140330 Traveling the Ancient Paths in a Postmodern Age
Traveling the Ancient Pathsin a Postmodern Age In his second letter to young Timothy, the apostle Paul wrote of truly difficult days to come.But understand this, thatin the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men. (2 Tim 3:1-9)In 2 Timothy 4:3-4, Paul continued:For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they willaccumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.Even though these words are nearly 2,000 years old, with striking accuracy they describe our own day and age.Interestingly, more than 500 years before Paul, the prophet Jeremiah diagnosedmuch the same catastrophic phenomenon in foretelling the impending destruction of Jerusalem.“For from the least to the greatest of them,everyone is greedy for unjust gain; and from prophet to priest,everyone deals falsely.They have healed the wound of my people lightly,saying, ‘Peace, peace,’when there is no peace.Were they ashamed when theycommitted abomination?No, they were not at all ashamed;they did not know how to blush.Therefore they shall fall among those who fall;at the time that I punish them, they shall be overthrown,”says the LORD.(Jer 6:13-15)Our Postmodern AgeToday, we continue to see and feel the effects of great shifts in cultural sentiments and sensibilities leading to social, moral, and ethical drifts. Unchecked, these drifts naturally lead further and further away from God.“Postmodernism” is a broad term many are using to describe the trends of our own modern culture. Postmodernist approaches to life are typically critical of the possibility of objective knowledge and absolute truth. Pilate’s question lives on as the heartbeat of postmodernist thought: “What is truth?”Postmodernist philosophy frequently draws critical attention to the ways in which social dynamics such as authorityand hierarchy affect human interaction and relationships. In contrast to the “modernist” paradigm which emphasized knowledge and science, postmodernist thought often emphasizes pluralism, relativism, and syncretism in its approaches to knowledge and understanding. This cultural cocktail has come to produce an intense sense of skepticism in the hearts of many, especially those whoare younger.Take a moment to reflect on the three cultural trends mentioned below. How have you personally observed them at work in the world around you? Are they dangerous? If so, in what ways? Can you think of anything in the Bible (commands, examples, outright warnings, principles, inferences) that speak to these ancient and modern trends?Are there those who continue to say, “Peace, peace,” when there is no peace? If so, in what ways?“They did not know how to blush?” What did Jeremiah mean? Does the same problem continue in our own culture? If so, how? Why?How has much of the postmodern drift been fueled by a lack of fundamental respect for authority?
