Apologetics for a Post-Modern World Victory Valley Camp 45-Hour Core Challenge March 18-20, 2011

Sessions Overview 1.What is Post-Modernism? 2.The Power of the Gospel in the Hearts of Post-Moderns 3.Reaching Post-Moderns with the Truth in Love 4.Designing Church to Disciple Post-Moderns Apologetics for a Post-Modern World

Tonight: What is Post-Modernism? There is truth, but there is not Truth. Truth cannot be attained through reason because all cultures use reason to support their truths but their truths are incompatible with the truths of other cultures. Truth cannot be attained through science because our ability to observe is biased and incomplete. “Knowledge puffs up, Love builds up.” (1 Cor 8:1)

1 Corinthians 8:1-3 Now concerning things sacrificed to idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies. If anyone supposes that he knows anything, he has not yet known as he ought to know; but if anyone loves God, he is known by Him. (NASB) Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that “We all possess knowledge.” But knowledge puffs up while love builds up. Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know. But whoever loves God is known by God. (NIV 2011) Now regarding your question about food that has been offered to idols. Yes, we know that “we all have knowledge” about this issue. But while knowledge makes us feel important, it is love that strengthens the church. Anyone who claims to know all the answers doesn’t really know very much. But the person who loves God is the one whom God recognizes. (NLT)

1 Corinthians 8:1-3 Now concerning things sacrificed to idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies. If anyone supposes that he knows anything, he has not yet known as he ought to know; but if anyone loves God, he is known by Him. (NASB) Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that “We all possess knowledge.” But knowledge puffs up while love builds up. Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know. But whoever loves God is known by God. (NIV 2011) Now regarding your question about food that has been offered to idols. Yes, we know that “we all have knowledge” about this issue. But while knowledge makes us feel important, it is love that strengthens the church. Anyone who claims to know all the answers doesn’t really know very much. But the person who loves God is the one whom God recognizes. (NLT)

1 Corinthians 8:1-3 Now concerning things sacrificed to idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies. If anyone supposes that he knows anything, he has not yet known as he ought to know; but if anyone loves God, he is known by Him. (NASB) Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that “We all possess knowledge.” But knowledge puffs up while love builds up. Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know. But whoever loves God is known by God. (NIV 2011) Now regarding your question about food that has been offered to idols. Yes, we know that “we all have knowledge” about this issue. But while knowledge makes us feel important, it is love that strengthens the church. Anyone who claims to know all the answers doesn’t really know very much. But the person who loves God is the one whom God recognizes. (NLT)

1 Corinthians 8:1-3 Now concerning things sacrificed to idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies. If anyone supposes that he knows anything, he has not yet known as he ought to know; but if anyone loves God, he is known by Him. (NASB) Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that “We all possess knowledge.” But knowledge puffs up while love builds up. Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know. But whoever loves God is known by God. (NIV 2011) Now regarding your question about food that has been offered to idols. Yes, we know that “we all have knowledge” about this issue. But while knowledge makes us feel important, it is love that strengthens the church. Anyone who claims to know all the answers doesn’t really know very much. But the person who loves God is the one whom God recognizes. (NLT)

1 Corinthians 8:1-3 Now concerning things sacrificed to idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies. If anyone supposes that he knows anything, he has not yet known as he ought to know; but if anyone loves God, he is known by Him. (NASB) Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that “We all possess knowledge.” But knowledge puffs up while love builds up. Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know. But whoever loves God is known by God. (NIV 2011) Now regarding your question about food that has been offered to idols. Yes, we know that “we all have knowledge” about this issue. But while knowledge makes us feel important, it is love that strengthens the church. Anyone who claims to know all the answers doesn’t really know very much. But the person who loves God is the one whom God recognizes. (NLT)

1 Corinthians 8:1-3 v2-3, NIV 2011 Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know. But whoever loves God is known by God. (NIV 2011) NIV 2011 note on verse 3 - An early manuscript and another ancient witness think they have knowledge do not yet know as they ought to know. But whoever loves truly knows. If this manuscript is helpful, it’d read this way: Those who think they have knowledge do not yet know as they ought to know. But whoever loves truly knows.

1 Corinthians 8:1-3 v2-3, NIV 2011 Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know. But whoever loves God is known by God. (NIV 2011) NIV 2011 note on verse 3 - An early manuscript and another ancient witness think they have knowledge do not yet know as they ought to know. But whoever loves truly knows. If this manuscript is helpful, it’d read this way: Those who think they have knowledge do not yet know as they ought to know. But whoever loves truly knows.

