Back on April 8, 1966, Time magazine ran a stark cover article. In large, deep red letters set against a black background, the headline read, “Is God Dead?” The combination of modernity, advances in science, and theological liberalism worked together to undermine the faith of many believers, who were simply not prepared to engage in the debate. On the one hand, the rise of fundamentalism in America led to what its leaders called “second-degree separation.” This concept meant not only that a believer could not have fellowship with those who were theologically liberal or moderate, but they also could not have fellowship with those who, though solidly conservative and orthodox themselves, had fellowship with those who were theologically liberal or moderate. For instance, because Billy Graham would include representatives from the more liberal mainline denominations in his crusades, he drew the ire of fundamentalists who considered him one of their own (after all, Graham had been affiliated with Bob Jones College, a flagship fundamentalist school, as a student for a short time and had been granted an honorary degree from the institution). On the other hand, the proponents of higher criticism had jettisoned Biblical infallibility and inerrancy, leading them to rely more on the sciences to provide both explanation and meaning to life – something the sciences cannot do. (Of course, when infallibility and inerrancy were discarded, Biblical authority was naturally lost, as well.) By 1966, the nihilism of philosophers such as Nietzsche had seeped into the void, so much so that Time ran this now (in)famous cover.
Fast forward to April 3, 2017 when Time replicated its well-known cover design to ask another fundamental question: “Is Truth Dead?” It was not long ago that we were grappling with the onslaught of postmodern philosophical thought in both society and the church. Postmodernism declares that all truth is subjective and that there are no absolute truths that exist outside an individual. What’s more, words themselves have no meaning until they are imbued with meaning by the reader; therefore, authorial intent has no bearing on how we interpret a written work (this is often referred to as deconstruction). Again, many believers were unprepared to respond to these seemingly new ideas (I use the word “seemingly” here because in reality postmodernism only reflects the strategy of Satan used in the Garden of Eden to deceive Eve: “Did God really say…?”). Just as it was in 1966, faithful and orthodox Christians were being attacked from both without and within, with the emergent/emerging church movement (steeped in the same disregard for the inerrancy of Scripture as the theological liberals of the 1800-1900s) discarding foundational truth in order to be relevant to society and telling believers that they needed to get with the times. Today, just a few short years after the heyday of the emergent/emerging church movement, many of its most influential leaders (i.e., Don Miller, Brian McLaren, and Rob Bell) are no longer involved in any church – though all still claim to be very spiritual.
Just as Time got its headline spectacularly wrong in 1966, its headline in 2017 repeats the same breathtakingly shortsighted error. Yet both examples reveal what is at the heart of the human experience apart from Christ: thorough rebellion against God. Scripture tells us that before we are redeemed by God, we are at war with God: “For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot” (Rom. 8:7). We see the irony in that our even asking these questions reveals how eternity has been put in every human heart by our Creator (Ecc. 3:11). As believers, we must be careful not to be exasperated or dismayed at these kinds of headlines (though they certainly induce those feelings!), but rather be seeking every means (both individually and collectively as the body of Christ) by which we might prepare to answer them with the hope of the Gospel of Jesus Christ (1 Pet. 3:15). We have the greatest, best, and only hope available to this lost world; are you ready to share that? Just something to think about…
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