[OBW]

aron,

Some time back, I listened through part of a podcast series that was actually from a live classroom at a major seminary of Reformed theology. (I could figure out which one if given some time, but it is really not important.) The podcasts consisted of a class session of lecture, followed by a session of question and answer.

The class topic: Preaching Christ in a Postmodern World

But the core of the part I listened to (the first half of the sessions) was not really about postmodernism, but about preaching Christ. I found it refreshing that (excluding passages that were strictly speaking of Satan, or something like that) there is, besides the obvious meaning of most of the narrative, some insight into the nature of God, and therefore insight into the nature of Christ. The goal was not to turn everything into Christ. But to almost always find a link back to Christ as part of the sermon.

I believe that in later sessions there would be some discussion of the postmodern mindset, coupled with insight into how observable experience if often useful in reaching the postmodern mind. They are not impressed with declarations of truth. But they are impressed with examples of how something is seen as true.

This is somewhat the core of the "it's true for you but not for me" mentality. You may have seen something that establishes truth for you. But if I have not seen it, I have no basis to accept it a true for myself. You need to show it to me.

So churches full of propositional teaching about the nature of Christ and salvation, and so on, just don't get through. You want to claim that Jesus changes lives? Then show me some changed lives. (And exuberant, joyful people in meetings is irrelevant when they still act like heathen in so many other ways.) You say that righteousness, peace, and joy are in the Holy Spirit, then I need to see righteousness rather than unrighteousness coming from your people.

And try as we might, there is an aspect of postmodernism that is taking over the world. It is not the kind of ridiculous extremes of the early days of postmodernism where the rhetoric essentially denied the existence of truth. But it no longer accepts things just because it is written down. No longer do they believe it because it is in the paper (in a book, on the internet, etc.). They require evidence.

And Christian groups that seem to thrive on unrighteousness will not have a meaningful impact on the postmodern world because they claim to be more righteous than others simply by their claim to being Christian. So evidence that they are no different will undermine their testimony.

And speaking of testimony, it seems that for the LRC, the only testimony that matters is a declaration to God. If they say the right things to God, they think they have a strong testimony. If they believe the right doctrines, they have a better testimony.

But their testimony is a slander to the God they claim to serve. They prefer "good material" over others, and in doing so, do not love their neighbor as themselves. They slander honest and righteous men because their honesty stood against evil men, therefore they prefer evil over good. They elevate men to such a level that they become exempt from the very human actions that were directed by Paul with respect to leaders and teachers, therefore they nullify the word of God.

And they want to find favor on campuses. Go figure.