CR> Hi BRETT,
 CR> Thanks for your comments on Dr. Veith's article.  However, I don't see 
any
 CR> good in postmodernism at all.  Postmodernism emphasizes relativism while
 CR> the Bible emphasizes absolute truth in morals and theology.  Either 
esus
 CR> is God's Son or He isn't--Jesus is not a figment of the imagination and 
if
 CR> it is true that He is in reality God's Son, then that statement is
 CR> universally true for all men.
If you are critical of postmodernism on the basis of its emphasis
being relativism, then how do you stand on modernism and premodernism
as both of them are flawed in the way they see truth as well.
 CR> You are right that postmodernism offers us an opportunity to share the
 CR> Gospel with those who are curious about what we believe; however, it 
lso
 CR> presents a problem--if the Gospel is only true for us and is only OUR
 CR> perception of the world and our own imaging of reality, then it is going
 CR> to
 CR> be difficult to convince others that God exists in ultimate being and
 CR> reality, that He is eternally self-existent (aseity).
If it were our job to do the ultimate convincing then you have a good
point. I don't believe that the ultimate convincing is our job, but
rather that of the Holy Spirit.
 CR> I for one do not buy into the church growth paradigm. I've observed too
 CR> much false doctrine that has manifested itself in the form of 
materialism,
 CR> greed, and heterodoxy for the sake of numerical growth and financial
 CR> success.  When the Gospel has to be watered down or downplayed for the
 CR> sake
 CR> of drawing in unwary pagans, what we wind up with is nominal Christians
 CR> who
 CR> know nothing about sound doctrine, spiritual disciplines, or
 CR> self-sacrifice.
I totally agree with your statements above regarding false doctrine.
However if we are to take the same conservative approach to everything
simply on the basis that some people will fall then we will end up
doing nothing. The spread of false doctrine was quite clearly an issue
in the 1st century, but did that stop Christians of that day spreading
the Gospel?
 CR> I left the Pentecostal movement about a year ago after being within that
 CR> fellowship for over ten years.  Postmodernism and existentialism is
 CR> rampant
 CR> in their paradigm and truth seems to have taken a far, far backseat to
 CR> pragmatism and Pelagianism.
I can't comment on the individual situation you found yourself in, but
just because there is one bad apple doesn't mean the whole case is
bad.
 CR> 1 Timothy 4:16
 CR> Watch your life and doctrine closely.
 CR> Persevere in them, because if you do,
 CR> you will save both yourself and your hearers.  (NIV).
Very, very important point. It is something that St Paul was quite
aware of when he spread the Gospel, but it didn't stop him preaching
the Gospel. We do need to at all times focus on God for direction
otherwise we will fall.
Here is an essay I submitted at Bible College last year, I will be
interested to hear your comments on some of the views put forward.
Postmodernism - Threat or Opportunity?
--------------------------------------
Is postmodernism a threat to Christianity or an opportunity for
Christianity? Can it be stopped?  Should it be stopped?  What is
truth?  Is truth absolute?  How can we know the truth?  Many will
have differing views on these questions and how you answer them will
dramatically effect your response to postmodernism.
Modernism represented a strong move away from things spiritual and a
move toward the reasoning of mankind.  This had a dramatic effect
upon the secularisation of western society, as Martin Robinson in his
book "A World Apart" notes, "The process to which we refer, and which
has represented the underlying cause of decline in religious
commitment in Europe as a whole, is that of the gradual
secularisation of society.  Strangely, the origins of secularism do
not lie in the twentieth century or even in the nineteenth century
but even earlier in what we have already referred to as the Age of
Reason, sometimes known as the Enlightenment.  The twin emphases of
the Enlightenment were the theories of empiricism, which became the
basis of modern scientific method, and of rationalism, which became
the basis of modern philosophy." (Robinson:1992:22)
The question facing us today is in what direction is postmodernism
leading society?  In an extract from his book "The Death of Truth",
Dennis McCallum portrays postmodernism as a threat to Christianity
that must be fought at all costs.  He sees postmodernism as an attack
on absolute truth and hence the truth of the Bible.  McCallum is also
highly critical of modernism, "Before now, the consensus in secular
thought form has been called modernism.
