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Recently I heard Dieter Zander, the pastor of the first GenX church in America speak at a conference about reaching people in the age of relativism. He cited a Barna study that asked people to use single words to describe Jesus. They responded, "wise, accepting, compassionate, gracious, humble." Then he asked them to use single words to describe Christians, they said, "critical, exclusive, self righteous, narrow and repressive."
"There is a difference between knowing the good news and being the good news, Zander said. "We are the evidence! How we live our lives are the evidence. Everything counts--all the time."
"With previous generations, a strong preacher could give a good message, even if the church was hypocritical and critical and people would still get saved," Zander continued, "but not any more. I’m seeing a change in what seekers are looking for. Not something they can relate to. They are looking for a transcendent God. They don’t want to be entertained they want to be transformed."
COMPROMISE AND ANTI-CHRIST
Religious tolerance is not always a sign of good will. It can be a sign of careless, perhaps hypocritical religious indifference of the most high-handed philosophic relativism. It can also be a mask behind which to hide downright malice. During the Nazi era, for example, arguments for Christian openness to other perspectives were used by German Christians in an attempt to neuter the church’s protest against the neo-paganism of Hitler and his minions. The Confessing Church in Germany found in John 10 a theological basis to stand against Hitler. There are times in which the only way to keep alive the non-vindictive, nonjudgmental, self-sacrificing witness of Jesus Christ is to stand with rude dogmatism on the rock that is Jesus Christ, condemning all compromise as the work of the Antichrist.
SOURCE: Ronald Goetz in "Exclusivistic Universality" (Christian Century, April 21, 1993). Sep00
According to a recent survey, 70% of adult American Christians believe there are no moral or ethical absolutes that apply to everyone. In other words most Christian adults have been poisoned by the drug of moral relativism. Most Christians have joined the non-Christian culture and believe we set our own standards. In essence this survey reveals that 70% of Adult American Christians have decided that God is not capable or worthy of establishing guidelines for living.
Singer Sheryl Crow said recently, in a New York Post interview: “I believe in God. I believe in Jesus and Buddha and Mohammed and all those that were enlightened. I wouldn’t say necessarily that I’m a strict Christian. I’m not sure I believe in heaven.” Sheryl Crow is where many people are today; they believe in everything a...
Rampant Relativism Only 9% of Evangelicals have a biblical worldview reports the Barna Group This stunning statistic reveals an estimated 91% of professing Christians are far more influenced by the relativistic philosophy of today’s culture than by biblical truth. (PWB 5/5/06)
"In trying to evangelize, we confront powerful cultural pressures towards religious relativism; the dominant idea today is that ‘any one religion is as good as any other’ and that people should keep their religious beliefs to themselves."
(Source: Archbishop Jose omez on the New Evangelization, New Media, and Impacting Culture for Christ, "You Will Be My Witnesses")
Allan Bloom in The Closing of the American Mind:
"Openness and the relativism that makes it the only plausible stance in the face of various claims to truth and various ways of life and kinds of human beings is the great insight of our times. The true believer is the real danger. The study of history and of culture teaches that all the world was mad in the past; men always thought they were right, and that led to wars, persecutions, slavery, xenophobia, racism and chauvinism. The point is not to correct the mistakes and really be right; rather it is not to think you are right at all."
The Condition of Society
“The fruit of the secular world view can be seen in around us. As we observe society, it is evident that not all is well. Television has degenerated into a bordello of violence, soft-pornography, anti-family sit-coms, commercials that appeal to immediate gratification, and senseless children’s cartoons that are full of violence, occultism, and disobedience to parents. It often portrays pastors as psychotics, priests as pedophiles, and religious people as insecure, ignorant, and bigoted.
The News is extremely biased and when speaking in areas where religious and secular morals collide, it uniformly presents information with loaded words. Instead of "pro-life" we hear "anti-abortion rights." Instead of "conservative" it is "right wing fundamentalist." Other words are used such as "Bible thumpers," "censorship," "intolerance," "bigoted," etc.
"According to the Center for Media and Public Affairs, the average TV watcher sees 14,000 references to sex and the average child "watches 8,000 murders and 100,000 acts of violence by the end of elementary school."
Illegitimacy is on the rise. In 1970 babies born out of wedlock were 10% of all births. In 1991, it was 30%. Rape is increasing as is violent crime, venereal disease, drug usage, and prison populations.
In many American schools the "Impressions" series is promoting the New Age and the occult. Some programs have students being taught that they alone are the ones who should decide if drug use is good or bad. Many school textbooks teach anti-family values, promote homosexuality, teach moral relativism, encourage sexual conduct, and, of course, instill evolution as a fact. In addition, they condemn the notion of a Christian God even being mentioned. Consider the following:
"When 10-year old Raymond Raines bowed his head and silently ...
Michael McCartney
Robert Leroe stated:
Moral relativism is becoming the norm. A group of college students were asked their opinions on the media, specifically the R-rated kinds of situations being shown on TV and the movies. When asked why sex and violence were so prevalent, one student answered, “Because it’s no big deal.”
Moral relativism is becoming the norm. A group of college students were asked their opinions on the media, specifically the R-rated kinds of situations being shown on TV and the movies. When asked why sex and violence were so prevalent, one student answered, “Because it’s no big deal.”
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