(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.)
Additionally, various elements of postmodernism do not fit together to form a coherent system; it seeks to exist as much as a coherent system, yet doesn’t want to exist as a coherent system. While postmodernists claim that there is an overarching coherence, this cannot be true as this is only true inasmuch as the individual believes it to be according to their view of reality and how they interpret knowledge. By its nature, it could have coherence, order, and structure and at the same time, seek to dispel these are real, possible and imagined. While postmodernism may be seen as an opportunity to question everything and provide meaningful answers, this would be seen as antithetical to the philosophy as answers are created and not found.
Finally, it is not possible to actually live out postmodernism in a morally and philosophically consistent way. The same charges they have against modernism can be said if their worldview. How can there be a multitude of moralities and philosophical positions, while at the same time contradicting one another? Countless views cannot be true at the same time. The one who upholds “survival of the fittest” cannot condemn murder and rape; they are a hypocrite. One cannot live the postmodern worldview as it is too individualistic in practice. Postmodernism cannot be moral if one postmodernist believes in morality and another postmodernist does not. A postmodernist may make a claim about reality, but may not live it out because to do so would cause that reality would create problems for the individual and society as a whole. As such, there is no existential viability.
Evaluation of Christianity
What is ultimately real, according to Christianity, is that God has created all things and the reality in which we live. He is God, who is uncreated and always existent (Revelation 21:6, 22:13), whereas the universe, world and humanity are created (Genesis 1-3). An uncreated being creates for they established the concept (i.e. to create) and cannot share its nature. Without “an encounter with a transcendent being, the only hope of apprehending transcendent truth would be to become transcendent ourselves,” which is impossible. There are absolutes, truths, morals, and realities that exist in this world, regardless of individual, location, and time period. The world contains laws, is ordered and rational as God is omniscient (Psalm 139:1-6). Gravity exists on Earth. To “feel” or think it doesn’t, means you reject reality and should not be listened to when constructing meaning or determining what’s true.
Within Christianity, knowledge is gained through our mental faculties and permissive will as given to us by God, who created us in His image (Genesis 1:26). God then, is the great source of all knowledge and He has chosen to reveal His knowledge through His Holy Spirit, the author of the Scriptures, being an eternal and unchanging body of knowledge (2 Timothy 3:16-17; cf. 1 Corinthians 2:12-13; cf. Matthew 5:17-18; 2 Peter 1:21). Knowledge is also imparted to humanity by God in their ability to learn and study and also allows for this knowledge to be used according to our will.
Human beings, according to Christianity, are created in the image of God, though are eternal in nature in that they will live forever once created; the first life will be on this earth, while the second will either be in the new Heavens and Earth (Revelation 21-22) or eternal Hell (Revelation 20:11-15). As humans are created by God and reflect His image, they have intrinsic value, yet all are born with a disposition against God and this evil (called “sin”; Psalm 51:5; Ephesians 2:1; cf. Romans 3:23) that ensures they are spiritually dead until God brings them back to spiritual life (Ephesians 2:5-6). Human beings are capable of good and evil, for there are moral absolutes, however this is determined by their relationship with God and if they are saved. There is only one race in the universe, numerous ethnicities, and two genders (Genesis 2:18-24; Matthew 19:4-6).
Finally, in Christianity, moral absolutes are determined by God and have existed before morality could be understood and exercised by humanity, who are beings created with the ability to embrace or resist these morals. Morality is true across all ethnicities and both genders, regardless of time period and circumstances, and are sealed in the conscious as well as preserved in Scripture. Killing a child in the womb will always be immoral. God’s morals are to be lived out by those who believe in God and while these morals can be rejected by humanity and substituted with self-created morals (which can often mirror the morals of God), moral absolutes must align with those instructed by God. Thinking that humanity can create the moral standard, when those created morals can change over time or contradict one another, is irrational.
