A megashift has taken place in the way people think over the last twenty to thirty years.

This change included moral relativity and a consequent disastrous breakdown in family values the breakdown of marriage and fragmentation of family life. It is vital to understand what this is all about. The following analysis includes a review of the role of television which is the principle medium of postmodernistic philosophy.

What is postmodernism?
A Christian response to postmodernism Erroll Hulse To some, postmodernism is like the Loch Ness monster. It may exist but that is highly unlikely. Some deny that postmodernism does exist and they belittle attention given to it. One has suggested that postmodernism is about ghosts! Before studying theology and history I graduated in architecture and have sustained my interest in that discipline. To suggest that postmodernism is like the wizard of Oz - a world of fantasy - is as unreal as it is to suggest to an architect that postmodern architecture does not exist. Every time I travel into our city of Leeds and every time I visit Western cities, Dallas, Toronto, Pretoria, Sydney, I view an increasing number of postmodern buildings. These I analyse and in most cases enjoy. Architecture is exceptional inasmuch as postmodern architecture is a great improvement on the functionalism that prevailed in the modernist era. Postmodernism as a philosophy is currently universally pervasive. Postmodernism is beginning to reign in politics and in our universities and institutions of learning. While the philosophy holds sway in establishing thought patterns, evangelical Christianity is either dismissed or marginalised. As we will see, the philosophy of postmodernism is extremely destructive. Christian leaders are stretched to the utmost to deal effectively with it. Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones was right in rejecting post-World War 2 claims that humanity had changed in its essential nature. Mankind is as lost in sin today as Adam and Eve were in the day they fell. When the Lord came to look for them they hid behind the trees in the garden. That hiding continues but the trees are different. There have been enormous cultural changes and differences in thought patterns but mankind, made in Gods image but spoiled by sin, is the same. Satan is at work in every age not only formulating false systems but using them for the delusion and destruction of souls. In this respect the whole world is under the control of the evil one (1 John 5:19). In the meantime the absolute truths of the Bible are unchanged. The Gospel is unchanged. The Lord himself is the same yesterday today and forever. But how do we convey this? How can we best grapple with our fellow sinners and shine the searchlight of Gods Word upon them as metaphorically speaking they hide behind the trees of the garden?

What is postmodernism?
Postmodernism as a term first arose in architectural circles in the 1970s, but only came into popular usage after the publication of Jean Francois Lytards The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge in English in 1984 (French edition, 1979). He writes, Simplifying to the extreme, I define postmodern as incredulity towards metanarratives. He is referring particularly to the metanarrative offered by science, which has become so specialised and fragmented that it cannot possibly speak with a united voice. Because of the triumph of Capitalism and the emphasis on

