Postmodernism is a form of intellectual pacifism that, at the end of the day, recommends backgammon while the barbarians are at the gate. It is the easy, cowardly way out that removes the pressure to engage alternative conceptual schemes, to be different, to risk ridicule, to take a stand outside the gate. But it is precisely as disciples of Christ, even more, as officers in His army, that the pacifist way out is simply not an option. However comforting it may be, postmodernism is the cure that kills the patient, the military strategy that concedes defeat before the first shot is fired, the ideology that undermines its own claims to allegiance. And it is an immoral, coward’s way out that is not worthy of a movement born out of the martyrs’ blood.

— J.P. Moreland, Truth, Contemporary Philosophy, and the Postmodern Turn, delivered at the 56^th annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society, November 18, 2004

This is the third post in a series on postmodernism and truth: in part one, I considered the nature of truth and the challenges postmodernism brings against it. Yesterday, in part two, I showed that postmodernism rejects objective reality in favor of comfortable, relativistic little “stories.”

Today, I highlight some of the moral and theological problems — fatal problems — that postmodernism cannot escape.

Postmodern Morality: An Oxymoron?

Think of some moral imperatives. The Ten Commandments immediately spring to mind. Any statement that includes language like “you should” or “you ought” appeals to morality. Another: “You ought to be tolerant.” These are moral statements.

And yet, such statements cannot be made by postmoderns — at least, not without contradicting themselves. Remember, postmodernism claims there is no objective reality — there is only “my story” that is “true for me.” On that view, what basis can one possibly have for saying “you ought to (fill in the blank)?” Thus, “postmodern morality” is out of bounds.

Knocking at Blasphemy’s Door

But worse, postmodernism’s rejection of reality brings it to blasphemy’s door. Christianity is inextricably invested in objective facts: Man is sinful. The wages of sin is death. God’s wrath awaits sinners. God paid the price for sin in the death of Jesus. Jesus rose from the dead. To treat those facts as plot devices in a personal little fiction is to desecrate the cross of Christ.

Without truth — without a crucified savior and an empty tomb — the Gospel has no power. It offers no forgiveness. It offers no hope. If I am willing to believe in the Gospel whether or not it is based in reality, then I am, to put it mildly, insulting God. To say it doesn’t matter whether it really happened or not is to make a mockery of it by saying it wasn’t really necessary; that my redemption, if it really was necessary, could have been bought more cheaply; and that God squandered, not sacrificed, his son. In other words, without truth, all you can say is, “Poor God! Poor Jesus! But hey, that’s their story.”

Truth: We Get What They Paid For

In short: truth matters.

We must thank God that he has given us his testimony of the truth in a book that we can read freely and in our own language. That testimony includes the accounts of martyrs whose deaths announced God’s truth. The freedom we have to read it was bought with the lives of martyrs. And the book we have in our own language was printed with ink mingled with the blood of still more martyrs. It is for this reason that we cherish our Bibles and “read them for all their worth,” as it were.

Thus I echo Dr. Moreland’s conclusion: postmodernism “is simply not an option. However comforting it may be, postmodernism is the cure that kills the patient, the military strategy that concedes defeat before the first shot is fired, the ideology that undermines its own claims to allegiance. And it is an immoral, coward’s way out that is not worthy of a movement born out of the martyrs’ blood.”