A painting was displayed in the Tate Modern gallery of art, by Do Ho Suh. In the painting, stairs came down from the ceiling toward the ground floor, but no-one could step up onto them. Postmodern art doesn’t need to be logical or rational. Postmoderns react to scientific progress or anything called objective truth. They are disenchanted with modernists who think that human reason and science can achieve global happiness. Thirty years ago, Modernists complained that Christianity was unscientific - and consequently, untrue. Today, Christianity is rejected by Postmodernists, merely because it claims to be true.

Post-Modern Relativism is the idea that truth can be different for different people. That what is true, depends upon the situation or culture of the person. They say that moral truth can be true and binding for one person, while for another it is not. Postmodern ideology declares all faiths and ideology untrue, yet strangely claims itself to be true? Even more strangely, relativism claims that two conflicting statements can both be true at the same time. For example, one may claim that Jesus is God and another claim that He is not God, and both statements could be true at the same time. If someone believes it, it is "true for them."
The idea is “It doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you are sincere.” But sincerely thinking you can leap off a building, or swim against a rip, will matter a lot, as gravity and physics inevitably work. Postmodernism, like the artwork, may be a novel way to think about life but an irrational way to live. But just believing something to be true, does not make it true. The earth is not flat. As Jesus followers, we believe there are objective truths. Truths that are always true for every person, at any time, not because we said so, but because Jesus said so. Jesus claimed to be the only way to the Father, the only Saviour. Buddha said there is no God, Mohammed said he was not God, in Hinduism we don't know which one, is god, but Jesus said he was the divine Son of God, one with the Father. And backed it up with a resurrection! It would be nice to think that every man's god, could provide them forgiveness and eternal life; that the gods of fishing, shopping, or the tribal gods of Papua New Guinea would all be equal at saving us, but Jesus says no. Jesus was not politically correct, just correct.
But before we condemn the idea of relativism completely, are we right to think that everything we believe is objective truth? The tendency for believers is to fight absolute relativism with the opposite, absolute objectivism and perhaps unnecessarily.
There is relative truth in the pages of the Bible. When Paul wrote to the new believers at Corinth about food that was offered to idols, he said that all foods were clean, so it was fine to eat ham! This is the objective truth (Rom. 14:14). But Paul also said there may be a relative situation which determined whether a person should eat ham. “But to him who thinks anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean” (14:14b). This means that if someone ate ham against their conscience, this was a sin to him. Not because God cares about food but because the new believer could not believe it was right, and God cares about faith.

So how do we know whether things are objectively true or only true in some situations (relatively true)?
Let us imagine that Biblical truth is revealed on a continuum from completely objective on the left, to completely relative on the right, with non-essential objective truth and situationally relative, in between.
On the left hand, we have Essential Objective Truth. These are objective truths that are true regardless of time, culture or whether one believes it. Everything here is either right or wrong and everything essential for salvation and orthodoxy. Such as adultery is always wrong, and Jesus alone is saviour and Lord.
The next step toward the right is Non-Essential Objective truth. This category contains both doctrinal and nondoctrinal issues, which are not necessary for orthodoxy or salvation. A good example might be whether one should have communion each week, or if we should always lift up our hands when praying.
Going right again, the next step we will call Situational Relativity. Women not wearing a head covering is a good example. (1 Cor. 11:5). In that day, women who did not wear a head covering were likely to cause great offence. Today it is not right or wrong so wearing a head covering is relative to time and culture.
And finally, on the far right is Complete Relativity. These are matters for which there is no right or wrong answer. For instance, what are the best worship songs, or what are the best gifts? (1 Corinthians 13).

During the Diocletian persecutions, the Romans were arresting and killing Christians for possessing Scriptures. The Church determined the Canon of Scripture because believers needed to know which parts of Scripture, were dying for. In the postmodern age, we also need to define what truths are worth “dying for” and distinguish between what is essential in the Christian faith and what is non-essential.
We may still be persecuted in some way but let us be persecuted for the right thing. What “hill” is worth dying for? When I was first saved, I was taken by my pastor to visit people in their homes. He said “Agree with people as much as you can. We will save our guns for the “battle’s” worth fighting. When someone says that truth is relative, we will agree but explain only some truth is relative. We will not argue over whether the earth was created in 7 days or millions of years and not get to tell them about Christ. There is nothing wrong with discussing non-essentials, but no one is saved by owning the right translation of the Bible. We must get to the Gospel in every witnessing opportunity we have.” Great advice.

Maybe this Sunday at Church, there will be three new believers in Christ. All have begun their journey to discover Truth as they follow Jesus. Perhaps one will come with her Jerusalem Bible, one may come as a vegan who hates to even drink milk, one may come with his live-in partner of fifteen years and one may be a young postmodern who felt the real touch of a living Saviour. They won’t know what the difference is between relative and objective truth, and they won’t even be sure what they believe. What they do believe will probably change in the weeks ahead, but this Sunday, I will just be glad they believe one objective and essential truth: Jesus is both Saviour and Lord.