efficiency, management is more important than truth; because of the influence of computerisation, performance is more important than value. The collapse of Communism has reinforced the postmodernists denial of metanarratives, because Marxism claimed to be a monolithic system which explained everything. The postmodernist denies that there can be such a thing as a metanarrative - a big story which can give an overarching explanation of the world as we know it. Instead each of us constructs his or her own narrative, or reality, usually depending on our own community of knowledge. We have been used to thinking in terms of two competing metanarratives: the Christian one, which consists of the revelation of God in the Scriptures, and the humanistic, rationalistic one of science, evolution and progress. The Christian metanarrative has been discounted by the world for a long time. But it is only in the last quarter of the 20th century that the humanistic, rationalistic one has been questioned radically by the postmodernists.1 The Jewish Holocaust, Solzenitsyns revelation of the horrors of the Stalinist regime and the Gulag Archipelago, genocide in Africa, Cambodia, Yugoslavia, the ecological crisis, global warming, the Aids epidemic, and the abuse of political and military power all bring deep-seated disillusionment. No belief system is to be trusted. Indeed one belief system seems as valid as the next. This attitude has encouraged total relativism and bred a fixed aversion to claims of absolute truth. Simply stated, the essence of postmodernism is that there are no fixed absolutes. It is important to remember that there are many variations in postmodern culture. When Francis Schaeffer wrote The God Who is There which has become a classic, he analysed what he called the post-Christian culture within the framework of Western Continental Europe. What he called post-Christianity we now understand as postmodernism. Gradually beginning in the 1960s and 1970s the Western world has moved philosophically from modernism to postmodernism. For about 200 years thinking has been shaped by the Enlightenment with its emphasis on human reason and its optimism about human ability and human achievement. In its arrogance the modernist view bypassed God and his revelation which led to the collapse of morality. Postmodernism is fiercely anti-law. It is fundamentally antinomian. Right and wrong is a matter of human opinion. My view is as good as yours or that of the next man. The result is the slide of Western society into the abyss of lawlessness. This is seen in family break-up, rising divorce rates and overcrowded prisons. Christian scholar, Thomas Oden, maintains that the modern age lasted 200 years, from the fall of the Bastille in 1789 to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.2 The French Revolution exemplifies the triumph of the Enlightenment. The pre-modern world with its feudalism and spiritual hierarchies was put to an end with the fall of the Bastille. The monarchy had imprisoned its political opponents. Their liberation heralded the exaltation of the Rights of Man. During the course of the Revolution the Goddess of Reason was installed in Notre Dame Cathedral. Christianity was then esteemed as a relic of the past. Human reason would take the place of God. Later mankind would see this idea climax on a massive scale in Marxist Communism and Stalinism. The enchantment of modernity is characterised by technological messianism, enlightenment idealism, quantifying empiricism, and smug fantasy of inevitable historical progress.3

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Every definition and every view of postmodernism will vary. My view of it runs in the following order, First, there is the language game called deconstruction. Second, there is moral relativism. There are no absolutes and no certainties. Hence, there are no absolute morals. Third, there is pluralism which is allied to relativism. Pluralism means there is a level playing field for all religions. Religion is a matter of personal choice. The one great heresy is to say that your religion is correct and all the others are wrong. Tolerance is the essence of postmodernism. No one religion is superior or to be deemed the final authority. Fourth, there is existentialism in which feelings rule. It is not doctrine or even empirical facts that count. It is what I feel that is right. In outlining these four features - deconstructionism, relativism, pluralism, and existentialism, - I will make an application for each, of what it means to follow Jesus. I will conclude with an update on television which is the medium of Postmodernism.

1.

