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I have a book recommendation for you. If you're of course after you hear this talk today, you probably don't want to hear about this again, but you're going to be confronted with it for the rest of your life because it's the dominant ideology out there right now. This is a book, Postmodern Times.

It's by Gene Edward Veith. It's a little bit dated, but it's still excellent treatment of the whole topic of postmodernism from a Christian perspective. And he really does a good job. And so anyway, that's a good book recommendation for you. Now, let's see. Matt, can you be my mic person this time?

But just go ahead, stay out there and read that for me again. Definition from the Britannica Encyclopedia Britannica. Postmodernism, also spelled postmodernism. In Western philosophy, a late 20th century movement characterized by broad skepticism, subjectivism, or relativism, a general suspicion of reason, and an acute sensitivity to the role of ideology in asserting and maintaining political and economic power.

Okay, y'all got that? All right. Well, you can review it at your own leisure. Let's see. Now, if you don't think you're affected by postmodernism, just turn on the TV. You're affected every day you turn on the TV. It's all over the place. And it can be everything from something sort of, I guess you could say, innocent.

You know, there's a fascination with Femme Noor, there's fascination with almost, you know, like the Dick Tracy cartoons and stuff like that on one hand. But then there's also this. Who's Dick Tracy? Well, if you don't know, I'm not going to go through that. But anyway, you got postmodern art.

This is Jackson Pollock, who is a multi-millionaire, you know, splattering paint against the wall. And, of course, this is a famous painting by him. Then, of course, you have some that's kind of making fun of things. You know, those are the famous cave-dwelling paintings there. And he's caught graffiti.

He's washed it off the wall. Okay. And then, of course, I won't change. This guy did both these names, Bansky. I believe he's a graffiti artist in England. But it's kind of typical of postmodern type art. In terms of architecture, it's just all over the place in architecture.

You'll notice they'll take here. You got giant swans and these big planters, and you know, they have all these different colors. How about that? I'd like that. I'd like to be in an office building like that. You know, chaotic sorts of things they just love. They also love taking, in some ways, at least the architecture is more interesting than some of the modern architecture, you know, which is kind of sterile.

But here they'll take old. Classical themes, and then they'll just mash it with modern themes. But this is just a facade, it's surface, which is another thing that's very postmodern. And then, of course, this is a hospital. I don't know if I want to go there. All right, but you know, it shows this facade that everything's collapsing and falling apart, you know.

You know, they just, I wonder how much money that costs to put all that there, you know. And now, this isn't real, this is, but this is kind of, I think, is emblematic of postmodernist view of the church. Okay, all right, and on the other hand, that is real.

You know, you've got this old-style church, and they've got this big glass postmodern addition to the church. You know, that's all types of postmodern architecture. Now, let's go ahead and read this yet again. Who wants to take it for me? Matt, find me somebody. Volunteer, raise your hands or draft somebody.

This is Romans 1:18 through 22. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world and the things that have been made.

So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him. As God or give him thanks. But they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools. Okay. I really highlighted in yellow who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

Remember, a lot of these worldviews that the problem is not that there's not plenty of truth for them to see. They see it, but then they suppress it. Okay. And then the other part that I think is really applicable to postmodernism, claiming to be wise, they become fools.

Maybe something you notice on the news a while back where you had these scholars submit scholarly articles to some of these prominent gender studies journals and particularly sociology, and they were absurd. They were purposely absurd. One example, well, one I can't even say because it's the language contained therein, but in one, they took a section of Mein Kampf.

You know, who wrote Mein Kampf? Hitler. And they just took out the race words and put in feminism. And they submitted it. And it was published in a major journal. Okay? Now, this is mind-boggling. Now, what would you say? Claiming. To be wise, and remember, this is peer-reviewed journal, academic journal.

And if this sort of stuff is getting through academic journals, what has happened to academia? It is just, and remember, give my little pedestal here. Remember who founded the universities? The church did. And what has happened? The church has abandoned the universities. Yes, we need missionaries. Yes, we need preachers, but we need Christian professors to take it back.

So don't discourage your child if they want to go into academia. But they need to, of course, surrender that intellectualism to Christ, bring all arguments into submission to Christ. Okay, so anyway, let's go on. We've already did that guy. This is, I think, a verse that's very important in dealing with postmodernists.

