Isaiah 45.18-19
“For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens, who is God. Who formed the earth and made it; he established it; he did not create it empty, he formed it to be inhabited. ‘I am the Lord, and there is no other. I did not speak in secret, in a land of darkness; I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, ‘Seek me in vain.’ I the Lord speak the truth; I declare what is right.”
Postmodernism grew out of Europe following the Second World War. Having experienced the colossal failure of government, science, academia, and institutional religion to prevent the devastation of two world wars, a number of intellectuals sought a different way to look at the world and man’s place in it.
They rejected the rationality of science, claiming it was too mechanical and impersonal; it didn’t satisfy the heart. Besides, it was science that produced the machinery of death used in the two great wars.
They rejected the spirituality of religion, as the notion of an infinite, personal God was simply inconceivable to them. Besides, if God is so great and so good, why did he allow the horrors of the two wars? In particular, the postmodernists rejected the infinite, personal God of Christianity. They completely dismissed what God said through Isaiah: “I the Lord speak the truth; I declare what is right.”
In other words, postmodernism untethered from objective truth. They claimed that mankind is alone in a godless, meaningless universe, and therefore must create his own truth and meaning.
However, despite its popularity on campus and among the cultural elite, postmodernism is an empty promise with no hope of fulfillment. It’s an attractive lie. When you jettison belief in objective truth, you set yourself adrift with no compass on a sea that has no meaning or purpose other than personal preference or political power.
Michel Foucault, who was a leading proponent of postmodernism, tried valiantly to find a way to escape the “existential despair” of a life without God, without natural law, and without objective reason. Each time he came up empty. The truth is that the human heart longs for purpose and meaning; the conscience tells us there is right and wrong; the mind recognizes the laws of physics operating in the world; the spirit sees the design of the Creator in the order and beauty of creation.
Anthropologist Ernst Gellner, a secular critic of postmodernism, has accurately described the postmodern worldview as “opportunist, manipulative incoherence.”
Postmodernism is incoherent because it rejects logic and reason, and thereby claims anything (and nothing) to be true. It has no objective reference point, and thus lacks coherence. Because it is incoherent, it is inconsistent. This is most evident in how postmoderns apply one of their most fundamental beliefs: They claim that it is wrong to say something is wrong. But in declaring something “wrong,” they apply the very principle they claim is not true and should never be applied.
For example, postmoderns tend to be quite judgmental, and they regularly protest against injustice, often with great animosity. Listen to an angry postmodern rant about a perceived injustice, and you will hear them appeal to what sounds very much like objective principles of morality. They promote justice and denounce injustice, and they do so with much energy and passion.
But hold on! If postmoderns believe that morality is relative and there is no such thing as objective truth, then how can they legitimately claim that one thing is “right” and another thing is “wrong?” But that is precisely what they do. In one breadth they authoritatively assert that morality is relative, and in the very next breadth — with great passion — they denounce injustice in the world. That is incoherence and inconsistency on steroids!
In order to embrace postmodernism, a person must actively suppress their mind, heart, spirit, and conscience. This is why scripture says
“Whoever fails to find me harms himself; all who hate me love death.” (Prov 8:36)
“The fool says in his heart: ‘There is no God.'” (Psalm 14.1)
The discipline of discernment produces self-awareness and situational awareness, and we are desperately in need of both in a culture that is untethered from truth. To the extent that we lack awareness of self or circumstances, we put at risk everything we hold dear.
May we trust God and do the disciplined work of discernment.
“Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.” (Ephesians 5.15-16)
