There are many definitions of postmodernism, but none are particularly satisfactory. Therefore, in the spirit of the great existentialists of our time (not that there are any, or ever have been), I will create my own definition.
Postmodernism is the attempt to overthrow the reality that there is one God who provides us with one standard of truth and one standard of righteousness.
It is characterized by skepticism, relativism, and the idea that reason need not be guided by faith to be valid. Its adherents intend to use their reason rather than faith, which is a gift from God, in the futile attempt to change themselves and their societies for the better.
Unfortunately, their faith is in ‘science’ and ‘technology,’ which will lead to their enslavement and ultimate spiritual destruction. Their ‘science’ is the best ‘science money can buy and has no basis in fact (ex., Evolution, transgenderism, climate change, etc.). Their technology will be used to create dependency on the evil Globalists rather than on God.
This new faith seems to be working out as one would expect, as societies all over the world are in turmoil due to this Godless ideology. The heathen who control ‘science’ and ‘technology’ seem to have little interest in making society better.
We are not going to be able to reason with postmodernists because they have hardened their hearts against the Lord and may be irredeemable. However, we can prevent others from being deceived by them if we can rescue them before they become devoted to this foolishness (or any other false ideology).
Postmodernism is basically a denial of reality. Its proponents create a fantasyland in their minds and then seduce others into joining them in their delusion.
The purpose of this article is to restore those who might be tempted by this ideology and return them to reality.
The most certain way to do this is to establish the most basic of realities in the minds of those who have been deceived.
That reality is that Christ died for our sins.
This is the Gospel, and it is the light of the world. It has many uses, but one of the more important ones is discernment. When a false preacher is teaching, all the Christian needs to do is ask himself, ‘What does this have to do with the fact that Christ died for my sins?’
When this is done, what is being said is instantly illumined, and the errors of the false teacher are easy to identify. The Gospel is the foundational truth of reality, and when it forms the basis of our thoughts, we cannot be deceived.
The Gospel can put an end to the delusions that haunt our sinful minds. Prior to repentance, we followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air.
We all lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful natures and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were objects of wrath.
But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive in Christ when we were dead in our transgressions. He sent his only Son to die for our sins so that we could escape the snares of the devil and be seated with him in the heavenly realm.
The truth of the Gospel cannot be denied by any person who has not been utterly deceived by false doctrine or fantastical thinking. There is no science or technology that can disprove it.
However, there is a mountain of historical evidence that demonstrates the undeniable fact that Christ died for our sins. The only reason to deny this fact is because one has made a conscious decision to deny reality.
He has hardened his heart against the Lord.
To prove this point, we begin with the prophet Isaiah. There is no question that the Isaiah scroll exists and that it describes the preaching of a Jew who would be called Immanuel, or God with us, about 760 years before the birth of Jesus. This prophecy describes a great light that will shine on the Jewish people at a time when they are wandering aimlessly in darkness. To the people of Israel, a child would be born. The government would be on his shoulders, and he would be honored as Mighty God and Everlasting Father.
The prophet claimed that the child would be of the line of David and would establish his own kingdom that would rule the earth.
Isaiah stated that this child would grow up before God, but he would be despised and rejected by humanity. He would become familiar with sorrow and suffering and would be detested among his people.
His mission would be to take up the infirmities and carry the sorrows of all of humanity. He would be pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities.
The punishment that brought us peace with God would be upon him, and by his wounds, we would be healed.
To claim that any other prophet, savior, or religious figure other than Jesus could have met these criteria is obscene. One would have to be a complete fool or a postmodernist to make such an outlandish statement.
The Bible has time and again shown itself to be a reliable historical document, and those who reject it as such do so out of rebellion, not reason.
Science and technology will never be able to refute the Gospel.
The people who existed at the time that Jesus was born had a very limited understanding of what the prophet Isaiah was even talking about. It is clear from the account of the Apostles that the enemies of Christ, the Pharisees and Sanhedrin, could hardly comprehend what Isaiah was prophesying.
There is no question, without being petulant, that a child named Jesus was born in the town of Bethlehem. It was predicted by the prophet Micah about 750 years before the birth of Jesus that the great king that Isaiah spoke of would come from this town.
