In the American debate over this question, sadly, the secularists are driving the bus. In Barna’s latest research, done in early 2023, 58% of Americans said, “NO”, to there being moral truths that are absolute.
The study also found that the pull of secularism is especially strong among younger Americans. Those under age 30 were less likely to select God as the basis of truth (31%), and more likely to say that personal opinion decided moral standards (60%).
For Christians, the dominance of relativism in America is no real surprise. The gloomiest numbers in his research, however, were found among evangelical Christians and born-again Christians. Evangelicals, defined as believing the Bible to be the true, reliable Word of God, are just as likely to reject absolute moral truth (46%). And only a minority of born-again Christians– 43%– still embrace absolute truth.
These words of Mahatma Gandhi describe America and much of Christendom in America accurately: “Nobody in this world possesses absolute truth. This is God’s attribute alone. Relative truth is all we know. Therefore, we can only follow the truth as we see it. Such pursuit of truth cannot lead anyone astray.”
But what about these words in our Bible, words from God’s holy Scriptures?
John 8:31-32 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
John 17:17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
John 14:6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
John 12:48 There is a judge for those who reject me and do not accept my words; the very words I have spoken will condemn them at the last day.
Jesus affirmed: 1- He is absolute truth; 2- we can know absolute truth; 3- absolute truth is the only way to be free; 4- those who reject Jesus as the absolute truth cannot spend eternity in heaven; 5- the words of Christ will be the absolute truth on the last day; 6- those who have not accepted Jesus’ words of absolute truth will be condemned.
Charles Darwin, who in 1831 received a degree in theology, understood these 6 items of Christianity very well. In bitterness he concluded, “I can indeed hardly see how anyone ought to wish Christianity to be true; for if so the plain language of the text seems to show that the men who do not believe, and this would include my Father, Brother and almost all my best friends, will be everlastingly punished. And this is a damnable doctrine.” His friends and family were his measuring stick of moral truth and any truth that did not approve of them had to be wrong and “damnable.”
Therefore, if you profess to be a Christian, you have no choice but to believe all 6 of Jesus’ affirmations. And if you hesitate to believe even one of them, then face the truth that you may be many things, but you are not a Christian. And that would go for everyone in your family and all of your friends too.
There are absolute truths of right and wrong that never change and they are contained in God’s holy Word. So your opinion and my opinion are of no value, unless they match those absolute truths in our Bible. Open it, check yourself out, I will do the same.
Pastor Mike Sublett Hi-Land Christian Church Pampa, Texas 79065. 630-730-8015 cell, 806-669-6700 church. “Father, please, grant me the honor to die in the harness.”
