. Instead we must shape our view of the world based upon the standards of the Bible.