Defense of Christianity
God does not need to be defended. In saying this, in being apologetically minded, one is not inferring that He or Christianity is in need of a defense because it is incoherent or weak. Rather, apologetics is the formulation and ordering of Christian beliefs in such a way to approach and answer the many issues and questions raised in the hearts and minds of modern secular humanity. In defending Christianity, the two most prominent challenges faced in discussion with the unbeliever are the problem of evil and explaining the reality of objective truth and moral values. In answering each of these, ever so briefly, it will be made clear that a defense of Christianity succeeds on all accounts.
One of Christianity’s first answers to the problem of evil, is that Scriptures affirm the reality of evil (rather than denying or rejecting it based in individual reality, epistemology, and morality) and that it was not the plan of God for evil to exist, but He permitted it to ensure humanity preserved its ability to choose. God did not create evil, but allowed evil, even though He never intended evil. God’s attributes attest to this. Humankind was condemned to death because of its first ancestral parents Adam and Eve (Genesis 3) and subsequent sinful nature and practice of all people (Romans 3:23, 5:12, 6:23; Ephesians 2:1-5,12).
Examples “abound where an epistemology centered around acceptance of God’s word is contrasted not with a neutral ataraxia but with a sinful opposition to God’s clearly revealed purposes.” A second answer by Christianity to the problem of evil is that the Scriptures affirm that God is working against evil and intends to overcome evil once and for all. God hates evil and is actively at work against it, directly and indirectly, and has determined that evil will cease to exist. God is just (Deuteronomy 32:4) and will punish evil in this life and the next (Matthew 25:41-46; Mark 9:43-48; Luke 16:19-26; 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9). Evil and evil people will be undone.
When it comes to Christianity’s defense of objective truth and moral values, it teaches that absolutes exist in reality (like gravity on earth or design in nature) that cannot be rejected or rewritten and therefore attest that the concept of an absolute does indeed exist. Therefore, absolutes are a means of measuring individual actions, thoughts, and words. The beliefs of Christianity reflect this moral absolutism and the Scriptures attest this, for God is unchanging (Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 13:8).
A second defense of objective truth and moral values by Christianity is that subjective truth and moral values are self-contradictory and cannot be lived or practiced consistently. As such, it is logical and cannot be at the same time, illogical. This is especially true in that God, not the individual human, determines what is true and moral. Humans err daily for they are not all-powerful. God is omnipotent (Revelation 19:6) and perfect (Matthew 5:48). It “is notable that Adam’s first act of God: given dominion is to emulate God’s definitional speech–essentially, to be an interpreter of facts just like God.” Christianity as based on the teachings of Scripture, objectively, does not contradict itself and has been lived out and practiced consistently through all cultures and history.
Conclusion
As postmodernism emerged from the ruins of modernism, some in the Church saw an opportunity to get back to basics and explore the fundamentals of the Christian faith. While optimistic, this philosophical worldview did more harm than good by instilling a relativistic approach to all aspects of life, most concerning, morality. The inconsistent and illogical nature of postmodernism ensures that it will never truly be a means to live, however, it does linger in the hearts of those who sinfully desire to live life on their own terms and free of accountability and responsibility.
Christianity and its moralistic worldview will always remain the greatest and only response to the plethora of questions the world needs answering and aligns not only with the natural order of creation but the nature of humanity and make clear its need for both God and Scriptures in which to live in this life and into the next. Christian preppers know that all the prepping in the world is no substitute for declaring Jesus, God in the flesh, as Lord and Savior. They love the Blesser more than His blessings. All else will fail and fall, yet He is perfect and will preserve those who respond to His call. By understanding, ideologically, the times, we can learn from the past, resist is being repeated, and forge a future focused on God, His return, and His defeat of evil once and for all.
The greatest day for the Christian prepper is the day they no longer have to prepare, for their needs will be eternally met, physically and spiritually by being with God forever.
About The Author
Benjamin Szumskyj is an Australian theological student, and a prepper. He is the author of the book: Souls Knit Together: Thirty-One Lessons on Friendship from David and Jonathan.
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