Dear Friends,
We now live in a post-Christian society. By “post-Christian” I mean that a critical mass of people in the United States no longer consider Judeo-Christianity as America’s civic religion or ethical mooring. Unlike in the past, most people in our country are biblically illiterate, uncatechized in the faith, and indifferent or incensed by the tenets of Christian doctrine. As a nation we have rejected God’s laws.
To be post-Christian is to be post-truth. We have “your truth” and “my truth,” no longer the truth. No wonder schools and higher education have lost their way. What is education without truth?
Consider the testimony of Grove City College professor, Carl Trueman, Ph.D., who writes:
. . . I was challenged by a student while delivering a guest lecture on gay marriage at a very conservative Christian college. My arguments did not work, because . . . well, they were arguments, and did not take into account how the mind of my young critic had been formed. She had not been convinced by any argument. Her imagination had been seized by an aesthetically driven culture, in which taste was truth . . .
What Professor Trueman is saying is that students are prone to think that what they like is true. If they feel inclined toward something, they believe it is true on the basis of their own preference, not reality.
To be post-truth is to be post-logic. It’s illogical to think truth is based on taste.
Here’s a snippet of a portion of a conversation that I had with a 29 year old Ph.D. student in the Psychology department at Auburn University. The context of her comment was a phone conversation in which I was posing questions in an attempt to understand her point of view. She tends to be discouraged and sometimes quite depressed.
At one point, she literally said to me, “You see, you’re logical, and I’m illogical.”
I replied, “Do you think it’s logical to be illogical? Or would you agree that it’s illogical to be illogical?”
She then said, “Oh, you’re very intellectual. Could you please repeat the question?” So I did.
The Ph.D. student confirmed, “I think it’s logical to be illogical.”
This student had no awareness that God is logical. She was therefore ill-equipped to deal with theological matters. If you think about it, it makes sense that everything theo-logical is logical.
According to John’s Gospel, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). The word “Word” in Greek is Logos, and it means “Logic” just as much as it means “Word.”
Thus we can rightly say, “In the beginning was the Logic, and the Logic was with God, and the Logic was God” (John 1:1).
Truth and Logic are twins, flip-sides of the same coin. We cannot have one without the other because both are ultimately sourced in the one and only God.
Extending this still further on the basis of what Logos means, we can also rightly say, “In the beginning was the Meaning, and the Meaning was with God, and the Meaning was God” (John 1:1).
Theology cheers people up because it is refreshingly meaningful! It is the sheer opposite of illogic. When things do not make sense, people feel weighed down, even if they aren’t sure why.
Theos-logic, theo-logy, theology, God-Logic explains the meaning of life.
If learning this interests you, I invite you to sign up for the course, “Knowing Father God” that starts in September 2020. It could be so fun to be in class.
Praying for students everywhere,
Sarah