Types of Relativism

There are several different kinds of philosophical systems that take a subjective view of truth. The first and most widely rejected is simple relativism. This is where there really is no truth, and whatever someone thinks is truth for them. This is clearly ridiculous; just because I believe that I am a purple elephant with wings does not make it so. It is impossible to move forward in a discussion from this starting point. Instead of trying to finally arrive at the truth in a debate, people spout off their own ‘truth’. Even though I have never run into someone who really holds this extreme position, other forms of relativism are simply variations on this idea.

Probably the most widespread kind of relativism is moral relativism. This idea claims that there can be objective truth about things like existence, but any truth about claims of value, whether something is good or bad, is purely subjective. There are many varieties of this belief, but they all leave us without any way of saying, “murder is actually wrong regardless of what people think.” There is no yardstick by which our actions can be held accountable.  This leads me to my next point.

Motivations of Relativism

In our society, it is becoming increasingly offensive to tell someone that they are wrong.  Even if they believe they are a purple elephant with wings, it would be rude and arrogant for you to claim that you know something that they don’t.  It is incredibly audacious to tell someone that they shouldn’t murder another person.  “We haven’t gone that far; don’t be ridiculous” you might say; abortion?

The problem is that if I am allowed to say that someone else is wrong, then there is a good chance that I could be wrong.  However, I like the way that I’m living even though I feel guilty sometimes, and I don’t want people to be able to tell me I need to change.  The debate about relativism is not a debate about philosophy; it is a debate about practically changing our lives.  For the murderer, a discussion about murder is not abstract.  For the thief, a discussion about stealing is painful.  For those who have rejected the only God, a claim about truth is confrontational.

The Truth

The reason that Christians can’t keep up in this discussion is because many of us have lost touch with the Truth ourselves.  A central claim to Christianity is that we do not base our philosophy on a set of axioms but on the person Jesus Christ.  His claim, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” is revolutionary.  The discussion of Logos in John 1 hails back to Plato’s understanding of reason.  I once had a friend who wore a shirt that said, “you don’t know Jack if you don’t know Jesus.”  It was funny because his name was Jack, but it is also a humorous way of saying that our access to the truth is through Jesus Christ.  We must come to know him and submit our knowledge to him, or we don’t really know anything.

When Nathan confronts David about his sin with Bathsheba in 2 Samuel 12, David declares about the man in Nathan’s story “as the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die.” When Nathan tells David that he is the man in the story, David knows what he has done and declares “I have sinned against the Lord.” He didn’t sit there and make excuses, instead he understood the wickedness in his own heart and how he deserved death.

Now, one might ask, “why is it that we need to go to hell in the first place? Why can’t God just cut us some slack and forget about the whole thing? Why can’t we all just go to heaven and be happy? He loves us, doesn’t he?” Well the answer to all those questions has to do with the very nature of God. He is totally holy and totally pure. Heaven is not a place were we all get what we want or live in total bliss. Heaven is the very presence of God. That is what makes it so wonderful. If there was any amount of sin in the presence of God, it would cease to be heaven. Therefore, no one who is sinful can possibly enter heaven by definition.

Hell is the opposite, the state of not being in the presence of God. When people choose to sin, they choose to cut themselves off from God’s presence. In this way, God does not send people to hell, they choose to go there themselves. Praise the Lord that he has made a way for us to turn around and come back to his presence even after making this terrible choice. It is the power of the blood of Jesus Christ to remove the guilt of past sin from us, and it is the power of his resurrection to purify our present lives and enable us to live with him.