Deconstruction of language

The writings of Roland Barthes (1915-1980), Michel Foucault (1926-1984), and Jacques Derrida (b 1930) have had a far-reaching influence. The thrust of their idea is that human language, whether spoken or written, does not refer to an objective world out there, but is instead a system of linguistic signs referring back to itself. If you read the gospels you may consider that the authors intended to describe events that really happened in the land of Israel in the first century. There you read of the Son of the living God who was arrested, died by crucifixion, rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. These literary critics regard all that as untenable. The original authors are no longer with us and you can give whatever meaning you like to these authors. There is no objective world beyond your own interpretation. Words only refer to other words. Meaning itself is endlessly deferred. According to Barthes, talk of an objective world is really an attempt by the bourgeois to maintain power by manipulation. For Derrida, a text has no point of reference outside itself. Fixed meanings are generated by a mobile army of metaphors. 4 Deconstructionism boldly argues that there is no escape from the hermeneutical circle, none whatsoever. As for words, not only is their meaning constrained by other words (structuralism), but words are viciously self-limiting. In the strongest form of deconstruction, not only is all meaning bound up irretrievably with the knower, rather than with the text, but words themselves never have a referent other than other words, and even then with an emphasis on irony and ambiguity - and plain meaning of the text subverts itself. Language cannot in the nature of the case refer to objective reality.5 Another way of stating the case is that anything that is written will convey meanings which the author did not intend and could not have intended, and in any case the author cannot adequately express in words what he or she means in the first place. This is disconcerting to say the least. If we are deprived of any meaningful form of communication because words cannot convey objective truth what are we do? Our faith is built on the Bible story line the metanarrative of the Word of God from creation to the fall, to the calling of Abraham, the forming of the nation of Israel, king David, the prophets and their promises written, the coming of Jesus, and the fulfilment of prophecy. The absurdity of the deconstruction idea is seen in the fact that the Bible has been translated into hundreds of languages. Far from not being understood the gospel message has been the means to
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transform multitudes of people to become practising Christians who live by the Bible. Linguistics is difficult and the labour expended by an army of highly trained translators of the Bible has been enormous. While language is complex the claims of unintelligibility by the desconstructionists described above is exaggerated nonsense. Douglas Groothuis responds to deconstruction by asserting, When postmodernists seek to disparage metanarratives, deconstruct truth into language games and render spirituality a mixture of subjective compelling elements, evangelicals must bring objective truth back to the table as the centrepiece of concern.6 Groothuis goes on to show that leading evangelicals have compromised and thus threatened our ability to hear God speak in Scripture. Groothuis 7 praises Carl F H Henry for his monumental six volume God, Revelation and Authority (1976-1983). Henry consistently upholds the absolute nature of propositional revelation. Groothuis shows how Alister McGrath is slipping away from this basic postulate. We must not be daunted by the resistance to propositional truth and the declaration in gospel preaching of objective realities. The apostle Paul met something similar in his visit to Athens. We must follow Pauls example. He began by pointing to the fact that the Athenians were idolatrous. He drew their attention to the altar with the inscription TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Paul then began to establish what we now refer to as the Bible story line. He began with creation and then moved to the fact that our creator is in sovereign control. In him we live and move and have our being. Within this framework Paul declared the need of personal repentance and the reality of the coming universal judgement.8 Preaching in a postmodern society requires that we preach the facts of the Bible story line with authority and clarity. The revival of the reformed faith is a tremendous boon because of its emphasis on the sovereignty of God in creation, in forming the canon of Scripture, in all of human history and in daily providence. God, in whom we live and move and have our being, is in sovereign control. Not a sparrow and not a hair of your head falls to the ground without his knowledge and control. Such preaching must throb with excitement. God acts. He takes the initiative. I love the example of Don Carson. Having been asked to preach a series of sermons among biblically illiterate postmoderns, his approach was to declare the God who intervenes in human affairs. He is the same God who created the world. He is the God who did not wipe out the rebels, the One who befriended Abraham, the God who writes his own agreements, who inscribes his own unchanging law. He is the God who gathered his people out of Egypt. Every preacher can select his own titles from the Bible story line. Of course this is biblical theology, the expression we use to refer to the progressive self-disclosure of the Triune God which reaches climax in the incarnation and which will be consummated in the new heaven and the new earth. The God of the supernatural acts with utterly unpredictable wisdom and surprise. This is wonderful to observe and strengthens our faith and our love for God. Take Moses, a shepherd well past retirement age, who is suddenly confronted by the Lord speaking to him out of a burning bush. Here we have the inception of the Bible as a written record, and at the other end, John the apostle, a frail old prisoner on the island of Patmos, also well past any kind of expectation. Suddenly the same Lord confronts him and commissions him with the writing of the book which concludes the canon of Scripture. In between there is the sudden intervention in the life of a young woman Mary who is told

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that she will be with child by the Holy Spirit and for company, her cousin Elizabeth will have a son even though she had long ago given up all hope of having children. Biblical theology is central to all the other theological disciplines. It is the pathway and foundation for them all. Biblical theology is not a sub-discipline. It is primary.

Moral relativism
Francis Schaeffer described an absolute as a concept which is not modifiable by factors such as culture, individual psychology or circumstances; but which is perfect and unchangeable. An absolute is the antithesis of relativism, and nihilism is a denial of all objective grounds for truth.9 Postmodernism is nihilistic. There is no ground for absolute truth. For Christians, the Bible is Gods Word without error. In that Word we have the absolute of Gods being, the absolute of Gods unchanging moral law, the Ten Commandments and the absolute of Christs second coming to Judgment. There are other absolute certainties. Christ dead, buried and risen is one. Another is the worth of Christs offering, By one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. It is imperative that we should preach the absolute of Gods law written on stone tablets and expound that law as it relates to every conscience. Pauls explanation of the place of the moral law in Romans is especially relevant. It was the tenth commandment that brought him to an end of his own righteousness (Rom 7:8-12). It can be argued that Paul lived in a framework of acceptance of the history of revelation. Postmoderns in no way live in that framework. It is here that Romans 2:15 is relevant. The requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them. The application of the moral law to the conscience is imperative. Specific commandments call for exposition and application to the conscience. An example is Hebrews 13:4 Marriage should be honoured by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral. The reality of the great coming final judgement should always be kept in mind. An outline which I use is based on Matthew 25:31-46 .