I'm going to show you a little problem with it, though. I'll just read this myself. A soft answer, this is from Proverbs 5, 15, 1 through 4. Soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. The tongue of the wise commends knowledge, but the mouths of fools pour out folly.

The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good. A gentle tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness. In it breaks the spirit. So, got to remember these people are lost. It's real easy to get angry at them and to want to use harsh language and return to some of the stuff they do and say, but just keep this in the back of your head.

On the other hand, here's the problem: it's kind of hard to talk softly to someone when they have a baseball bat and they're trying to bash your brains out. And y'all have seen Antifa guys on TV, they're dressed in black and they have black masks, and they're literally physically assaulting people, and they're destroying property.

Well, here's some that were arrested, and they were unmasked. Now, just looking at the faces of these people, what would you say? These are lost people, they are lost, okay. And so, once again, prayer, you know, because whatever you say is only the spirit of Christ that can get through these folks, you know, you of yourself cannot, but you can be a tool, you know.

And I doubt any of us know an Antifa person, but you never know. They can be next door. You know, they hang out on their computers and they talk just to each other. They're in this bubble and they just feast on this hatred, and it just multiplies, multiplies, and they show up, you know, at these different locales to foment, you know, chaos.

All right, but. But anyway, now, if you don't think this affects you, here's a good example. This is just in the area of politics. And, you know, if you're going to have a key document that is American, it's the Declaration of Independence. Remember, we are multiracial, multi-ethnic. We, as a nation, is not made up of one particular racial group.

We, you know, e pluribus unum, you know, I mean, we are one of the most racially diverse, ethnically diverse nations on the face of the planet. And so, ideas are what holds together. I think one of the key, most basic ideas in America is the Declaration of Independence, right?

We hold these truths self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Right? Okay. Well, how would postmodern deconstructionists view our Declaration of Independence? Well, here's one way. The text, you notice, speaks of equality, but the language excludes women.

Right? Speaks of liberty, but the Author, Thomas Jefferson, was a slaveholder. Therefore, the surface meaning of equality and freedom is contradicted by the subtext, which denies equality and freedom to women and minorities. The passage, therefore, enshrines the rights of the wealthy white males who signed the document, grounding their privileged status in God Himself.

The declaration can therefore be considered as just another power grab, implying the opposite of its surface meaning. All right, now here we got a very basic document that we, I almost, you know, the origins of this. Go back to Galatians, right? What does Scripture say? There's neither male nor female, Jew nor Greek.

What does that imply, Jew nor Greek? In other words, according to the Christian text, there is no separation. All right? What happens in marriage? The two become one flesh. All right? Now, women, ladies, what's the last three letters of women? Part of this is totally based on ignorance.

Ignorance, all right. Mankind. Is mankind just men? All right. Did you realize that originally men could be all-inclusive? Yes, just like mankind. So I don't know where we let them get away way back there of saying that if you use the term men, it can only be male.

All right? But somewhere along the line, we let that get biased. And everything about postmodernism is about division. They want to divide us against each other. Well, it seems to me that equality is not about equality. It's about, well, you've been in charge so long, now it's my turn.

Oh, yeah, yeah. So that's how comes the money. Right. Well, but the idea, though, they want to separate, they want to find or imagine an oppressed group. And then, you know, and we need to be angry about it, and we need to be upset about it. And it's just, all right.

I mean, I don't even know where to begin. First place, yeah, it is true that we did not originally live up to the precepts of Declaration of Independence, but we get there, do we not? You know, I mean, and the idea itself was a very high idea. But they'll take something like this that is almost sacred and they will stomp it and just try to destroy it.

And therefore, it's very, very negative, is very, very corrosive. Okay? So, let's get into it. Postmodernism, and we get to the chart there, you know, you got ultimate meaning. It embraces meaninglessness and chaos. I mean, embraces it. They see it as positive. It seeks to deconstruct, to tear down.

Ultimately, there is no real meaning to postmoderns. It accepts fragmentation, affirms continuity, and disorder. What happens at death? Believe whatever meta fiction you choose to believe. All those other worldviews, they're metafictions. Now, notice the terminology there: sleight of hand. All right, meta fiction. In other words, everything's false, including, you know, now the funny thing about this is the origins of this, you trace it back, much of it comes out from naturalism, but then it turns around and it starts eating away at its very foundational forces.

