A new word has crept into our vocabularies describing current trends in religion.  That word is postmodernism.  Although the word postmodernism itself is not new it describes a worldview that in perhaps the last forty years of so has taken hold.  Our attention has been drawn to the postmodern plague in a new book written by brother Phil Sanders, entitled, Adrift: Postmodernism In The Church (Gospel Advocate Co., 2000).  Brother Sanders definitely has his finger on the pulse of what has ignited the recent liberal change movement within the church.  Where others have written about the symptoms of the change cult, he seems to have gotten down to the root of the problem.
     We live in a day when it is popular to question the existence of absolute truth.  This is the idea behind postmodernism.  In defining postmodernism, Wayne Jackson quoted Dr. William Dever, former director of the Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem, as saying, “Postmodernism is essentially a mid-to-late 20th century theory of knowledge which states that there is not real knowledge – a least not in the objective, external world that can be perceived by the human senses” (Christian Courier, October 2000, p. 21).  In other words postmodernism says that there is no absolute truth, only you’re personal interpretation of truth.  Some brethren knew that we were in the throes of this problem nearly twenty years ago.  In 1982, Thomas B. Warren wrote, “…a concerted effort is being made in this nation to persuade its children to accept the absurd, false idea that truth is not absolute – or that, if it is absolute, it isn’t attainable (that is, even if truth is absolute, it cannot be learned anyway” (The Spiritual Sword, October 1982, p. 3).  In a postmodern world we have now come to the point where many people (even many within the Lord’s church) are denying the reality of absolute truth. Period.
     In a classic example, postmodern thought waffles big-time on baptism for the remission of sins.  Up until now, brethren were almost universally in agreement that baptism is for the remission of sins (Acts 2:38).  That truth is clearly and concisely stated in Scripture.  Now, we are being told that the only reason we believe it that way is because of what we have been taught in our socially constructed “church of Christ” theology.  If we were taught to believe that we are saved by saying the “sinner’s prayer,” and went to the baptistery declaring a previous salvation, we would be just as correct, given the postmodern viewpoint.  Therefore, the idea is “…that since both were done with honorable hearts to obey God and because we cannot be absolutely sure of the truth, both views of baptism are acceptable and approved of God” (Adrift, p. 66).
     The keyword in postmodernism is uncertainty.  The idea is that we can never be certain of the truth and they are certain about it!  The only way for us to wage war against the devil’s uncertainty is to proclaim the certain truth of God’s revealed word (Jn. 8:32).