Talking on a Watermelon

No, the title does not have a typo. I actually had a conversation with a pastor who was sitting on a watermelon. Let me explain.

Postmodernism is a philosophy that believes all truth claims are valid because there is no such thing as absolute truth. Two people can completely disagree, but neither person is wrong. In fact, they are both right.

I was talking recently to a pastor who had accepted the postmodern view of truth. I pointed to a bench and asked him, “What is that?”

He responded, “It’s a bench.”

“I think it’s a watermelon.”

He replied in all sincerity, “Well, if you believe it’s a watermelon, then it’s a watermelon.”

Wow. A grown man thought a bench could be a piece of fruit. How did we arrive at such a crazy place?

Rise of Postmodernism

For the first 1,400 years or so after Jesus Christ’s ministry on earth, people lived in the premodern era. The church became the supreme authority, and people generally believed what they were told.

Then philosophers introduced humanism—the belief that man determines truth. In the French Revolution of 1789 the peasants killed the king so they could rule themselves. In fact, Christian symbols were removed all across France, and a statue of Reason was erected at Notre Dame Cathedral in 1793. Thus began the era of modernism.

The modernist era symbolically came tumbling down with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Humanism proved to be a failure. Unfortunately, modernism gave birth to an even uglier child: postmodernism. This philosophy says all truth claims are valid (no man has the answers because absolute truth cannot be known).

Postmodern Baseball

If applied consistently, what does postmodernism do to life? Imagine you are an umpire calling pitches:

In the premodern era, you would call them as they are.

In the modern era, you would call them as you see them.

In the postmodern era, you call them, and that is what they are.

Witnessing to a Postmodernist

How do we witness to a postmodernist who has no standard of absolute truth—who believes a bench could be a watermelon? Our omniscient God knew we would live in this postmodern era, so He provided a two-edged sword to slice through the confusion.

It is nearly impossible to reason with a mindset that says black is white and up is a bicycle. Like the prophets of old, the answer is to proclaim the Word of God to your confused and lost generation, and let God’s Word cut through the fog.