Jesus stood unflinchingly before Pilate, accused of opposing taxes to Caesar, and also claiming to be the Messiah, the King of the Jews. After trying vainly to convince the Jewish men to judge Jesus themselves, Pilate began questioning Him, hoping to discover the reason He was brought to trial.

“Are you the king of the Jews?”

Jesus replied with another question: “Did others tell you about me or did you come up with this idea on your own?”

Pilate, still not wanting to get very deeply involved answered with an additional question. “Why did they arrest you? What did you do?”

“My kingdom does not come from this world. All I would need to do is say the word, and my servants would be here to protect me. But, as I said, my kingdom is not from around here”

“Aha!” declared Pilate. “So you are a king!”

“Yes…but the whole reason I came into this world was to testify to the truth. Whoever is on the side of truth will listen to me.”

Pilate looked deeply into the eyes of this strange man who exuded such confidence. It was troubling to him that this man was not begging for mercy, nor was he forcefully presenting his case. He spoke simply and directly, but now had the audacity to claim to know truth. No one knows what truth is!

Pulling forth all of the arrogance he could muster, Pilate replied with a hypothetical, “What is truth?” It was more of a statement than a question. He then exited the room without waiting for a reply. After all, how would a Jew, who’s not even accepted by his own people, know what truth is? Rome’s greatest philosophers don’t even know!

People for centuries have attempted to answer this monumental question: what is truth. I’m not going to go into a lengthy discussion of all the philosophers, with their takes on truth. Suffice it to say that a vast majority of the belief systems throughout history have not aligned with God’s Word.

One philosophy of truth, making numerous resurgences, is relativism. It can be traced back to before Socrates, reappearing throughout the centuries. Make no mistake, relativism is dangerous and is more fashionable today than ever.

Relativism basically says that pieces of truth can be found across various belief systems. Truth itself can change depending on who you are, where you live, and even when you lived. Truth is relative to the situation people are faced with, though many relativists are uncertain if we can even know truth. Truth, to the relativist, is not absolute.

Relativism is more than just a belief regarding truth, though. Our morals are in question as well. Our perspectives of what is good and what is bad are relative to people’s life situation. Different people from different places are held to different standards of morality.

Relativism is highly humanistic. It is totally detached from a view of God as a loving and personal creator. God is not seen as the bearer and revealer of truth. As with most unholy doctrines, humans are the center and the foundation.

Relative thinkers today are convinced that what may be true for one person may not necessarily be true for another. This kind of “truth” can be manipulated by lawyers in courtrooms, bending juries to agree with whatever they deem true. This kind of “truth” leaves us with absolutely no foundation upon which we build our character, including our morals.

As I wrote above, relativism is humanistic at its core. I found an interesting quote from Cardinal Joseph-Ratzinger, which was a part of a sermon he delivered on relativism: “We are moving toward a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything for certain and which has as its highest goal one’s own ego and one’s own desires.” 

Man is seen as the center of relativism. Relativism is evident in people’s daily actions in that we often do what we want to do. First we decide what is right, and then formulate beliefs around our preconceived notions. Our desires and egos drive truth rather than truth driving us.

Where relativists err is that they fail to see God as truth and the author of truth. For us who believe in the Bible, we hold it as the standard and revealer of truth. Within its pages, we are told that God, in all three persons, is truth. More than God being truth, God shows us truth. He gives us absolutes we can cling to. We can stand firm on the truths God gives us (i.e. anything in Scripture) for they originate from truth.

When we arm ourselves with knowledge of what the Bible says, we can look to the claims made by non-believers and discover falsehoods. To those who claim we cannot know truth for certain, we can stand boldly and proclaim that we can know truth because God is truth, and reveals truth to us. This truth is not relative, but is absolute.

Relativism is extremely dangerous, because it says everyone has the right to believe as they wish and this is okay. This, however, could not be farther from the truth—the real truth. Sure, you can believe as you wish—it is a free country—but there are consequences for not accepting the words of Christ, who said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6, emphasis mine).

It may be easy for us to overlook relativism and say, “So what? I believe in one truth and one God, so what am I do to with this?”

It is possible, as a believer, to fall prey to this on a smaller scale. Our actions often show what we hold to be true. What happens then when we allow ourselves to be guided by our egos or desires, rather than truth? We are saying that what is true is different depending on a given situation. We are acting like relativists. Instead, we should always allow the Bible and the Holy Spirit to guide our actions.

Another trap we can fall into is apologizing for the exclusivity of Christianity. Society is so inclusive, saying that there are many ways to Heaven, numerous paths to God. Or, as I once heard it—there are many spokes of a wheel going to one center. Jesus, however, did not allow for various beliefs. He said there is only one truth and one way to God.

We have become weak Christians. We worry that people will not like us if we declare what we believe. We don’t want to push our views on the unwilling. To this temptation, we must ask ourselves this: who are we to please, God or man? Now we certainly should attempt to incorporate a bit of tact when tact is called for. But at the same time, we cannot apologize for believing in one truth because that is what the Bible teaches.

Relativism is definitely one of the poisonous philosophies that that serpent, Satan, seeks to feed us. We must stand firm on the Word of God and its message, particularly that there is one truth and one morality that comes from one God. Truth is not relative, but exclusive.

Next month we will tackle another venomous belief system, relating to this one, pluralism. Until then, my prayer is that God may richly bless you in ways that further His Kingdom.