When Bob began his freshman year at university he was not prepared to have his Christian beliefs and values challenged. The philosophical idea that everyone determines his or her own truth was insidiously permeating Bob’s new life and it was so subtle that, at first, he didn’t even realize it was happening. It was something that would challenge his Christianity to its very core.
The campuses of most public universities today are smorgasbords of ideas. Every imaginable philosophy seems to be represented and debate reigns supreme with the underlying assumption that human beings should decide for themselves what is best for them.
In a way we all face the same challenge Bob faced with the result that many people today pride themselves on being able to see things from multiple perspectives. Although this approach provides many subjects for debate, having flexible positions isn’t good when it comes to Christianity. Isaiah 5:20 tells us: “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!”
Furthermore, to publicly state something is right or wrong has come to be considered judgmental, which is looked down upon in today’s secular world. Most people have embraced the self-empowering myth that whatever they sincerely believe is true. They have forgotten about God and His Word. When all one uses in making decisions are one’s feelings and the human desire to give everyone freedom to make his or her own choices, the outcome is obvious. Truth becomes relative.
According to religious pollster, George Barna, the majority opinion today is that moral truth depends on the circumstances. Confusion about moral absolutes has been a human problem for a long time. In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve ate from “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (Genesis 2:9). Mankind, following their mistaken example of self-determination apart from God, has generally been confused about good and evil ever since.
Just believing you are a spiritual person and accepting all values and ideas as equal would be fine—if there were no absolute truths—if there were no God—if the universe really worked that way. But it doesn’t. There is a God who really does know and want what is best for us because He loves us.
Sincere Christians must acknowledge God alone determines truth. The humanistic idea that we human beings are capable of determining our own way apart from God just doesn’t square with reality. As Jeremiah exclaimed, “O Lord, I know the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man who walks to direct his own steps” (Jeremiah 10:23).
