Living in the world of academia, I witness the comings and goings of all kinds of philosophies that people create in hopes of making society a better place for everyone. They try to uplift people by bringing others down. They give objects the same “rights” as humans (except for unborn humans–somehow unborn humans are of less values than rivers.) They blame systems for the ills of society and they pursue individuals whose world views and philosophies are different as enemies rather than alternate points of view.
“Goodness” is not a human construct. It comes from the holiness of the Creator, and there is not one person living on this planet who can define goodness without God. No one is without sin. No one group has a monopoly on the “right” philosophy, which is why philosophies come and go with the generations.
In my own lifetime, I have lived under philosophies of extreme licentiousness and extreme prudishness. In academic circles, structuralism (the idea that everything in human culture has a particular place in a pattern of structures) has been replaced with varying degrees of post-structuralism (there is no place for individuals because individualism is a fiction–there is no self; there is only a combination of knowledge and tension in conflict.) Post-modern, post- truth, post-intentional–these are all philosophies in the academic realm that attempt to explain and describe human culture, and they are just as convoluted as they appear.
Truth is. Competing philosophies are not Truth; in fact, most of them distain the possibility of Truth. There might be “my truth” or “your truth,” but even these ideas are more for convenience than for inquiry. Most of the time, people who pursue these errant philosophies wind up frustrated and even angry about their inability to coerce culture into something no one really understands.
The beauty of scripture is that it IS Truth. It is unassailable because it is the Word of the Creator who is outside the boundaries of time, space, and culture. It cannot be diminished, not can it be undone. Competing philosophies cannot counter the Word. Goodness is grounded in the reality of God. It doesn’t change.
This is our confidence. When we know and press on to knowing more of the Lord, He will come to us. He will establish us in Truth, not philosophy.
Defaulting to Grace 