These days, truth is often defined by what’s within us instead of what’s objectively outside of us. Relative truth results in critical theories which interpret academics and documents, even the Bible, from a lens of oppression and power. Pastor Lutzer addresses the need for an ultimate standard for objective truth. Can we know the meaning of truth in a day of misinformation and propaganda?
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Transcript: Welcome to “5 Minutes with Pastor Lutzer.” I’m so glad that you joined us again as we discuss the culture based on my new book, entitled “No Reason to Hide: Standing for Christ in a Collapsing Culture.” One of the longest chapters in this book has to do with the topic of diversity, equity, and inclusion, and I give five or six reasons why it is that this philosophy, though well intended, actually does more harm than good and is an insult to minorities.
But let me just mention one aspect from this chapter. And that has to do with truth. It used to be in America where everyone believed that objective truth did exist. Now you’d have a lot of disagreement as to how it can be achieved, how we can work toward it. But there was this idea that there is truth that exists outside of me which we can find if we search and if we collaborate, we can come across truth. All that has changed. Today what we find is that there is truth within me and therefore my truth might not be your truth and people talk about “lived experience.”
Now lived experience is very important but you must understand that many of the textbooks and people who talk about lived experience, they mean something radically different. They mean that my experience is the basis for truth and if my experience conflicts with yours, my experience is right. There is no such thing as objective truth.
Let me read it directly from the leftists okay? And this, of course, impacts the way in which you interpret documents such as the constitution. “Reading is not a matter of getting the meaning from the text as if that meaning were in the text waiting to be decoded by the reader. Rather reading is a matter of using cues printed on a page and the knowledge that they bring with them, to construct a unique interpretation” and it goes on to say that there is no one interpretation that may be correct. There are many interpretations. It talks about the fact that interpretations are based on the desire for power. So for example, those who wrote the constitution had no intention of believing what they wrote but they wrote it to cover their own desire for power.
Alright, let’s use that particular theory and apply it to the scriptures. When David made the statement. “Bless the LORD, o my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name.” David wasn’t really worshiping God. He wrote those things because all of us know that he was very flawed and he was simply covering himself and trying to project his power. After all, there is no meaning in the text. It has to be decoded in accordance with what you want it to say.
You won’t believe this but I give an illustration of mathematics. Did you know that at Princeton University, and there’s a professor who has written against this by the way, even social justice theories are applied to mathematics. Most of us would think that two plus two equals four and finally there’s something all of us can agree on. Not so. It says that the idea of agreeing that there’s only one right answer is racist. It is a matter of doing white math. Now think about that for a while. Princeton grads may have a bank that they want to open and you put your money in it and when you go to withdraw it they have one view of what the total is and you have a different view because, after all, if there were only one answer that would be racist. You say but Pastor Lutzer that is absolutely absurd. Of course it’s absurd. As a matter of fact, George Orwell is quoted as saying that there are some ideas that are so absurd that only intellectuals believe them.
What I want to do is to leave you today with a challenge. When you think about truth, go to the word of God, where truth can be found. Believe it, trust it, and recognize that it’s meaning is what it says. Now sometimes there are differences of opinion regarding the interpretation of certain passages but in the end we believe in objective truth. “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.” I hope that you get a copy of the book “No Reason to Hide: Standing for Christ in a Collapsing Culture. If you go to the description of this episode, you’ll know that embedded in it is a link that will help you find out how a copy can be yours. Let’s end today by emphasizing the need for truth and always remember the one who said:
“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the father but by me.”
Thanks for joining us and as for today, you just go with God.