UNDERSTANDING THE TIMES
The Newsletter of Contend for the Faith, Inc
1 Chronicles 12:32

MAY-JUNE 2005

Seeking Ministry Opportunities and Email Addresses

It’s Official

It is completed!

After three long years and lots of work, I received my Doctorate of Ministry in apologetics degree from Southern Evangelical Seminary on Saturday May 7 th.

I am excited to see what opportunities for ministry the Lord will provide now that I am finished. Please pray that I will be able to use my gifts, talents, and training to advance His kingdom by contending for the faith.

If you know of a church or organization which would like to be equipped to contend for the faith, please have them contact me at [1] dave@contendforfhefaith.org.

Newsletter: Snail Mail to Email

In order to make this newsletter easier for many of you to save and send to other people, I would like to transition from snail mail to email for all who would prefer to receive it that way.

This will help us to reduce our monthly costs and will therefore help us to be better stewards of the funds the Lord provides through you. This will be especially helpful now since donations to this ministry have been down this year.

So please take the time to do one of the following:

Please send me an email to say that you would like to begin receiving the newsletter by email, OR mail the enclosed form to indicate your preference. It would be very helpful to hear from you on this before the end of June.

Prayer and Praises

We received a very nice note from a friend and supporter of this ministry recently. It read:

"Thanks for all your hard work and studies involved in your ministry. First it was nothing more than an educational source for me, but now it has become a tool of encouragement as well, as I seek to prepare to defend my own faith – and be aware of the stumbling blocks within the church itself.

Thanks, and God bless you and Deborah!"

It is always wonderful to receive such notes of encouragement. We praise God that He can use us to strengthen and equip believers to be discerning of truth and error both inside and outside the church.

We would appreciate your prayers for this ministry, that God would not only provide more opportunities for teaching and speaking, but also that He would provide more financial support. We rarely mention the need for support, but this ministry can only exist through the prayers and donations of those who would like to assist us in equipping believers to contend for the faith.

10 Commandments Verdict Due

By the end of June the United States Supreme Court will announce its decision in the two cases involving the display of the 10 Commandments in public.

The effects of this decision will likely be profound and long-lasting, no matter which way the Court rules.

We will comment on the outcome of cases in an upcoming newsletter.

SPEAKING SCHEDULE 2005

June 12, 2005

Contending for the Faith: Responding to Criticism of the Bible, Sunday School Class, Southern Evangelical Church, Charlotte, 11:00 am www.SouthernEvangelicalChurch.org

June 15 2005

Understanding Mormonism , Special Wednesday Class, Southern Evangelical Church, Charlotte, 6:30 – 8:00 pm www.SouthernEvangelicalChurch.org

June 19, 2005

Contending for the Faith: The Deity of Christ, Part One Sunday School Class, Southern Evangelical Church, Charlotte, 11:00 am www.SouthernEvangelicalChurch.org

June 26, 2005

Contending for the Faith: The Deity of Christ, Part Two Sunday School Class, Southern Evangelical Church, Charlotte, 11:00 am www.SouthernEvangelicalChurch.org

July 3, 2005

Contending for the Faith: The Resurrection of Christ, Sunday School Class, Southern Evangelical Church,

CONTENDING FOR THE FAITH

UNDERSTANDING POSTMODERNISM: PART TWO

Last time we set out to define what postmodernism is. This time we will describe postmodernism a bit more and discuss the philosophy of modernism which preceded it.

DESCRIBING POSTMODERN

There are aspects of postmodern thinking that need to be understood.

First, postmodernism tells us to embrace skepticism about our culture. Certainty must be abandoned. We need to discard the notion of truth as objective, we are told, because this idea is as outdated as the philosophy of modernism which accepts it. Postmodernists say that modernism has failed our society, therefore we must reject modernist beliefs, including the belief in objective truth. “We cannot be certain of anything,” they will tell us with certainty.

Second, postmodernism undermines religious views, especially Christianity. The essence of postmodernism is the lack of belief concerning truth, absolutes, certainty, and an overall explanation (“grand narrative”) of the world. This is the polar opposite of Christianity, the foundation of which is declarations of truth, absolutes, and the Christian worldview. All religions are built upon some set of teachings which are proclaimed as being objectively true, but in the postmodern view there really is no such thing as a set of teachings which are objectively true. In a postmodern world, no religion, especially Christianity, makes sense.

In order to understand postmodernism better, it is helpful to compare it to modernist philosophy that preceded it. Modernist thinking arose in the era known as the Enlightenment in the 16 th and 17 th centuries.

Doug Groothuis explains,

“The period of the Enlightenment – which followed the Reformation – is typically regarded as the beachhead of modernism. To speak very generally, many philosophers of this period began questioning not merely certain Roman Catholic doctrines – such as papal authority and indulgences – but Christianity itself and the idea of divine revelation as a source of authority.”

This critical spirit possessed by many Enlightenment thinkers led to, in the name of rationality, the questioning of all beliefs that had been passed down through the church. Their ambition was to abandon superstition and religious dogma in favor of knowledge based on scientific discovery and rational investigation. This became known as “modernism.”

Groothuis writes,

“The modernist vision presupposed the power of rationality to discover objective truth. They desired a rational, scientific worldview over the perceived irrationality and acrimony stemming from religion, and the possibility of progress through humanity’s emancipation from received dogma and superstition.”

Revelation from Scripture was rejected as a source of truth and knowledge in itself. Only those truths that could be confirmed by science and/or reason apart from the Bible were acceptable. While not all Enlightenment thinkers were atheists, the removal of biblical revelation led many to abandon theism (God is active in the world He created) and to embrace deism (God created the world but plays no role in it).

This set the stage for a transition from the Christian worldview in which miracles are possible to a naturalistic worldview in which the supernatural is impossible. Everything must be explained in terms of natural causes and processes. The rejection of life as the special creation of a loving God and the rise of Darwinian evolution were birthed from the maturation of Enlightenment (modern) thinking.

Christian author Gene Edward Veith describes the modernist view of the world;

“The culture that built the Tower of Babel parallels the modern age. Confident in their human abilities, their reason and scientific knowledge, the modernists had no need for God.”

While modernism claimed to be the path to continual improvement in society and the end of hunger, war, strife, and poverty, it failed miserably. Veith continues,

“In our own time, it has become clear that reason, science, and technology have not solved all of our problems. Poverty, crime, and despair defy our attempts at social engineering. The most thorough-going attempt to restructure society according to a rationalistic, materialistic theory – communism – fell to pieces. Technology continues to progress at breakneck speed, but, far from reaching the heavens, it sometimes diminishes our lives.”

In response to the failures of modernism, many have embraced postmodernism as the best way to view the world.

To summarize, what began in modernism as rebellion against the authority of the church developed into rebellion against the authority of God. In modernism, God was removed in practice and the ability to know His revelation was undermined. In postmodernism, God has been removed in principle and the ability to know anything has been undermined.

Next time we will contrast modernism and postmodernism. The differences are stark, but neither view is 100% wrong.