They attack the naturalists as well. You see, in fact, some Christians used to a number of years back when this first starts becomes coherent and they can kind of see what's happening. They're kind of getting tickled at the fact. That these guys are going after, you know, even science and naturalists and all that kind of stuff.

I will say there are certain parts of this that you can use, you know, such as how about let's deconstruct Darwin. How about deconstructing evolution? You can actually get some gas out of that. But, of course, what they are saying here is: if you want to believe in Christianity, fine and good, but that's a metafiction, you see.

And they just say that. All right. So, what is humanity? Well, we are incarcerated in a prison of language. Okay? We are incarcerated in a prison of language. All social relationships are masks for power. All right? There ultimately is no truth. It's all about power. Is that true?

Uh-huh. Is that true? Of course not. All right. Individuality must be disconstructed. And by the way, this is something that's kind of strange. On one hand, you know, we talk about the me generation. Well, in postmodernism, they want to break down the individual and everything's on the group.

I've noticed in practicality, they don't really act that way individually. But, you know, but there is this tendency, you get on this bandwagon. This particular group that's being oppressed, and you're championing this particular group, and you know, but you get power from doing that, you know. And for example, have you ever noticed that a lot of the people that get most worked up about quote-unquote gay rights are people who themselves are not gay?

All right, have you noticed? I've noticed that. But because they're jumping on that, that makes them see, oddly enough, in their view, that makes them morally superior to you and I, because they're defending that, you see. All right, and so anyway, so you got you know, you got to condemn oppression, and they're always looking for oppression.

Now, how can we know truth? Since there is no universal consensus, all right, you know, you got all these thousands of ideals and views out there, and they say they're all meta fictions. All truth claims are constructed. You know, this pulls from, remember, existentialism, you have to, you know, construct your own truths.

Well, they pull a little bit of that from there. And in other words, they're made up. Ultimately, there is no real truth, according to these guys, and all truth claims are suspect. Now, remember, these are the guys that are running our universities. The whole purpose of university is what?

Scott, what would you say? You're a professor. Training in the truth. But if you have a whole bunch of people, professors, that no longer believe that there is any truth, what the heck are they teaching you? All right? And then a lot of these and by the way, education departments, Hannah, how pervasive is postmodern?

Well, would you say? You're in education right now. It's pretty strong, yeah. Okay. Is it any surprise that some of our teachers seem confused as to what to teach our kids? You know, when they have professors, they're pushing this sort of thing. So, you know, ultimately, they claim there is no real truth.

Then, and you get some interesting phrases from some of the intellectuals behind this. Richard Rory was a famous philosopher. Of course, he's an atheist. And he says this: Truth is what one's peers let you get away with. All right? Postmodern ethics inevitably sides in the direction of nihilism, which we have not gone, you know, we've covered very briefly, holding that since nothing is really true, nothing is necessarily good.

All stories are equally valid, they say, but in practice, they don't really mean that. Okay, focus changes from being to knowing. Paradoxically, reality is forever hidden. Any story but my own is oppressive. Social good, whatever society takes it to be at the moment. Now, by the way, that's why there's constant changing.

What's the you know, the trendy, this is the big thing now, and all that, you know. So that's ever-changing. The postmodernist stares blankly at any claims to truth and shrugs, okay, if it works for you. Unless, of course, it's something that they're against. There are many kinds of eyes.

This is a quote from Nietzsche. Even the Sphinx has eyes, and consequently, there are many kinds of truths. Consequently, there is no truth. And, of course, a lot of the postmodernists pull quite a bit for Nietzsche. Instead of the truth shall make you free, postmodernism claims that freedom shall make you true, whatever freedom is for them.

Now, if you want to know two of the big guys in postmodernism, one would be this guy here, Paul Michael Foucault. He's French, and it's really funny because they're so against privilege, but he's born. In a very wealthy French family. His father was a very successful surgeon. He was pampered quite a bit.

But anyway, Foucault, and they're real heavy on verbiage. This is actually pretty light compared to some of the stuff they'll write. Some of it's almost indecipherable. But truth is to be understood as a system of ordered procedures for the production, regulation, distribution, circulation, and operation of statements. Truth is linked in a circular relation with systems of power which produce and sustain it and to effects of power which it induces and which extend it, a regimen of truth.

