Quote of the Day: The Mood of The Culture

"Philosophically, you can believe anything, so long as you do not claim it to be true. Morally, you can practice anything, so long as you do not claim that it is a "better" way. Religiously, you can hold to anything, so long as you do not bring Jesus Christ into it. If a spiritual idea is eastern, it is granted critical immunity; if western, it is criticized. Thus, a journalist can walk into a church and mock its carryings on, but he or she dare not do the same if the ceremony is from the eastern fold. Such is the mood at the end of the twentieth century.

A mood can be a dangerous state of mind, because it can crush reason under the weight of feeling. But that is precisely what I believe postmodernism best represents-a mood." (Ravi Zacharias: Jesus Among Other Gods)

If you're Christian, living, working, raising children in this world, you should be all too familiar with this mode of thinking and the debilitating effect it has on one trying to live an open Christian life. It can silence within us the deepest held convictions tide to our faith and produce a guilt within us, for simply having those convictions. A guilt that is brought upon by, but not limited to a "pretended tolerance", that if contradicted, one can be held in contempt, in the court of public opinion, for bigotry or just simply stupidity. If you're not a Christian, and you're reading this, you may or may not admit to operating within the confides of this "mood"; what's more, like those who may not have given it much thought, you might be hesitant to concede to the notion that your worldview is motivated by mood, and not intellect. But if you're honest, maybe in private, you will find yourself, reluctantly, admitting you carry some trait of what Dr. Zacharias describes above. How do I know this? Well, I wasn't always a Christian, and at the risk of projecting my own thoughts and feelings onto you, it is not a leap in a vacuum, that others outside of Christianity find themselves, at some level, as I did, holding to some, if not all of these presuppositions. Actually, it is a foundational teaching of Christianity that our thoughts, intentions and actions are opposed to the things of God. If this is indeed the mortar which holds together your worldview, you will find yourself to be in constant friction with the person of Jesus Christ - remember the quote above? Now listen to Jesus' words to his disciple Thomas:

"Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6) 

When you here this, what are your thoughts? Well, while you think, let tell you what comes to my mind, it's a word - exclusivity. In this one statement Christ closed all supposed doors to spiritual awakening and life, leaving only his open. The certainty with which Christ speaks, rips at the relativistic fabric that culture today, clothes itself in. He (Christ) not only claims to be the very embodiment of what every human should believe, practice, and hold to; he proclaims that he is the very embodiment of truth itself, the very lenses through which we see and correspond with reality, as it really is. Just think, in Jesus' estimation, all other religions, worldviews, alternative life styles, are being participate in, outside the realm of truth, and leading away from God. It is preposterous to make such claims today, without being....well, crucified. The truth is he did say these things, and what you may find more surprising is that these were not unreasonable claims.