The question - 'How can I get to the universal truths?'
What is really right and wrong? Everything couldn't be relative could it?
If relativity isn't correct who's perspective should we take? That of a ten commandment living Christian? How about a radical follower of Islam?
Is it right to kill someone for war if it will make peace? God gave Moses commandments that said no but Solomon said that there is a time to heal and a time to kill. Both of these men were lead by God but who should we listen to?
Ask 10 people and you will get ten different answers. One will tell you that you shouldn't murder anyone and another will tell you it depends on the situation.
As much as we don't want to believe that truths are relative I have to officially say most of them are! When Solomon said their is a time to kill and a time to heal he was speaking about seasons. There is a season for everything in life!
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 “To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; A time to plant, and a time to pluck what is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; A time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; A time to mourn, and a time to dance; A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones; A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; A time to gain, and a time to lose; A time to keep, and a time to throw away; A time to tear, and a time to sew; A time to keep silence, and a time to speak; A time to love, and a time to hate; A time of war, and a time of peace.”
Always look at a situation from all sides, and not just from one closed minded view. Why did Hitler kill all the Jews, why were blacks persecuted, why did the U.S. drop atomic bombs on Japan, why were we attacked on September 11th, what did
Saddam Hussein have to do with the U.S.
We all have our own opinions of all of these situations and can call them wrong or right. The crazy part is that everyone one opposite of your opinion has a valid opinion that can be backed up with facts and religion (even if you are the same religion).
I am a born again Christian and have expressed my own opinion above. This opinion does not reflect the opinion of the entire Christian church.
Please let me know your thoughts about this post...
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Wednesday, February 10, 2010
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You raise several very important points in this blog. Primarily of course is the issue of what are the universal truths? Personally, I think that “universal” truths can be found only by using the Bible as a point of reference. I believe that you illustrate this very well when you say: “Ask 10 people and you will get 10 different answers”. It is a reasonable assumption that 10 people would have 10 different “opinions”. Therein lies the problem with a supposed “universal” truth: Due to the diversity that exists in the world, the only universal truth established is that everyone’s ideas will differ. Without a point of reference, you would teeter dangerously close to the edge of a postmodern: “it doesn’t matter what you believe in as long as you believe in something” argument and to the viewpoint that there is a “higher power”, but again the absolute acknowledgement of God would make the person with that assertion appear to be close minded.
ReplyDeletePeople are unwilling to accept certain things (for whatever their reasons) and for some strange reason are willing to accept any “truth” that they feel they stumble upon themselves. From this paradigm come people like Friedrich Nietzsche and Jean-Paul Sartre to which the Bible explicitly speaks against in Ephesians 4: 17-18:
“So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.”
Paul talks about this further in Romans 1: 21-22, 25, 28-29
Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools…
…They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen…
…Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents…
That is probably a longer response than you were looking for, but thank you for posting this blog, it got me thinking.
David hit it on the head! Your response could have been twice as long! Post Modernism is very dangerous and it is so crazy how people will believe what the 60 year old guy with the money says but will flee away from God's word which has lasted through the ages! The truth is in what you believe at the end of the day... It will be interesting to see the real universal truths after we leave this earth...
ReplyDeleteNo rule is absolute.
ReplyDelete