This child, whose origins would be of ancient times, would one day rule over Israel.
There is no question that this Jesus would become a preacher of God’s word and would speak to the people in parables. Asaph was a Levite, appointed by King David who lived about 1,000 years before the birth of Christ, to serve as a worship leader. He was also known as a seer or a prophet.
No one understood that the Son of God would speak to the people in parables until Jesus actually did it. It is not rationally possible to attribute this to any other religious figure. Only those who have hardened their hearts against the Lord could engage in such foolishness.
There is no question that Jesus performed miracles that caused him to accumulate a great following. He caused the blind to receive their sight, the lame to walk, those with leprosy to be cured, the deaf to hear, and the dead to be raised.
It was not only his preaching that fed several thousand people with only a meager amount of food.
When his greatest enemies, the Pharisees, saw these miracles could not be denied, they had to come up with an explanation to win back the people. They claimed that these miracles were done by the power of Beelzebub, the prince of demons, and that Jesus used hellish power to drive out the denizens of the abyss.
As we have seen in this postmodern era, the number of ‘Pharisees’ who deny reality are legion. Some of these people actually claim that the Jesus of the Bible never existed. One does not have to be a religious zealot to deny the obvious, however, as this error is even more pronounced among those who call themselves atheists.
There is no question that this preacher of righteousness claimed to be God in human flesh. He stated this so many times that it is indisputable that this is who he thought he was.
Given the fact that he fulfilled numerous prophecies and performed miracles leaves little room for doubt that he was who he said he was. Even the skeptic, if he has an honest bone in his body, must give way to the historical facts.
There is no question that, in accordance with the prophecy of Isaiah, Jesus predicted that he would be put to death by the Jews. Isaiah even gives us a clue as to how he would be killed.
There is no question that Jesus was ‘pierced’ because he claimed to be the Christ, the Son of living God.
There is no question that Jesus predicted the destruction of Jerusalem about thirty-seven years before it occurred. When he pronounced judgment on the Pharisees, he told them that all the righteous blood that they had shed would cover them.
When his disciples marveled at the temple, Jesus informed them that in one generation (40 years), not one stone of the temple would be left upon another.
If we read the account of Josephus, this prophecy was perfectly fulfilled.
There is no question that when Christ was crucified, and he gave up his spirit, that darkness filled the land as described in the Bible. About AD 52, Thallus, who was possibly a Samaritan, wrote a history of the Mediterranean.
Julius Africanus (221 AD) had access to some of these writings and wrote of the day of the crucifixion:
“On the whole world there pressed a most fearful darkness; and the rocks were rent by an earthquake, and many places in Judea and other districts were thrown down. This darkness, Thallus, in the third book of his History, calls, as appears to me without reason, an eclipse of the sun.”
There is no question that Jesus had a mere twelve disciples when he was put to death. These disciples were common people, such as tax collectors and fishermen. There was nothing special about any of them from a worldly perspective; they had no wealth or worldly power.
There is no question that Jesus rose from the dead and inspired these people to proclaim the Gospel at great hardship to themselves. Each one testified to the resurrection, and due to their horrible sufferings at the hands of the Romans and Jews, they met a terrible end.
And they did it joyfully.
There is no question that these disciples carried Christ’s message to the Roman world and had an incredible impact upon it. These disciples, who were anonymous and unremarkable, became so powerful in their testimonies that the rulers of the world were forced to deal with them.
There is no question that a secular historian, who authentically cannot be questioned even by skeptics, wrote of Jesus about 94 AD:
“At this time, there was a wise man who was called Jesus, and his conduct was good, and he was known to be virtuous. And many people from among the Jews and the other nations became his disciples. Pilate condemned him to be crucified and to die. And those who had become his disciples did not abandon their loyalty to him. They reported that he had appeared to them three days after his crucifixion and that he was alive. Accordingly, they believed that he was the Messiah, concerning whom the Prophets have recounted wonders.”
There is no question that the Roman Emperor Nero hated the Christians who had been brought to repentance due to the preaching of the disciples of Jesus.
