And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free (John 8:32).
One of the modern fallacies destroying humanity today is the idea that “nothing is absolute; everything is relative.” Our Lord Jesus Christ once rebuked the Pharisees with these stinging words, “O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?” (Matthew 16:3). This was truly a prophetic statement. The Crucifixion and Resurrection of Christ and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit were transforming everything they once had held dear and sacred before their eyes, yet they failed to discern these changes.
“Are we any more perceptive today?” There are tremendous changes taking place in our world. The basic beliefs and opinions about the things most important to us are changing radically, yet many people are not aware of these significant changes.
The Barna Research Group in California made an intensive study of the changing religious views in the Western World. George Cornell, a writer on “Religion” for the Associated Press, reported that the findings reveal some alarming and ominous trends in people’s thinking.
Among other things, the research shows that the majority of Westerners are beginning to accept a mixture of Traditional Christianity, Secular Humanism, and New Age Theology. This is a dangerous trend. It will poison everyone who accepts it, and ultimately it will destroy society.
The fallacy that “There are no absolutes” tries to point out that all truth is relative. Sixty-two percent of adults in the Western world believe this. If we include young people between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five, the figure increases to seventy-four percent. A hundred years ago, ninety-nine percent of people believed there were “absolutes,” and that truth was not relative. This represents a huge shift.
In his monumental work entitled, “The Closing of the American Mind,” Professor Allen Bloom said, “There is one thing a professor can be certain of almost every student entering the university believes or says he believes, that truth is relative.” This is a dangerous idea that is indelibly impressed on the “psyche” of many students. One student that did not understand asked a Professor what it meant. The Professor replied. “We can know nothing for certain.” This answer shows the inconsistent and contradictory character of the whole concept. To say “there are no absolutes” is a contradiction because this statement itself is “an absolute” statement.
Some philosophers a few years ago were having the same difficulty with the “Logical Positivism” philosophy. This whole philosophy was derived from the one defining statement: “The only statements that are true are those which can be proven scientifically.” The proponents of this idea saw science as the only source of any truth, whatever. The philosophy was widespread and prominent across the world and reigned for decades until many realized that empirical science could not support the basic defining statement. The philosophy still exists, though it is not as powerful as it once was.
What is meant by the statement, “There are no absolutes?” Why do people hold that view? If we tell the average person that something is absolutely true, they would generally take the attitude that we live in a universe where everything is relative and we cannot be so sure.
Albert Einstein, who promoted the “Theory of Relativity,” made it clear that “Relativity deals with matter, mass, speed, light, and motion.” He said, “Relativity refers only to the realm of physics, not ethics.” Unfortunately, many have tried to take “The Theory of Relativity” and apply it to ethics, morals, religion, and culture. They generally believe that things are changing; what was true ten years ago is no longer true today. Nothing is certain, definite, absolute, or proven, and that we are only dealing with probabilities. We need to understand clearly what this means lest we fall into error.
There are primarily two kinds of knowledge in our world. One source is science, man’s attempt to wrest from nature whatever truths he can about its operation manner. This started very small, but over the years has grown and is now in an advanced stage. Science is a progressive system.
Another source of knowledge is revelation. God has revealed to us certain truths in the Bible and through His Only Begotten Son. When this revelation was complete, all things necessary for our salvation were perfectly revealed. This volume of knowledge has not increased or improved since its completion in the first century. God gave us a perfect revelation, and it is the same today as it was initially.
Ethics, morals, and religion deal with the revelation that our Lord Jesus Christ gives us. He says, “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). The word “absolutes” comes from two Latin words, “ab” and “solvere,” which means “to set free.” From this, we get the word “dissolve.” The word “absolute” technically means “to be set free from any imperfection or any admixture.” “Absolute” is perfection. “It is free from any limit, restriction, or qualification as an absolute monarch.” “Absolutes” are positives, certainties, and authoritative, whether we are talking about persons or ideas.
