'Pluralist Society': Getting to the truth by Richard Norman

This is an article that my dad wrote for the religion section of his local paper a few years ago. I think that it is important enough to share with everyone I know. Let me know what you think of this article.

In an address to the nation soon after the terrorist attack of
Sept.11, 2001; President Bush made the statement that we Americans live in a pluralist society. On the television program, "Law and Order" one of the principals once remarked that "Our constitution guarantees
pluralism of religion." Every day in America we are hearing more and
more about pluralism. America was once declared to be a Christian
nation, but no more. When did this change occur and how did it happen? What is pluralism?

Pluralism is the belief that not only is one church as good as
another, one religion is as good as another religion, and one God is
as good as any other god. It is pluralism that forbids trying to
convert people from one religion to another or from one church to
another. Leave Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and Shinto’s alone, just as we leave various sects of Christianity alone. The "I'm OK, you're OK"
position dominates American thinking today in mainstream churches and especially in the media. Pluralism was born in the old slogan of my
early childhood, "Go to the church of your choice," as though God has
neither church nor choice. With the passing of time, people began to
believe that religion is subjective in nature, not objective: There is
no objective truth that applies to everyone any time any place-it
matters not what one believes so long as he is sincere. It is this
subjectivism that has swept America into the pluralist era.

The core of the issue is whether religious truth is subjective or
objective. A man once told me, "If religion is not subjective, then I
don't want any part of it." Why would a man say such a thing? It must be because he did not want to think. A friend of mine once said, “Americans would
rather die than think.” I think he was right. Most people today do not
want to study religion and think about the issues in religion. But, if
religious truth is objective, we must think and study to find objective truth. Subjective truth rejects the very idea that religious truth is objective and that it can be identified, distinguished from religious error, believed, obeyed, taught and lived.

Subjectivism is contrary to biblical teaching. Jesus said, "Ye shall
know the truth"(John 8:32 KJV). Furthermore, Jesus set the standard of measure for "the truth" that must be "known" in John 8:31 when he
said, "If (and this is a big if) ye abide in my word, then (and only
then) are ye my disciples; and (then) ye shall know the truth, and the
truth shall make you free." Jesus was not talking about general truth,
but religious truth. Jesus was not talking about political, social or
cultural freedom, but freedom from sin (John 8:34-36).

Objective truth comes from continuing in the word of Christ,
including his word revealed by the Holy Spirit through the Apostles
and prophets of the New Testament times, who penned those words in the New Testament. To know the religious truth Jesus spoke about, we must know the New Testament. It is only through a study of that word that we can distinguish religious truth from religious error. In John 2:3, the apostle uses essentially the same principle: "And hereby we do
know that we know him, if we keep his commandments." Outside the
teachings of the New Testament, no truth will free one from sin. Jesus
said we could know it (JOHN 8:34), and John said we could know that we don't know it (I John 2:3) "If we keep his commandments".

Adding to our problem is the idea that the average person can't read
and understand the Bible, but only those with advanced degrees have
the expertise. But the New Testament was written in the most common
street language of the day (koine' Greek). Jesus had no formal
education (John7:15), and the apostles were branded "ignorant and
unlearned men" (Acts 2:7). Only Luke and Paul were highly educated
among the writers of the New Testament. I do not disparage higher
education, but higher education is not the ultimate answer. After all,
followers of every religion on earth, even atheist, hold doctorates.

Every Christian must get back to the Bible. I know the Bible is
daunting. It is a big book. Few will read it, and fewer still will
study it. Too many Americans today are functionally illiterate. They
can read but don't and won't. Why learn to read if you won't and
don't? You are no better off than those who can't read.

The roadblocks of Satan go on and on. He has been trying to confuse
people from the beginning of time about what God has and has not said (Genesis 3:1). We are told the Bible is not reliable for countless
reasons: the original documents are lost, the copies in Greek do not
agree with each other, errors are in every translation, and the Bible
is an old book and out of date with modern culture. Yet, God wants
every Christian to be confident that he can read it, "understanding
what the will of the Lord is" (Eph.5:17).

If God wrote a book, and he did, nothing on earth is more important
than knowing that book. It must become the very center of our life
lest we "believe a lie" and be damned (II Thessalonians 2:11).