The historian Tacitus writes:
“But all human efforts, all the lavish gifts of the emperor, and the propitiations of the gods, did not banish the sinister belief that the conflagration was the result of an order. Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero (in AD 64, July) fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called “Christians” by the populace.
Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilate and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their center and become popular.
Accordingly, an arrest was first made of all who pleaded guilty; then, upon their information, an immense multitude was convicted, not so much of the crime of firing the city, as of hatred against mankind. Mockery of every sort was added to their deaths. Covered with the skins of beasts, they were torn by dogs and perished, or were nailed to crosses, or were doomed to the flames and burnt, to serve as a nightly illumination, when daylight had expired.”
There is no question that Jesus told his disciples that they would be handed over to be persecuted and put to death. That they would be hated by all nations because of him.
The historian Tacitus leaves no doubt that Jesus prophesied correctly.
There is no question that Pliny the Younger (112 AD) wrote a letter to Emperor Trajan, which is well documented and cannot be disputed, about his problems in dealing with the Christians. His letter will not be repeated here but only its highlights.
The points that Pliny made were:
- That Christians were still being put on trial for their faith at that time.
- That Pliny was concerned about the age and sex of the people who were being put to death for their faith.
- Pliny questioned if those who name the name of Jesus should be punished for that ‘offense’ alone.
- Those who refused to ‘repent’ of their faith and worship Roman gods were put to death.
- Those who recanted their beliefs and cursed Christ were allowed to live.
- That Christians were meeting for church weekly and partaking of the Lord’s supper as Christ had commanded to do in remembrance of him.
- The Romans considered Christianity a depraved, excessive superstition (Emperor Constantine would reverse this a mere two hundred years later).
- That the ‘contagion’ of Christianity had spread not only in the cities but the villages and farms as well.
There is no question that Greek satirists ridiculed the Christian faith but, in so doing, revealed that the faith was still a powerful force not long after the death of John the Revelator.
A Greek satirist, Lucian of Samosata (125-180 AD), wrote:
“The Christians, you know, worship a man to this day—the distinguished personage who introduced their novel rites, and was crucified on that account… You see, these misguided creatures start with the general conviction that they are immortal for all time, which explains the contempt of death and voluntary self-devotion which are so common among them; and then it was impressed on them by their original lawgiver that they are all brothers, from the moment that they are converted, and deny the gods of Greece, and worship the crucified sage, and live after his laws. All this they take quite on faith, with the result that they despise all worldly goods alike, regarding them merely as common property.”
It seems that Lucian, even though he was a mindless heathen, was well acquainted with the Christian faith.
Another Greek satirist, Celsus, also could not contain his distaste for the truth of God. In 178 AD, he wrote:
“It is clear to me that the writings of the Christians are a lie, and that your fables are not well-enough constructed to conceal this monstrous fiction: I have heard [argument based on rumor] that some of your interpreters…are on to the inconsistencies and, pen in hand, alter the originals writings, three, four and several more times over in order to be able to deny the contradictions in the face of criticism.” (37).
“There is nothing new or impressive about their ethical teaching; indeed, when one compares it to other philosophies, their simplemindedness becomes apparent.” (53). [Paul said that the preaching of Christ crucified was a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.]
“One ought first to follow reason [based on what?] as a guide before accepting any belief, since anyone who believes without testing a doctrine is certain to be deceived” (54). [Celsus was an Epicurean in which the pursuit of pleasure was the primary goal of life. This is the ‘reason’ that Celsus ‘tested’ and based his understanding of the world upon.]
Celsus would go on to ridicule the virgin birth of Christ using his reason based on worldly pleasure.
Celsus mocked:
“Let us imagine what a Jew- let alone a philosopher- might say to Jesus: ‘Is it not true, good sir, that you fabricated the story of your birth from a virgin to quiet rumors about the true and unsavory circumstances of your origins? [Wouldn’t Jesus’ numerous enemies have seized upon this false accusation, good sir, and used it to destroy his reputation?] Is it not the case that far from being born in the royal David’s city of Bethlehem, you were born in a poor country town, and of a woman who earned her living by spinning [that does not mean that she was not of the line of David, good sir?] Is it not the case that when her deceit was uncovered, to wit, that she was pregnant by a Roman soldier called Panthera, she was driven away by her husband- the carpenter- and convicted of adultery. [If she had been convicted of adultery, good sir, she would have been stoned in accordance with the law. Also, good sir, Joseph did not drive her away but married her even though this Roman soldier allegedly got her pregnant]” (57).