To say “there are no absolutes” is to say there is no God. People who say this attempt to use Einstein’s “Theory of Relativity” to cover their atheistic ideology. God is the ultimate “Absolute.” His omnipotence is without limit, restraint, or qualification. His omniscience is unlimited. His omnipresence is without restraint or restriction.
The idea that “there are no absolutes” comes to us in different kinds of phrases. First, it is introduced to us in the concept of “cultural relativism,” which says, in essence, that what may be true for you is not necessarily true for me or what is true in one culture is not necessarily true in another.
The concept of “cultural relativism” is an evil design that will dissolve societies and eventually destroy civilization’s foundations. A noted example was the Nuremberg War trials after World War II, when Nazi criminals were tried for war crimes. The Legal personnel in the hearings were influenced by the concept of “Cultural Relativism” popular in America and Europe. The very clever Nazi criminals knew this, and so they argued that they did nothing wrong. They said that they acted according to their own culture, rules, and laws. The Supreme Court of Germany had declared the Jews to be non-persons, and this justified killing them. They further argued that it was wrong for the Attorneys of the Nuremberg Tribunal to impose other cultures from other societies on them since all truth and morals are culturally relative. Ultimately, the Attorneys had to concede that they must appeal to a Higher Law.
Let us take a quick look at the New Age Movement that also believes that “there are no absolutes.” This Movement is made up of multiplied millions of people. Perhaps as many as fifty million people accept the major tenets of the New Age Movement. It isn’t easy to find one single definition for the Movement since it embraces so many religions and schools of thought. Among the leaders are Shirley MacLaine, John Denver, Marilyn Ferguson, Carl Jung, Terry Cole-Whittaker, and many others.
New Agers teach, among other things, that approximately every two thousand years, we pass from one house in the Zodiac to another. In the years 1999A.D. they argued that we were poised between two ages and about to make an evolutionary quantum leap from the House of Pisces to the new “Age of Aquarius.” Pisces, the fishes, have always been considered as a sign of the Christian Church. We are about to leave this and enter into the mystical occult Age of Aquarius.
The New Age Movement presents basically three concepts. First, “ultimate reality.” This says that even though we literally see a wide variety of separate things in this universe, this is all an illusion. There is only one reality. Everything is simply a part of that one infinite, eternal reality, one force, one life energy, and one spirit. In short, it believes in “Monism.” The New Age teaches that the universe is god, all is one, and all is god. This god is an impersonal force with no personality.
Second, “humanity.” Since all are part of this one force or energy or spirit, we are not individuals, but one spiritual substance. This substance, energy, and spirit is god.
Third, “humanity’s predicament.” Man has not transgressed the Law of God and is in no need of redemption. This is not possible and not needed since we are all gods. Man’s predicament is metaphysical ignorance. He does not know who or what he is. Man, they say, is the infinite, eternal, omnipotent, omniscient, perfect creator of the universe. This is “enlightenment,” or “cosmic consciousness.” What fallacy!
The New Age Movement is a reaction to Biblical Christianity, but it is also a reaction to Secular Humanism. Secular Humanists are evolutionists. They teach there is no mind, no spirit, no God. All is matter. They are really atheists. For them, everything is based upon evolutionary chance. New Agers say we are all gods. How confused the proponents of these ideas are!
Our Lord Jesus Christ says, “Ye shall know the truth, and truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). This text embodies three precious jewels. First, that there is real “Truth.” Our Lord Jesus Christ did not say, “Ye shall know a truth . . ..” Rather, He said, “Ye shall know the truth, . . ..”It is “absolute” truth. It exists. It is real. Our “absolute” God has revealed to us “absolute truth.” This “truth” is found in His Word. The Bible says, “ . . . thy word is truth” (John 17:17). Our Lord Jesus Christ says, “ . . . Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law [Word of God], till all be fulfilled” (Matthew 5:18). The Word of God is truth. The Bible is the revelation of the perfect, “absolute” truth of God. “All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:” (2 Timothy 3:16). All statements in the Scriptures are absolutely true because they come from the “Absolute God.” This “absolute” truth applies to all regardless of their culture.