Okay? All right. And that's, like I say, that's actually more understandable than some of the other verbiage you'll run into. By the way, you know, I think it's important that you know how people end. This guy, he taught all over Europe. He is usually getting in trouble. He starts out as an atheist, Marxist, joins the Communist Party, then falls out with the Communist Party.

He is involved in protests at universities quite a bit, becomes very beloved in American universities. Winds up in San Francisco, and of course, there supposedly to teach, but the real reason I think is because sexually he was homosexual, really into sadomasochism, which I don't want to explain, and got AIDS and died there.

Okay, that's Foucault. And the other guy is Jacques Derrida. Jacques Derrida, of course, was in Algeria, and he was a Sephardic Jew in terms of his background. Sephardic Jews originally were Jews that are kicked out of Spain, going back to Ferdinand and Isabella, and they scattered across Europe and North Africa.

Today, that can mean just a Middle Eastern Jew, but he rejected his Judaism, and he, of course, becomes an atheist. He, too, flirted with communism. And he married, had kids, but he also had these numerous affairs. He, of course, is considered to be the father of deconstructionism. You know, that little example I started off with deconstructing the Declaration of Independence, you know, he's the one that started that type of, you know, deconstruction of text.

And this is a pretty famous quote by him: and try your best to make peace with the fact that you'll never figure out the text. In other words, if you're interpreting a passage, whatever it is, you never figure out the text's final and Definitive truth because it doesn't exist.

Okay. Pat? Yes, sir. If they're saying that there is no truth, then whatever they say likewise is not true. Exactly. It's a self-refuting ideology. Yeah. Now he'll say that what he just said here is true, though. Right. Yeah. Can't that be that's the question? It doesn't exist. Well, can't you say, well, is that true?

You can, yeah, I mean, everything's valid with this. What I'm saying is it is corrosive, it is destructive, and it's self-refuting. I mean, and we see this now in society. We're now having pregnant men. Okay? All right. And we got these very, shall we say, progressive mothers who are putting their daughters in athletic programs, and they're getting very upset because their daughters can no longer win trophies because a transgendered young girl is winning the trophies, which of course is a young boy saying he's a young girl.

And so this stuff is coming around and biting them. And it's causing major conflict there in the society. Yes, sir. One of my favorite people listening to on this stuff is Emilio Ramos. When he talks to students on campus, he just shreds this stuff. makes them he exposes all these self-contradictions very quickly and usually it just resorts to well I'm right because I think I'm right and that's all ultimately what it comes down to yeah it is an incredible degree of ignorance and and intellectual laziness I think to fall into some of this stuff yes sir I saw some ad the other day on and it was the German soccer club women's soccer and they were yay they won all these eight titles and they're so great and they're going on and on you're like yay women they've overcome so much and then they're like our life is so much better than women who stay at home we just and I'm like what holds up now and then I gotta put me down like you women good for you you've overcome a lot they have but now you've gotta put down other women like you eat your own that doesn't make any sense oh yeah well it doesn't make any sense it's something that you'll run into again and again and again dealing with post-modernism okay but let's guys I I didn't get through last time we gotta get through this time all right so it is not about truth it's all about power therefore use relativistic constructs to empower the oppressed all right that's that's how they decide what's ethically good or bad all right and since ultimately there is no real truth okay and there are no real good or bad so I mean this is just incredible reasoning here or non-reasoning now meaning of history history is no more than language games Of the oppressors.

However, it can be rewritten according to the needs of the oppressed. I mean, we're back to the ancient Egyptians again. You know what the ancient Egyptians did? If there's something that happened that was embarrassing to the Egyptian society, that never happened. Or they'll rewrite it and say something else happened.

Just falsify, make up stuff. And particularly, it's going to help a particular group or so. And so now, the reason you need to be aware of this stuff is they're doing this, and we're playing by the normal rules of the game that, hey, there is truth and blah, blah, blah.

And they're going circles around us because we're playing by the rules. They do not play by the rules. And you need to say, hey, wait, stop. You're violating basic rules of reasoning here, and this is ridiculous. And you call them out on it. But by the way, you call them out on it.

Don't be surprised at this. Some of y'all may have seen, well, you know, those people that did the articles I mentioned earlier where they made up bogus academic articles, journal articles, just absurd stuff, and it got printed. Guess who got in the most trouble over that? The professors that were on the reviewing committees that let this stuff pass them?