The final Judgment

1. The Certainty of it. This is seen in the fact that the Scripture promises it, Christ describes it, Gods law demands it, conscience confirms it, justice requires it. 2. The Manner of it. Christ will be the Judge. It will be a judgment of every nation. It will be a judgment of every individual. It will be a judgment according to works. 3. The finality of it. It will be a judgment with eternal implications of heaven or hell. In their faithfulness and effectiveness in preaching on the Great Judgment the English Puritans set us an example to follow.

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First the Puritans recognised how dominant a motif the last judgment is in the Christian gospel. It is not going too far to say that their recognition of this that enabled them to see why the gospel is necessary, and why it is such a glorious gospel to preach. This note needs to be recaptured in the preaching of the word in every generation, and certainly in our own. Second the Puritans used considerable imaginative power to express this truth in such a way that their hearers would feel it - not in the sense that they gave free reign to their imagination and exercised no biblical control over it. It is important to remember that powerful preaching on judgment was not for the Puritans a matter of mere personality, nor a matter of macho brashness. It is hard to imagine Sibbes and Watson, for example, as strident preachers. Rather these Puritans endeavoured in their preaching to plant the seed of this solemn word inside the minds, hearts and affections of their hearers so that they would unavoidably be confronted by its truth in terms they could grasp. Grace requires such preaching, or its own grace becomes incomprehensible. Third the Puritans did both of these things because they themselves had meditated long and hard on this solemn subject and themselves lived in the light of its enormity. Shallow thought and superficial meditation may be coupled with a certain eloquence to give the impression that we are preaching biblical truth. But biblical truth is preached biblically only when we ourselves have contemplated the judgment seat of Christ and known the fear of the Lord that drives us to persuade men. Then our preaching on the Last Judgment always has a tear trickling through it.10

Pluralism
The fact of pluralism is seen in the growing diversity of race, heritage, religion and value systems. In one British city road of a hundred metres there could be one Shinto, one Hindu, one Buddhist, one Muslim, one secular European and one Caribbean Evangelical Christian household. Opponents of evangelical Christianity rightly criticise the scandalous nature of the Crusades and Spanish Inquisition. They point to the intolerance that lay behind these disastrous events and suggest that religious intolerance is the prime cause of war. There is opposition too in our pluralistic society to racism, xenophobia and male chauvinism. We would heartily concur with this but refute the idea that all religions have the truth, an idea which cannot stand once we begin to look at religious creeds in detail.. Religious pluralism is the idea that there is right in all religions and the one thing you must not do is to say that your religion is right and all the others are wrong. Not far from where I live in the city of Leeds is the city of Bradford which is more Asiatic than European and among the Asian people the Muslims predominate. They are vigorous in the propagation of their Islamic faith. We are reminded by them that they have the authoritative word in the Koran and they are more up to date because Mahomet post-dates Jesus. Muslims assert a comprehensive world view. We must admit that many Christians are inarticulate when it comes to showing that Christianity is completely comprehensive in the way that it applies to every area of life. Postmodernism is ultimately a religion which believes that every person is entitled to a faith but nobody entitled to assert that their faith is superior to the others. This is daunting for the Christian who asserts that Christ is the Way the Truth and the Life and that he is the only way to the Father. The text that stands out in Scripture is Acts 4:12, Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
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We are assured that the Holy Spirit will witness to the truth he loves as we proclaim the uniqueness of Jesus, in spite of the opposition of pluralism. About 60 billion people have been born into the world. Every one of these is unique or different in personality. But Jesus is unique and different from all others in the following ways: 1. Jesus was predicted in detail by prophets 2. Jesus was born of a virgin 3. Jesus lived a sinless life 4. Jesus made unique I AM claims 5. Jesus supported these claims with miracles 6. Jesus made a sacrifice of himself that ended all sacrifices 7. Jesus sent the Holy Spirit 8. Jesus has kept his promise to build his church 9. Jesus is the creator of the world 10. Jesus is the judge of all mankind The Quran acknowledges the virgin birth, sinlessness, miracles and future return of Christ but not his atoning death on the Cross. In salvation Jesus is unique in providing an imputed righteousness which justifies the sinner. That is achieved by his past work. His work in the present is unique inasmuch as he ever lives to intercede for all those who come to the Father by him. His salvation is competed in his future work, the work of his omnipotence, when he calls us out of our graves. It is obvious that no other man can do that for all others are themselves subject to death and the grave.