Tonight: What is Post-Modernism? There is truth, but there is not Truth. Truth cannot be attained through reason because all cultures use reason to support their truths but their truths are incompatible with the truths of other cultures. Truth cannot be attained through science because our ability to observe is biased and incomplete. “Knowledge puffs up, Love builds up.” (1 Cor 8:1)

How Did Post-Modernism Come About? Age of Reason Age of Science Age of Skepticism Enlightenment Scientific or Industrial Revolution Nihilism Premodern Era Modern Era Postmodern Era today

How Did Post-Modernism Come About? Age of Reason Age of Science Age of Skepticism today

Enlightenment ( ) Reason, Rational Thought, Logic will be the tools to discover the causes and effects in the world. Stop assuming that the truths past done from the fearless leaders are true. Investigate, think, discover! Rene Descartes, Holland, ( ) “I think therefore I exist” (Principles of Philosophy)

Enlightenment ( ) Martin Luther, Germany, ( ) “Unless I am convinced by Scripture and plain reason, my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience would be neither right nor safe. God help me. Here I stand, I can do no other” (Diet of Worms, 1521)

Enlightenment ( ) Gottfried Leibniz, Germany, ( ) “The only way to rectify our reasonings is to make them as tangible as those of the Mathematicians, so that we can find our error at a glance, and when there are disputes among persons, we can simply say: Let us calculate without further ado, to see who is right” (The Art of Discovery, 1685)

How Did Post-Modernism Come About? Age of Reason Age of Science Age of Skepticism today

Scientific Revolution ( ) Scientific Method, Procedure, Examination, Observation, Testing will be the tools to discover the causes and effects in the world. Scientific Method Observe Hypothesize Test Your Hypothesis Formulate a Theory Retest Codify a Law Francis Bacon ( )

Scientific Revolution ( ) John Locke, England, ( ) “every idea is derived from experience either by sensation or reflection –the perception of the operations of our own mind within us, as it is employed about the ideas it has got” (An Essay Concerning Human Understanding)

How Did Post-Modernism Come About? Age of Reason Age of Science Age of Skepticism today

Post-Modernism (1940-today) There is truth, but there is not Truth. Truth cannot be attained through reason because all cultures use reason to support their truths but their truths are incompatible with the truths of other cultures. Truth cannot be attained through science because our ability to observe is biased and incomplete. “Knowledge puffs up, Love builds up.” (1 Cor 8:1)

Post-Modernism (1940-today) Friedrich Nietzsche, Germany, ( ) “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it?” (The Gay Science, Section 125)

Post-Modernism (1940-today) Friedrich Nietzsche, Germany, ( ) the death of God will eventually lead to the loss of any universal perspective on things, and along with it any coherent sense of objective truth. Instead we would retain only our own multiple, diverse, and fluid perspectives. This view has acquired the name "perspectivism".

Post-Modernism (1940-today) Friedrich Nietzsche, Germany, ( ) “A nihilist is a man who judges of the world as it is that it ought not to be, and of the world as it ought to be that it does not exist. According to this view, our existence (action, suffering, willing, feeling) has no meaning: the pathos of 'in vain' is the nihilists' pathos — at the same time, as pathos, an inconsistency on the part of the nihilists.” (The Will to Power, section 585)

Post-Modernism (1940-today) Jean Baudrillard, France, (1929-) “The apocalypse is finished, today it is the precession of the neutral, of forms of the neutral and of indifference…all that remains, is the fascination for desertlike and indifferent forms, for the very operation of the system that annihilates us. Now, fascination (in contrast to seduction, which was attached to appearances, and to dialectical reason, which was attached to meaning) is a nihilistic passion par excellence, it is the passion proper to the mode of disappearance. We are fascinated by all forms of disappearance, of our disappearance. Melancholic and fascinated, such is our general situation in an era of involuntary transparency.” (Simulacra and Simulation, On Nihilism, 1995)

Post-Modernism (1940-today) Arthur Kenyon Rogers, England, ( ) “Mere logic never by any possibility can add more certainty to the conclusion than existed in the premises. Its ideal, is, therefore, to carry back proof to more and more general premises, until at last its finds something in its own right on which it can rest, and from which then a derivative certainty passes to the consequences. The idea of system, on the contrary, implies that certainty grows continually as new facts are added… The conclusions, that is, have to be more certain than the premises. … When we see that two independent beliefs corroborate one another, the confidence we have in both is increased.” (What is Truth?, 1923)

Post-Modernism (1940-today) Wolfhart Pannenberg, Germany, (1928-) The reality of God remains an open question in the contemporary world. And our human knowledge is never complete or absolutely certain. To respond to this problem, Pannenberg appeals to the eschatological nature of truth and to the scientific nature of theology. Because truth is historical, the focal point of certitude can only be the eschatological future. Only then will we know truth in its absolute fullness. Until the eschaton, truth will by its own nature always remain provisional and truth claims contestable. (Grenz and Franke, Beyond Foundationalism, p44. referring to Pannenberg’s Systematic Theology, 1:54)

How Did Post-Modernism Come About? Age of Reason Age of Science Age of Skepticism today