The Bible deals with “absolutes” like “life and death,” “heaven and hell,” “obedience and disobedience,” “righteousness and sin,” “saved and lost,” “light and darkness,” “God and Satan,” “good and evil,” “faith and unbelief,” “judgment and salvation,” and many others. The “Living Word,” our Lord Christ Jesus, is also “Absolute Truth.” He says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6). He is the absolute incarnation of truth. He is truth personified.
The second jewel in the text is that this “Truth” can be known. We can have real knowledge. To say we can know nothing for certain is totally incorrect. This may be true in science since all we have is “probabilities,” but it is certainly not true that we cannot be certain of anything. We can know because God, who has created us, the One who knows all things, has given us both the ability and the material to know this truth. The Bible says,
These things are written unto you . . . that ye may know, . . . (1 John, 5:13).
And this is life eternal that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent (John 17:3).
The third jewel is, this “Truth” will set us free. Our text says, “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (8:32). The Jews responded to this statement by saying, “ . . . [We] were never in bondage to any man: how sayest Thou, Ye shall be made free?” (John 8:33). This was a historically incorrect statement. They were in bondage to several Empires: the Egyptians, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Philistines, the Canaanites, the Graeco-Syrians, the Macedonians, and at the time they were speaking, Roman flags flew at their seaport, Roman soldiers were among them and collected their taxes, a Roman face was on their coins. They were in bondage for a great part of their history, and yet they said otherwise.
Our Lord Jesus Christ was talking here about a deeper and worse form of bondage. He said,
. . . Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin (John 8:34).
If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed (John 8:36).
I believe that what the Jews wanted was a perverted form of the freedom our Lord Jesus Christ was talking about. They wanted the freedom that gave license to do whatever they wished. The same is true today. Many people are like the prodigal son who refused to be hemmed in by his father’s house’s rules and restrictions. He wanted to go out and do what he wished, and admittedly, he enjoyed it for a while. Sin is pleasurable for a season, but soon the season is over, and misery steps in. When liberty degenerates into license, bondage is the result. Freethinkers are just like the prodigal son. They will eventually end up in the pig’s pen.
Every living creature has God-ordained limits. He has given us parameters for our lives: physically, spiritually, morally, and ethically. Whenever we violate these, we pay the price for it. Satan is always trying to get us to go beyond because he knows we will end up in bondage. What he told Eve in the Garden of Eden is what he has been saying down through the ages and what he is telling us today, “Expand your limits! Break down the walls! Observe no restraints! You must be free to do anything you want.”
Professor Alan Bloom has unwisely said, “the real absolute is freedom-freedom in the sense of license, freedom to live any way we want.” Some people are attempting to achieve this by being free from any political, legal, or societal restraints and to do whatever they want to, whether it be the wildest forms of orgies, dope addiction, drugs, prostitution, homosexuality, or whatever else. They feel that they can and should go on living by removing the distinction between good and evil. If you think this way, please remember, “Pay Day, Some Day.”
We are told that we must not impose our belief system on others! All truth is individual and relative and cannot be imposed on others any more than one culture can impose its views on another. For some, this is a moralizing approach to life. We are also taught no good and no evil, no truth, and no falsehood. We must remove these lines because when we discern good, we must also condemn evil. The result is we have no restraints. This is a slippery road that will lead to a tragic end.
Our Lord Jesus Christ offers us real freedom from the tyranny of sin. Those who do not believe in “absolutes” do not know that it is the great love of God that has set up moral, social, and spiritual boundaries for us with the view of keeping us from bondage.
One of the great tragedies of sin is that so often, those in bondage are blind. Only when they are destroyed, their eyes are opened. If we really know sin for what it is, we would hate it, flee from it, and would come to Christ.
Dear one, sin is addictive, and as the chains of sin get tighter and tighter around humanity, we will see millions more who are absolutely enslaved. Only our Lord Jesus Christ gives real freedom. He alone can break the shackles that bind people. His Precious Blood dissolves all chains. Shackles are broken at Calvary. I urge you to come to Christ and enjoy the glorious liberty of being sons of God. Please come to Him today.
Amen.
