TIME magazine shocked the American public on April, 8, 1966, by publishing a simple cover with one red-letter question on a black background: \u201cIs God Dead?\u201d<\/p>\n
When TIME reproduced their 1966 cover design this April — now with the question, \u201cIs Truth Dead?\u201d — Southern Baptist ministers and theologians reaffirmed their confidence in the eternal truth of the living God.<\/p>\n
\u201cTruth is not dead,\u201d Owen Strachan, associate professor of Christian theology at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, told The Pathway.<\/p>\n
\u201cHumanity has an unshakable thirst for truth. Truth is burned on our hearts and imbued on our brains. People are starving for truth today. They are living in the wreckage of a world that has willfully gouged out its eyes to truth.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we who preach Christ have the means of salvation and surety. I believe in days ahead that many will disagree with us, but that our promotion of absolute truth, a coherent worldview, and a Savior will prove irresistible to many left in the wilderness by postmodern education.\u201d<\/p>\n
Death-of-God theology<\/p>\n
That TIME magazine would follow up their talk of God\u2019s death with talk of truth\u2019s death is no surprise, Strachan added. \u201cThe two \u2018deaths\u2019 are directly related. If God is not with us, then we have no foundation for truth.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 1966 cover article, written by TIME religion editor John Elson, featured the radical \u201cDeath-of-God\u201d theological movement of the 1960s.<\/p>\n
Though relatively short-lived and small, this movement gained notoriety for its leaders, who championed the radical 19th-century philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche\u2019s slogan, \u201cGod is dead,\u201d to advance their own theological views. By talking of God\u2019s death, they meant different things: Some meant that talk of God was simply illogical and meaningless; others that, since modern people couldn\u2019t accept the traditional view of the Christian God, the church ought to abandon talk of Him altogether; and others that God had utterly abandoned His divine nature forever when He became incarnate as the fully human — and merely human — Jesus of Nazareth.<\/p>\n
Church historian Miles Mullin says Christians shouldn\u2019t be shocked that the 1960s produced such a radical theological movement. After all, the \u201860s aren\u2019t called the \u201cradical \u201860s\u201d for no reason.<\/p>\n
\u201cRadical changes were taking place internationally as the world entered the post-colonial era, radical changes were taking place legally in the United States as Civil Rights leaders aggressively and publicly asserted that African Americans should be treated as full citizens, and radical changes were taking place culturally in America as social mores from the past were challenged and overturned,\u201d Mullin, vice president for academic administration and professor of religious history at Hannibal-LaGrange University, said. \u201cIn this context, is it any surprise that radical theology emerged as well? Or that TIME found the radical Death-of-God theologians so intriguing? Or that they would print such a radical cover?\u201d<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, for many Americans at the time, the 1966 TIME article did come as a surprise, evidenced by the 3,421 letters the magazine\u2019s editors received from readers.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople were alarmed. They were shocked,\u201d David Baker, pastor of First Baptist Church, Belton, Mo., told The Pathway. \u201cI remember it. I was 16 years old when it came out. I remember my pastor addressing it the Sunday after it came out.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a different time. People had not been exposed to that kind of thinking. There were a lot of folks that were shocked that anybody would make that statement, particularly that a major magazine would put it out on the shelves.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Baker, however, it is only natural that, little more than 50 years later, TIME is publishing a cover design that questions the existence of truth. After having questioned the existence of God, TIME, as well as many people in American society, has removed the only foundation for absolute truth.<\/p>\n
Skepticism about God\u2019s existence enabled the growth of postmodernism in the 20th-century — that is, the philosophical movement that teaches there is no ultimate truth, no grand narrative to explain the meaning of life for everyone.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople now speak, even in conservative circles, of exclusively personalized truth: \u2018My truth.\u2019 \u2018Your truth,\u2019\u201d Strachan said about this relativistic tendency within society. \u201cTruth today is no different than an item on a fast-food menu; you can take it or leave it.\u201d<\/p>\n
What follows the death of truth?<\/p>\n
TIME\u2019S 1966 article about God\u2019s alleged death ultimately pronounced the death of truth in much of society, according to John Greever, an adjunct theology professor of theology at Missouri Baptist University and pastor of First Baptist Church, Fenton, Missouri. TIME\u2019s more recent cover, questioning the existence of truth, is actually behind the times, he added, since some experts have actually pronounced the death of postmodern skepticism about truth.<\/p>\n
\u201cPostmodern thought is philosophically bankrupt,\u201d Greever said. \u201cThere is no way that you can logically, consistently and compellingly argue that there is no truth in any truthful way.\u201d<\/p>\n
But what, Greever asked, comes in the wake of postmodernism\u2019s death? His answer was not heartening.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat comes after the degradation of absolute and objective truth is tyranny and oppressive thought…. That\u2019s why we have protests. That\u2019s why we have shouting matches. It\u2019s no longer about what anyone\u2019s viewpoint or perception or perspective is, but about whether or not they conform to the common narrative of life or thought.\u201d<\/p>\n
Such oppression was on display, for example, when the state of Washington sued Barronelle Stutzman, a Southern Baptist flower shop owner, after she refused — because of her biblical convictions — to design floral arrangements in 2013 for a same-sex wedding. Such oppression was on display when Springfield\u2019s Missouri State University in 2014 expelled Andrew Cash, a Christian counseling student, simply for saying that he could not in good conscience counsel same-sex couples; he would instead would refer them to a counselor who shared their beliefs about marriage and human sexuality.<\/p>\n
Such oppression was on display when last year, the NCAA began threatening the state of North Carolina with economic retaliation if they refused to repeal a law mandating that people could use only the restroom corresponding to their biological sex. In March, state legislators repealed the law. See related report.<\/p>\n
As a matter of fact, by questioning the existence of truth this month, TIME magazine isn\u2019t really trying to promote a postmodern, relativistic view of truth, according to J. Alan Branch, professor of Christian Ethics at Midwestern. Indeed, this month\u2019s cover article in TIME apparently has very little to do with a philosophical discussion of truth\u2019s existence. Rather, the article questions the honesty of U.S. President Donald Trump — a man little esteemed by the leftwing media.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat TIME really means by \u2018Is Truth Dead?\u2019 is that they want abortion on demand, legalized euthanasia, legalized pot, and abandonment of sexual restraint,\u201d Branch told The Pathway. In other words, he acknowledged, they\u2019re simply promoting their own brand of truth — a \u201ctruth\u201d based on a liberal, progressive ideology.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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