Existensialism
Sister to postmodernism is existentialism. Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) is viewed as the father figure of existentialism. He was born and educated in Copenhagen and was the author of about twenty books. It was 75 years before Kierkegaards books became popular. His ideas prevailed since then and have become the mindset of Western society. Kierkegaard reacted against the nominal Christianity of Denmark. His great emphasis was on the individual authentic Christian. Essentially existensialism is a revolt against rationalism, with its stress on reason alone. Existensialism focuses on the inner experiences of will, emotions, beliefs, imagination and intention. Existensialism believes that there is no meaning in any one thing, or in everything put together. The world is absurd and pointless. To be human is to choose in the light of the absurdity of the world. Choice is the centre of human existence. Self conscious being is being which chooses. We are what we choose. We make ourselves by our choices. Choices have no rational basis or purpose, so it does not matter what we choose, one that we choose.11 Existentialism is concerned with the nature of being and existence. Authentic existence is resolute and makes choices. Existentialist thinking is intended to involve the whole person. The objective realm is absurd and void of any human significance. Existentialism focuses on the inner experiences

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of the will and emotions and is essentially subjective. The existentialist believes that there is no meaning in any one thing or in everything put together. The world is pointless and absurd. The intense subjectivity of existensialism can be illustrated by Kierkegaards description of tow men who pray. The one is in a Lutheran church and he entertains a true conception of God; but because he prays in a false spirit, he is in truth praying to an idol. The other man is praying in a heathen temple and is praying to idols; but since he is praying with an infinite passion, he is in truth praying to God. For truth lies in the inward How, not in the external What. Francis Schaeffer drew attention the leap of faith as taught by Kierkegaard. Since there is no objective reality upon which we can rely we must make a leap of faith and in this leap there is personal experience an experience which is valid because truth is truth as it relates to me. This leads to the drug culture. By using drugs a person hopes that he will experience reality something which will give his life meaning. In existentialism feelings are uppermost. It is not the Ten commandments that dictate what is right. If I feel a thing is right then it must be right. That is the essence of existensialism. The great majority today would not know who Soren Kierkegaard is but somehow his ideas have percolated through and now prevail. In existentialism feelings are what count. This forms a challenge with regard to worship services. We cannot and must not artificially create feelings and emotions to impress visitors who are feelings orientated. We can encourage worship which is expressive. We are not against feelings. Our feelings are expressed in the way we sing and in the substance of our singing. We must promote music which is Biblically faithful, God centred and God honouring; lively, full of quality, not offensive to conservative taste while at the same time not dull for young people whose tastes are generally geared to the world of pop and rock music.