What a buffoon. Sounds like a typical Hollywood actor.
“I could continue along these lines, suggesting a good deal about the affairs of Jesus’ life that does not appear in your own records. Indeed, what I know to be the case and what the disciples tell are two very different stories… [for example] the nonsensical idea that Jesus foresaw everything that was to happen to him (an obvious attempt to conceal the humiliating facts).” (62). [It was not only his disciples who testified that he foresaw these things, good sir, but the prophets who lived long before Jesus saw them as well.]
“The men who fabricated this genealogy [of Jesus] were insistent on the point that Jesus was descended from the first man and from the king of the Jews [David]. The poor carpenter’s wife seems not to have known she had such a distinguished bunch of ancestors.” (64).
“What an absurdity! Clearly, the Christians have used the myths of Danae and the Melanippe, or of the Auge and the Antiope in fabricating the story of Jesus’ virgin birth.” (57).
“After all, the old myths of the Greeks that attribute a divine birth to Perseus, Amphion, Aeacus and Minos are equally good evidence of their wondrous works on behalf of mankind- and are certainly no less lacking in plausibility than the stories of your followers.” (59). [God did not have sex with Mary, good sir, but placed the Lord Jesus in the womb of Mary. The difference between the Greek gods and Jesus is immense and not comparable in any rational sense.]
Where are your gods now, good sir? Who takes them seriously?
The mindless buffoon Celsus continues on to mock the prophecies about Christ:
“Now perhaps you will argue that we have the words of the holy prophets- that they bore witness concerning you. With due respect, I must ask why you are to be taken as the subject of these prophecies rather than the thousands of others who lived after the prophecy was uttered? [Because only Jesus fulfilled over 300 of these prophecies to the letter, good sir.] What can be applied to you can surely be applied to others.” (58). [Not in the mind of a reasonable person, good sir.]
There is actually too much evidence that Jesus was who he said he was. There were just too many witnesses for anyone to legitimately call into question anything that Jesus said or accomplished.
Scripture records:
“He who saw it has borne witness—his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth—that you also may believe. 36 For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: ‘Not one of his bones will be broken'” (see John 19:31-36).
How did Jesus get the Romans to not break his bones when he was crucified, good sir?
“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree'”— 14 so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith” (see Galatians 3:10-14).
How did Jesus get the Romans to crucify him, thereby fulfilling prophecy, good sir?
The climate cultists like to call us ‘climate deniers,’ to put us in the same category of ‘holocaust deniers.’ Those who deny the existence of Jesus and that he was who he said he was are ‘reality deniers.’
In worldly terms, they are mentally ill. In spiritual terms, they will receive their well-deserved reward in hell before bathing in the Lake of Fire for eternity.
Finally, we do not need to look to history to prove the Gospel. All we need to do is point to the greatest civilization to have ever existed over the last 6,000 years.
That is Western Civilization.
There is no question that Western Civilization, which is based on the fact that Christ died for our sins, is the greatest civilization in human history.
Regarding government, freedom, law, property, comfort, medicine, knowledge, and every other measure of civilization, there has been no time in human history that was superior to what we enjoy today. Every other civilization was characterized by barbarity, lack of civil rights, and the gulag for those who were disobedient.
The evil Globalists and their religious advisors (the Jesuits) are fully aware of this and are attempting to turn back the clock on Western Civilization and return us to barbarity. They intend to wipe out the Christian faith with the help of the most powerful ‘Christian’ institution on the planet.
However, the church will be raptured before they succeed.
There is no question that God sent his only Son to die for our sins.
To reject this fact and refuse to testify to it is inexcusable.
Those who do reject the Gospel do so out of hardness of heart, which is guided by their own wickedness.
There is no question that those who purposely, of their own volition, deny reality deserve the same eternal home that God created to house Satan and his demons.
What may be known about God is plain to them because God has made it plain to them.