Modernists view the world, including humans, as one big machine.  They
have faith in rationality, in empiricism and in science."  Obviously
McCallum views the influence of modernism as being highly destructive
and sees postmodernism posing a similar threat, thus it is not
surprising that he wishes to fight postmodernism.  "The postmodern
revolution is still happening, and we, as Christians still have an
opportunity to influence the outcome." (McCallum:1997:Chapter 1)
I feel that those who think along the lines of McCallum are in serious
danger of barking up the wrong tree.  Postmodernism, like modernism,
is a way of thinking that is alien to the heart of the Gospel (as its
absolute is not God), however we must accept that they represent ways
in which people think, wether we like it or not.  It simply will not
do to look at all societies problems and blame them on modernism or
postmodernism.  Modernism and postmodernism are ways of processing
ideas, they do not form the ideas themselves.  The problems come
about in that when you put garbage in you get garbage out.  If a
person has evil intent, it will not matter what thought process they
go through, you will get evil coming out the other end. Our job as
Christians is to ensure that the hearts and minds of people are fed
with the truth rather than the staple diet of garbage that the modern
world has thrown up.  Postmodernism provides us with this
opportunity.
Postmodernism provides for us as Christians an opportunity to present
the Bible.  We are coming out of a time where modern thinking has
dominated, and Christianity has been disregarded on the basis of not
being able to prove God, and into a time where truth is seen as being
in the eye of the beholder.  This gives us an enormous opportunity to
present the Gospel in terms of our own personal testimony.  It opens
up evangelism to all Christians, not just the intellectuals among us.
Unlike under the constraints of modernism, there is no need to
rationally explain to the postmodernist why we believe what we
believe, but rather we have the freedom to present what is truth to
us.  This of course points to the obvious danger of postmodernism in
that people can, and are, being sucked into believing all sorts of
weird ideas quite contrary to the Bible.  It is therefore crucial
that we as Christians take up this opportunity to spread the Gospel,
because we can be sure that the enemy will be spreading his gospel.
It is important to note that a postmodernist is not the irrational
creature that the modernists will portray, but rather their thinking
is a rational process whereby what they believe is influenced by what
they see and hear.  In this respect the postmodernist is no different
to the modernist. It is the postmodernist who recognises the folly of
the modernist's belief that they can objectively look at truth
without subjectivity entering into the equation.  You only need look
at what passes as science these days to see that something has gone
seriously wrong with objectivity.  Truth cannot lie in a vacuum
whereby it can be analysed in complete objectivity, the subjective
gives meaning to the objective.
All lines of thought have absolutes built into them, even
postmodernism.  Premodernism had as its absolute the church,
modernism had science and reason, and postmodernism has self.  All
these absolutes have flaws and it is in response to these flaws that
the progression of thinking has developed.  Modernism came out of a
rejection of the church as absolute, in which it was quite correct to
do so as the church does not have all the answers.  Postmodernism has
then come out of a rejection of science as an absolute, and likewise
it is quite correct in doing so.  It does beg the question of what
will follow postmodernism, if the absolute of postmodernism is self,
could it not be that God has His hand in this progression?
Society is becoming more and more postmodern in its thinking, we
cannot stop it as McCullum says we should attempt to do so, neither
should we attempt to stop it.  If we were to fight against it are we
to champion the modernism?  I think not.  Modernism or even
premodernism are no closer to the Christian world view than is
postmodernism.  Let us continue to proclaim the gospel, holding to
our absolute being God, but at the same time recognise that the world
does not hold the same absolute as us.  Whilst as Christians we
cannot get away from the position that God is our absolute we do need
to realise that in spreading the gospel it is our job to present the
gospel in a language that those around us will understand.
Bibliography
------------
1.   Robinson, M.  "A World Apart"  (Monarch Publications, 1992)
2.   McCallum, D. "The Death of Truth"
     (http://www.crossrds.org/ch1.htm, Accessed 11/11/97)
God Bless
Brett
... "Oh, my.  I'd forgotten how much I hate space travel." - C-3PO
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