Television the medium of Postmodernism

TV has achieved the status of a meta-medium - an institution that directs not only our knowledge of the world, but our knowledge of the ways of knowing as well.12 TV has become a radical monopoly. John Campbell describes TV as ubiquitous, (it is everywhere) capable of manipulating opinion, reinforcing pluralism and revamping reality in a short time. Appearance replaces reality, charisma replaces content and result (pragmatism) replaces integrity.13 The entertainment industry spreads postmodernist philosophy into every home through TV. TV is one of the wonders of the age of technology. If the apostle Paul returned today I would want to explain to him Concorde, an Alpha Romeo, a cell phone, Windows 98, and a TV. In the hands of the Reformed Christians TV could be used on a grand scale for benevolence according to the tenets of Philippians 4:8, Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things. However TV networks are under the dominion of those who promote postmodernist culture and in some instances are massively under the influence of the gay lobby. Technically the situation in the UK is fast becoming like the USA in which new fibre optic technology will allow hundreds of channels creating a more and more segmented audience. Many in the UK are still in the phase of
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having five channels three of them commercial and all five in which Christian moral standards have been abandoned. Violence, murder, obscenity, adultery, blasphemy, mockery of Christ and every form of sexual perversion is depicted without restraint. A sensible response to so much which is offensive and repugnant is to stick only to programmes which edify and then supplement these with videos (bought or recorded) of nature, travel, drama, orchestra, opera or sport. While in Burma where the media is controlled by the military regime I found only one channel of the three available that was of any interest to me. It was the sports channel with a lot of absurd contrived wrestling but mercifully the producers included a Cricket Test match between England and South Africa! One of the three channels seemed devoted entirely to self congratulatory government propaganda. The effect of several hours a day of indulgence in TV for a vast number of people calls for analysis. Reading a 300 page book demands sequential thinking, active mental engagement, and a sustained mental engagement, and a sustained attention span. Reading also encourages a particular sense of self - one reads in private, alone with oneself and with ones thoughts. Watching TV on the other hand presents information rapidly and with minimal effort on the part of the viewer, who becomes part of a communal mass mind. Visual images are presented, rapid fire, with little sense of coherence, consistency, and unity for its viewers.14 The power of TV over written material is that it comes in a moving image. It is image driven, image saturated and image controlled. When the image overwhelms and subjugates the written word the ability to think, write and communicate in linear fashion is undermined. Ideas are dislocated. TV images are poured out in the form of impressions, emotions and stimulations. Written propositions and statements are not like that. A written proposition is either true or false. Images in themselves do not have truth value. Muggeridge commented that when the Israelites worshipped the golden calf instead of waiting for the Word from Moses, they attempted to televise (or make visible) God. Biblically speaking, God commands that we not make graven images nor attempt to televise the invisible. In the beginning was the Word, not the image (John 1:1).15 The effect of a welter of images and impressions which lack moral and intellectual cohesion is to fragment the mind. This accords with the postmodern mentality which abandons a unified disciplined cosmos. A person bombarded incessantly is lowered into a world of unreality. Such a person lives with fleeting impressions. How is it possible for a thinking person to watch constant rounds of five minute slots of adverts? If we analyse what is going on we will be repulsed by advertising. I refuse to listen to adverts of any kind whether on radio or TV. As Christians we love the Lord our God with all our minds. Time is precious and must not be squandered. With books we can learn from great spiritual leaders and thinkers. Reading engages our minds. We are in control as we read. This is not the case when we are watching TV. When I read I can stop, meditate, reflect and underline. I am able to revise, reconsider and go over the ground again and again until I know that I have mastered a theme. When last did you stop in the middle of TV and meditate on some great truth presented? Moral and spiritual value is decayed by TV. Apart from the news, which is usually partial, most of what we see is not anchored in the real world but concerns unreality. The real world is not like Hollywood. The habit of reading is absolutely critical. Few believers read serious books. Ask them and you will soon discover this to be true. Through meditation on the Word of God assisted by exposition, the