Did they get in any trouble at all? No. The people who did the articles, they were accused of being dishonest. And they are being blackballed in academia. The people who expose the dishonesty are the ones who are the most condemned. And that's typical response of these people. When they're caught, even when they're caught, they'll try to twist it and turn it around on you.

And so, anyway, let's someone read scripture, please. Now we have received not the Spirit of the Word. I don't think that's on. Is it on? Turn around and see the buttons on. Now we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.

And we impart this in the words, not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

1 Corinthians 2:12 through 14. I know we've done these scriptures before, but again and again, these are scriptures we really need to keep them in the backs of our minds as we deal with folks that are entangled in this web of postmodernism. And this is once again where prayer comes in.

And quite frankly, a lot of these folks, I think they're empty. They're incredibly lonely. They don't know the truth. They've never experienced the truth. And a lot of times, you know, perhaps befriending them, getting to know them, and, you know, just observing your life is going to be a radical.

radical difference to them. Remember, we got so many folks out there that come from broken homes. They come from broken families. Part of this, too, is, I would say, the debris of postmodernism. And, you know, share the word constantly, but live the word as well. I think that can have a huge impact upon folks there.

Now, let's just regroup here. In Hinduism, truth is elusive. Postmodernism, there is no truth. Of course, Islam is a big thing now, and always has been, really, since its beginnings. He says, I am a prophet of the truth. Buddha, I am searching for the truth. And then with Christianity, I am the truth.

I am the way, the truth, and the life. Of course, no man comes into the Father except by me. All right, Christian theism, and I'm going to run just this to reorient ourselves, right? Philippians 1, 21. Somebody read it for me, please. Philippians 1:21, for me to live as Christ and to die as gain, Apostle Paul speaking.

To discover and fulfill God's purposes for one's individual life. That's not the scripture there, but that's okay. All right. You go ahead and read that for me. You're doing such a good job. To discover and fulfill God's purposes for one's individual life while on planet Earth and to share the gospel message while on the planet Earth.

All right. Now, you could add a lot more in terms of ultimate meaning, okay? You just put that whole Bible on the weight and the scales, and that'll begin. They'll only begin it. Remember, the Bible is a revelation of God by the Holy Spirit, but even the Bible is not all the truth.

We can't contain it. Even with the pages of the Bible, there's even so much more. And one day we shall know that as we enter into the presence of the Lord. But ultimate meaning, for me to live as Christ and to die is gain, I think pretty much sums it up.

What is humanity? As Christians, we understand we're created in God's image. Thus, we possess personality, self-transience, intelligence, morality. And this means we have intrinsic value that is bestowed upon us by a Creator. And I just don't think. I can hammer this so much in terms of society and politics.

You got to understand, as Christians, we understand that what we have of value is bestowed upon us by God. Now, politically, when you start talking about rights, our founding fathers took this to mean that our rights also are bestowed. You know, we hold these truths, self-evident, that all men are created.

The create part is real important there. Now, I want you to ask yourself: replace that, we hold these truths, self-evident, that all men are created, with, we hold these true, self-evident, that all men are re-evolved. Does that really work? Okay? And yet, we're as much of academia, we're as much of our judges now.

All right? Do you understand? They fundamentally do no longer. You see, these guys, we're as postmodern, we're as naturalists, they think that our rights are bestowed upon us by society. Right? Now, what's the problem with that? Society gives, society can take away. Yeah, society gives, society can take away.

And that's the reason, you know, you have so many people think abortion is okay. You know, if it's just a blob of protoplasm, what's wrong with doing away with that? Right? And so it's very, very important to understand that we are created in God's image, and therefore each of us have intrinsic value, and this value is bestowed by God, not by society, and no one has the right to take it away.

It's kind of interesting to me how some in the you know the pro-abortion movement they want to say, well, you know, Roe v. Wade, that's the law of the land. The Supreme Court has ordained it. But you know what else the Supreme Court ordained? Plessy v. Ferguson. You all know about that one?

It's okay to separate the races. But how about, let's go back a little bit further, Dred Scott? Dred Scott said, a black person is equal to a horse. That's the Supreme Court, too. What did the abolitionists at the time say to that? The Supreme Court can say that, but that violates God's law.

Right? And I see the issue on abortion exactly the same. You know, it is God's laws being violated there. Yes, sir. I found it very interesting. When you said earlier, you talked about how the person who uncovers the truth is usually the one who's held like criminally. It's very interesting with the whole situation where those journalists who uncover the undercover isn't viewed at a Planned Parenthood and their orbit.

