I’ve been reading about postmodernism and related to that, some epistemological as well as hermeneutical issues. Two big words in one sentence! Epistemology deals with the question of “what can we know?”, and “how can we know it?” Literally it means the “study of knowledge.” Hermeneutics I have talked about before; it deals with the interpretation of texts.

D.A. Carson, research professor at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Illinois, says this in one of his book:
“Having elevated self to the place where God is no longer needed, self now proclaims that language is inadequate to talk about objective reality, God included. Having damned interpretation for being manipulative, God, if he were to speak, becomes the arch manipulator. The gagging of God is complete.”¹

That seems like a very profound statement to me. Practically, I see the implications of that statement a lot these days. Culture denies the existence of objective truth, embracing relativism.² In tune with that, anyone making any kind of truth claim is deemed intolerant. That is exactly the reason why Christianity is so frowned upon today. Even in the early first century church, following Christ wasn’t the reason they were persecuted; it was following Christ alone!

What does the Bible say about this issue? Are “Christians” who claim there is salvitic merit in all world religions right? First, not everything about non-Christian religions is totally false. That said we need to realize that there is no way whatsoever that anyone will be saved by anything else but faith in Christ. Consider John 14:6:
“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”
That is an absolute truth claim. Peter, as cited in Acts 4:12, makes it very clear as well. Talking about Christ, “[...] there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.”

What are we supposed to do with that? We have to go to a culture who labels anyone with this kind of claim “intolerant.” We cannot pull back from this because it is clearly taught in Scripture, but it makes it even more important to approach our culture in a loving, embracing, and sensitive way. The truth we deliver is hard enough in itself; we need to be careful not to make it any harder by the way we communicate it.

1. D.A. Carson, The Gagging of God, 1996 Zondervan Publishing House, page 134 [↩]
2. As a side note, this position might be changing; more and more people appear to agree that there is some kind of objective truth, especially in light of recent tragedies, although the majority still holds a relativist stance [↩]

Related posts:

1. Of divorce and church leadership
2. Homosexuality and Church