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believer is built up in his faith and in his worldview. The Jews were intrigued with miracles. They wanted, as did Herod, to see a miracle. But Jesus said, If you hold to my teaching you are really my disciples (John 8:31). If TV takes over from reading the subsequent loss in spiritual terms is enormous. Postmodernism thrives on fragmentation, incoherence and meaninglessness as modes of being and acting since there is no God and no objective reality and no universal reality to provide unity to anything.16 The speed of the images makes careful evaluation almost impossible. The effect of thousands of impressions and rapidly changing images from the pseudo-world of discontinuity is an inevitable blurring of the mind. Habitual viewing tends to make people intellectually impatient and lazy. They are less able to think in a straight line and less able to sustain concentration. The great imperative in TV is incessant entertainment. Amusement trumps all other values and takes captive every topic. Every subject - whether war, religion, business, law or education - must be presented in a lively, amusing or stimulating manner.17 If it fails to entertain boredom results. The yawning watcher will turn to another channel if he is not entertained. He craves incessant entertainment. The TV mentality comes through in church when people call for entertainment rather than preaching, or at least they expect preaching to be entertaining, full of anecdotes, stories and images to which they have become accustomed through TV. They do not want preaching which demands concentration and challenges their minds. In postmodern culture people look for the feel good factor. Therefore if the preacher does not make them feel good he is regarded as a failure. John the Baptist, our Lord and his apostles confronted their hearers with reality, with sin, righteousness and judgment to come. In postmodernism absolutes have been stripped away. Whatever censorship that there used to be has been rusted away as the Judeo Christian moral law and basis of ethics is ignored. Sexuality is for the private intimacy of marriage according to Gods holy ordinance. TV producers promote sex scenes explicitly. Modesty is abandoned. The Scriptures teach that sexual love is sacred. That is why it is set about with exclusions and restrictions. But with TV there is no sense of shame. TV will portray everything irrespective of harmful effects on children. Millstones are multiplying. There is a price to pay. But those who have power over the media glory in their unrighteousness and mock those who protest. The Word of God promises that the punishment of eternal fire is not far away. Todays sexual revolution goes beyond extra-marital, pre-marital and multiple partner heterosexual activity. Anything goes including sadomasochism, bisexuality, homosexuality and pornography. According to the logic of the system paedophilia and bestiality cannot be far behind.18 Sadly restraint comes only after disaster strikes. For instance this year in the UK a little girl Sarah aged eight was murdered by a paedophile. This resulted in a national outcry. Vigilante groups were formed in many areas of England to locate and eject paedophiles. Sensitivity regarding sexual perversity is increased. With regard to TV, if you are addicted to it, the answer is to eradicate from your TV menu all trivia and all that is unhealthy and use that media only for the information you really need. The desire to read and the ability to read will suffer under the ruthless regime of TV. One way to deal with this problem is to go on a TV fast. Replace TV watching with truth-enhancing activities especially
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reading books which will cause you to grow in grace and in knowledge (2 Peter 3:18). Well chosen Christian biographies can have a powerful effect and redirect and inspire your Christian life.

