How do we defend Christian truth in today's culture?

 I believe the title of this post is one of the most critical questions we can ask today. In a postmodern society the idea of absolute truth is rejected. The only absolute truth that is acceptable is that there is no absolute truth! Paul Gould addresses this problem in his excellent book Cultural Apologetics. He first defines the problem by writing

"Today, religious claims generally and Christian claims specifically are viewed as subjective claims. The truth claims of Christianity are not understood as claims pointing to an objective, mind-independent reality. Rather they are viewed as private, subjective beliefs held by a few faithful individuals. As subjective beliefs, these claims are viewed as irrelevant to the so-called public marketplace of ideas. Christianity is marginalized and ignored since the claims Christians make are treated as personal preference, not as something publicly testable, and not as claims that can compete for the mantle of 'public truth,'"

Tony Dungy is one of the kindest, gentlest Christian men you will ever meet. He has come under tremendous criticism because he dared tweet that he and his wife would be attending a Right-to-Life rally. To the postmodern individual this was unacceptable. They alone know the truth, and the only truth acceptable to the "woke" generation is that abortion should be available to all persons. 

The same things happens when one makes the claim that Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven. This is not acceptable in our pluralistic society that insists that all religions pray to the same God and that, if heaven even exists, that all persons will  go to "a better place" when they die. Anyone who studies world religions even briefly will note that all religions are not the same and that all gods are not the same. Jesus said He was the only way to God. This is a tough claim to make to today's culture, but it is one as Christians we must make. All roads may lead to Rome, but all religions do not lead to salvation.

We could address many other areas in which our modern culture has deviated from clear Christian teaching. The problem is that, while we may understand there is a problem, few churches are willing to address it. One reason we do not address the differences between Christian teaching and today's postmodern mindset may be fear of upsetting people. Another reason we do not is because we are not sure we know how to relate the Gospel to the various aspects of contemporary life.

I have found this book very helpful in that regard. Gould gives us direction that we as ministers can use to speak to the issues that divided the church and our culture. He writes, "The cultural apologist should help seekers overcome...barriers so that the seekers can genuinely consider the question of Jesus as an attractive possibility....What we cannot do, however, is to ignore them if we want others to see and understand Jesus as their only hope and greatest need."