Trade and all the terrible things they're doing. The courts are holding the journalists, the real crime. They even try to put them in prison. Yeah, exactly. And you can go with that. What's happening there is over and over and over again. A lot of our journalists are postmodern.

Very much so. Yeah, very, very postmodern. So, what happens in death? Either eternal presence with God, Jesus, heaven, eternal separation from God, Jesus, hell. And holds that while the body may die, the soul spirit is eternal, cannot be destroyed. And of course, we believe the body will be resurrected.

And death means, by the way, this is one thing that irritates me a little bit in Christian circles. We sometimes talk about death as if that's the end in terms of, you know, the secular worldly view of death is death is finished, it's over. In any biblical discussion of death, death does not mean extinguishing of life, it means separating.

The body is separated from the soul, but it's only temporary. So for a Christian, death, you know, is just a separation. It is not extinction. But sometimes we need to be careful how we talk about that, I think. And so, you know, oh, death, where is thy sting, right?

Okay. And so, how can we know truth? All right, John 14:6, Jesus answered, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Now, remember how we started off this whole series saying that all worldviews are exclusive? All right, and yet this offends so many people right here.

You know, truth by definition is exclusive. And of course, the postmodern, they totally reject this, but this is the truth, okay? And ultimate truth to a Christian is not just a concept, is the person of Jesus Christ. Right? And I want you all to think about that. It's not just a concept.

Ultimate truth for a Christian is number one answer in vacation Bible school Jesus. All right, now I don't mean to be trite about that, but you know, it's really true. And so, those of you who are teaching vacation Bible school or teaching little children, it is so valuable what you're doing.

Okay, he communicates both in spoken and general revelation, Bible, prayer, church, body, circumstances. We all know that. Those latter parts you need to be a little careful, needless to say, but the Scripture, that is what we, particularly as Protestants, that's, you know, you can take that to the bank, so to speak, right?

The Bible. Okay, and ethics based on the character of God, setting the standard of what is good. God sets absolute standards of morality. Bible is revealed, Word of God becomes basis for ethical rules and behavior. Example, Ten Commandments. And He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.

All right, that's we just do not realize how much history is affected by Christianity and Judaism. Therefore, Christians and Jews and even Muslims, you know, all theists, see, we think in a linear fashion. There was a beginning, and we're heading towards Armageddon, we're heading towards new heaven, new earth, right?

And so, all events are meaningful sequence of events leading to the fulfillment of God's purposes. And in fact, I would say in Christianity, the Christian view of history is there are no accidents. There are no accidents. God has His plan, and He is working through history to bring about His plan of redemption.

And that's something to rejoice about and be happy about. Okay, and so let's end with this: John 1:1 through 5. Brother Russell, you got a mic? I do now. Is this one? Okay, John 1:1 through 5 in verse 14. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Now, you know, I personally find it very ironic that postmodernists say that we are imprisoned by language. Okay. I would argue that we are liberated by language. We are liberated by the Word of God, who spoke everything we see about us into existence. And we need to liberate them by sharing this precious gospel, this light, because they are deeply, deeply in darkness.

Okay. So. With that, we got our test. Pull your test out. I think we got barely enough time to cover it. Number one, in this worldview, and this is group answering. In this worldview, God created the universe, but once created, he does not involve himself in the workings of his creation.

He is not a personal God, nor is he a God of revealed religions. Deism. Oh boy, y'all are doing great. In this worldview, history is cylindrical. Huh? Goes in cycles. Which one? Eastern pantheism. In this worldview, history is no more than language games. It can be rewritten according to the needs of the oppressed.

Boy, y'all got that now. Good. All right. In this worldview, the world is absurd, but one can create for oneself meaning through self-authenticating experiences. Existentialism. In this worldview, ethics are based on the character of a good God, and therefore there are absolute standards for morality. Christian theism. You know, they did some several surveys of college students who identify themselves as evangelical Christians, and an amazing amount of them said they didn't believe in absolute truth.

You know, that's the reason I argue we need to keep our Sunday schools. You know, and home groups are great, but we also need to do some basic teaching of Scripture, all right? Okay. And it was ex goals of this worldview include recognizing oneness with the universe and to pass beyond good and evil by realizing that all is illusion in the material world.