A Christian Response to Postmodernism

As I write this a new year is beginning for university students. Here in Leeds special efforts are being made by the Christian Union to reach new students. The general response is strong bias against and antipathy to the Christian faith. For those open enough to talk there is affirmation that they do not believe in the institution of the church. Postmodern thinking is prevalent. How do we break through and explain that there is absolute truth, verified by the Bible and authenticated there? The field is wide open in every sphere of culture for Christians to present their case. In the art world this was achieved by Georges Rouault (1871-1958), regarded by some as the greatest religious artist since Rembrandt.19 In films the field is wide open. I would like to see a film with the title CONTACT 2 about contact with another world light years away but instead of aliens the adventurers meet angels among whom is one, Gabriel, who tells them that on earth there have been a series of coded messages and central to these coded messages is a key person who is the messiah. The adventurers learn from the angels that these coded messages have a relationship to each other and possess a unity. They have in fact been collected and collated in a book called the Bible. Eventually the adventurers find their way back into our world and on arrival soon set off to find this book. They hear of a huge Christian gathering in Toronto where an experience called a blessing is being promoted. With great anticipation they visit this meeting. When they can find somebody to talk to, they discover that these people know about the Bible but there does not seem to be a copy anywhere on the premises! The group know that the angels were not lying. They persevere and hear of a church which they visit and for the first time they lay their hands on this precious book called the Bible. To add to their joy they discover a Reformed pastor who is able to explain the Bible story line to them. Best of all they are able to learn about and believe in the Messiah who is the key to everything. As noted above with regard to TV hedonism runs wild. Christians need to work at the following values. 1. Maintain a strong devotional life. Casualties and moral breakdowns in the ministry have reached epidemic proportions. One pastor left the ministry in such a state of mind that he even left his library behind when he left the church. If you are strong in the ministry you will love your books. However it is easier to neglect prayer than it is to neglect study. Time for daily prayer and meditation is vital. 2. Be vigilant in your marriage and family life. Happy families stand out like lighthouses in a society that is adrift in which there is so much wreckage. The NIV translates Philippians 2:15 as follows, So that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life. 3. Minister to the heart needs of your friends. The cry for faithfulness in an unfaithful world is illustrated by the late Victorian poet Matthew Arnold in a poem written on his honeymoon in Dover: The sea is calm tonight
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The tide is full, the moon lies fair Upon the straits; - on the French coast the light Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand, Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay. Come to the window, sweet is the night air... There are several verses in this gripping style. Arnold concludes: Ah, love, let us be true To one another! For the world, which seems to lie before us like a land of dreams, So various, so beautiful, so new, Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain; And we are here as on a darkling plain Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, Where ignorant armies clash by night. Here so poignantly expressed is the longing of every human heart, a longing to love and to be loved and to experience faithfulness in love: Ah, love, let us be true to one another God Triune is pure and perfect love, and he is the author of this love. This love is found in the community of the faithful which is why there is so great a stress in Scripture on the paramount importance of love for each other. Christianity encapsulates the values described in Arnolds poem spiritual joy, certainty, help for pain. Arnold anticipated the demise of modernism. In his poem he reflects the end of the optimism which was soon to be swept away in two devastating world wars. We hold to a well-grounded optimism based on promises that cannot fail. The One to whom we are united by faith will reign until all his enemies are made a footstool for his feet (Ps 110:1). He is more than sufficient for the peculiar challenges of postmodernism. Christ promised that he would build his Church and that the gates of hell would not prevail against his purpose to do that. To belong to him and be clothed with his righteousness is the only way we will survive the coming final judgement and the eternal sentence that is given to every person at that time.
1

Dr Donald M MacDonald. The Monthly Record of the Free Church of Scotland. September 2000.
2

Thomas C Oden, Two Worlds: Notes on the Death of Modernity in America and Russia, IVP, 1992, p. 32
3 4

David S Dockery, The Challenge of Postmodernism , A Bridgepoint book, 1995, p. 24

Donald A Carson. The Gagging of God. Apollos IVP, 1996. p 73 ff. cf Bob Letham, Reformation Today , 162, page 7ff
5 6

Ibid, Carson, p. 72

Douglas Groothuis, Truth Decay, Defending Christianity against the Challenges of Postmodernism , IVP, 2000, 115.

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Carl F H Henry, Revelation and Authority (1976-1983). The key sections are Vol 3, The Bible as Propositional Revelation, page 455 ff, and the whole of volume 4 (674 pages). There is a supplementary note (vol 4 pp 196-200) on Karl Barth and in particular Barths expression the vulnerability of the Bible and his concession that error is not limited to historical details but includes religious and theological teaching.
8

Don Carson, ibid, Carson develops this theme in the chapter, On heralding the Gospel in a pluralistic society, page 491ff
9

Francis Schaeffer, The God who is There, Hodder , 1968, p. 177

10

Sinclair Ferguson, The Last Judgment in Puritan Preaching, in the Westminster Conference Papers for 1999.
11 12

New Dictionary of Theology, IVP, 1988, p. 244

Neil Postman, Amusing ourselves to Death, Penguin NY, 1985 pp 78-79, quoted by Groothuis, p. 282
13

John Campbell, Communicating the Gospel in a Postmodern World in Loving the God of Truth, IBC, 1996, p. 157
14 15

Neil Postman, Teaching as a Conserving Activity, Delacotte Press, NY, 1979, pp. 47-70

Douglas Groothuis, ibid, p. 286. The quotation from Muggeridge is from his Christ and the Media, Eerdmans, 1977, p. 59
16 17 18 19

Ibid, p. 289 Ibid, p. 291 Peter Jones, Spirit Wars, Winepress, Mukilteo, WA 98275, 1997, p. 21

Gene Edward Veith, Jr. State of the Arts, From Bezalel to Mapplethorpe, Crossway, 1991, p. 166ff

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