The introduction to TTW is a discussion of the nature of truth, and the necessity of fighting for it. The emergent church attack the idea of truth (not a new thing) and think that true humility means not believing you know the truth. Instead, God's word tells us that truth begins with God - He determines what is true and reveals what is true. He gave us minds that would be able to understand truth. He gave us Scripture. We can know the truth and grow in truth. "... He sent Christ, the very embodiment of truth itself, as the culmination of divine revelation (Hebrews 1:1-3) (p.xix) . There is ultimate truth which is an objective reality. (p. xx)
2nd and 3rd John, and Jude, all very short letters, deal with the importance of fighting for the truth. I like what Daniel Chew, whose post I linked to yesterday, pointed out - we are all called to contend for the faith, whether we want to or not.
Chapter 1 is called "Can Truth Survive in a Postmodern Society?" In this chapter Dr. MacArthur gives a Biblical definition of truth, and spends more time on the concept of truth. He gives a brief history of how philosophers have sought to understand truth apart from God, ending in postmodernity. There is a bit of "logic" discussed. One thing I found interesting is that Dr MacArthur states that logic is not something Greek that goes against Hebrew thought. (p14)
I think I am going to have to re-read the section on propositions as I do not have a firm grip on some of the ideas he discusses. That is, although I agree with him, I want to learn to better articulate what I believe and why and currently my familiarity of the terms involved is still too basic for my liking. He points out that postmodernists are self-defeating when they want to reject propositions ("A proposition is an idea framed as a logical statement that affirms or denies something, and it is expressed insuch a way that it must be either true or false." italics in original, p. 14) because you can't even argue against using propositions without using propositions themselves.
I am going to have to guard against writing and quoting too much. My idea for these reviews was to just talk a bit about the ideas of the chapters and write a few of my reactions to them. Right now I would like to type out a fairly long quote - three paragraphs! Instead I will try to be brief (ha). Dr MacArthur points out that truth is not simply a set of propositions, and faith is more than assent to those propositions. "Authentic faith in Christ involves love for His person and wilingness to surrender to His authority." (p15) More than our mind is involved in faith - our heart and will are engaged as well. I will go ahead and quote the last paragraph of the group:
On the other hand, truth simply cannot survive if stripped of propositional content. while it is quite true that believing the truth entails more than the assent of the human intellect to certain propositions, it is equally true that authentic faith never involves anything less. To reject the propositional content of the gospel is to forfeit saving faith, period. (p. 15)
I have long noticed that many folk today want to avoid propositions and statements of fact when it comes to faith. Yet they live out other areas of their lives in subjection to the rules of logic. When discussing spiritual matters then they begin saying there is no way to know the truth. When I've listened to them saying this, in my own limited discussions with people, or in simply listening to others talking with postmoderns, I get the feeling that this is all just a smokescreen to avoid dealing with the truth. I wonder if they really believe what they say they believe. It just sounds so dumb! Then again, Scripture informs us that unbelievers' minds are blinded, so maybe they do believe that there is no absolute truth.
The final sections in the chapter are "Uncertainty is the New Truth" and "War in the Church." In the final section MacArthur points out we are obligated to participate in the war for the faith, and that we are both ambassadors and soldiers.
edited November 17 2007