Eastern pantheism. This worldview holds there is no God and man is only a complex biological machine who came about by evolution. This worldview argues that there are no moral ethics and morality is neither necessary nor possible. Nihilism. Basically, in this worldview, the individual gets to decide for themselves what is right or wrong in a relativistic or situational basis.

In this worldview, it is believed that one can create laws and morality by observing the laws of nature. Actually, that's deism. Yeah, yeah. But I can see why you would say naturalism. There are some similarities there. In fact, it took deism, I think, to open the way towards naturalism.

Remember, though, the deist claims that they're looking at behavior in the natural world, and that's where we get morality. Okay. All right. In this worldview, it is permissible to use the occult. We didn't really cover this one in here. Psychedelic experiences, drugs, et cetera, to reach cosmic consciousness.

Yeah, y'all got it anyway. In this worldview, reincarnation has been westernized so that one comes back almost always in human form. New age. You know, in pantheism, pure pantheism, you come back, they say the lowest thing you can come back as is a rock. But you might be a bug.

You know, you really have some bad karma. You come back as a roach, right? All right. But you notice in New Age, oh no, I was an Indian princess. I see New Age in some ways a sort of westernization of pantheism. We don't want to come back as roach, but we'll come back as that prince.

Dr. Parker, who teaches Worldviews, Southern Seminary, once said, it's always amazing how every time I run to these people that believe in reincarnation, they were in some previous life a lord of a manor or a king or a prince. He says, you never hear somebody coming back as a serf or a peasant.

Yes, sir. What the heck did they do to go down? He said he did run into one person up in Waco who came up to him and says, I've met you before. And Dr. Parker looked at him and says, I don't think. I think so. He says, yeah, yeah, yeah.

In all my previous lives, you were a Lord and I was a peasant serving you. He says, well, he says, that's the first time he had that. But anyway, okay. All right. While holding that man is simply evolved matter, this view holds that one's existence is meaningless and to search for meaning is itself absurd.

Well, you know, existentialism is to say you create your own meaning. Search for meaning absurd. See, that wouldn't be an existentialist. So that would be a nihilist. Okay. In this worldview, there is a high value placed on human life since it holds that humans are created in the image of God who has personality, self-transience, and intelligence and morality.

Y'all bear recognized that one. In this view, history is moving in a linear, meaningful sequence of events leading to the fulfillment of the purposes of God. Yeah, we just covered that, didn't we? According to this worldview, truth is what can be known through empiricism or the observation of the material universe through some sort of scientific process.

Naturalism. All truth claims are suspect. And since there is no universal consensus, all truth is constructive. Postmodernism. Boy, Lisa, you're getting that. In this worldview, God is the universe but has no personality. Oh, we're good. All right. I was only hearing the theism part. I say, well, okay.

In this world, it's pantheism. In this worldview, one can be reincarnated as an animal or an insect. In this worldview, truth is to believe whatever metafiction you choose to believe. In this worldview, abortion would probably be viewed as murder. By the way, what would it be viewed by the others?

All over the place, right? But they don't see it as taking human life. In this worldview, poverty might be seen as a result of bad karma from a previous life. In this worldview, the human problem is identified with sin or disobedience, which has caused a fallen world and separation from God.

In this worldview, the human problem is caused by desires for earthly, physical, or material things, and therefore one should reject physical desires. Eastern pantheism. In this worldview, we must seek to become overmen. Nihilism. Nietzsche, right? I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father except by me.

Yeah, everybody should get that, okay? Both Marxism and fascism is based on this worldview. Naturalism. History is a linear stream of events linked by cause and effect, but without purpose. Purpose. That can be naturalism. You could also argue existentialism there, too. The universe is all there is or ever has been or is ever going to be.

Naturalism, who recognizes the author of the quote? Okay, Carl Sagan. We are incarcerated in a prison of language. Do I need to go any further? All social relationships are masks for power. Individuality must be deconstructed. May the force be with you. The view of Tom Cruise. We didn't cover this.

He's Scientology, which is New Age. Okay, we seek to lose all sense of consciousness in order to become one with the uttermost. In this worldview, morality is often based on some sort of utilitarian justification. In this worldview, it's not about truth, it's all about power. Therefore, it is okay to use relativistic constructs to empower the oppressed.

All right.