Torch, Fall/Winter 2012

e live in a postmodern era, and we cannot avoid its influence on our culture’s (and even our own) thoughts and practices. At its core, postmodernism, like all man-made “-isms,” is antagonistic to God’s truth. Jesus said it would be this way, and we should not be surprised (John 15:18–19). A generation of young people is confronted with countless ideas, lifestyles, religions, values, and worldviews, and they have no context for critically examining them. Our culture presents all of them as “normal” and thus challenges any understanding of and commitment to a core set of beliefs. So how does the Church effectively and biblically engage this postmodern world? How do we bring Christ to a culture accelerated by information technology and globalization? Just as we always have throughout history: we engage with the heart and mind of Christ, loving people, living out biblical truth, and sharing the hope of the Gospel. In this issue of TORCH , we’ll seek to make sense of the tough issues that our postmodern culture presents and consider a distinctly biblical response. What is postmodernism anyway and how did we get here? Why is the issue of truth, and what we can know of it, so important? What should we make of the new church movements that are seeking to minister to this postmodern culture? How is ministry in this day different from any other? Sound interesting? The next 30 pages promise to be informative, engaging, potentially sobering, but definitely energizing. God has not left us to grope hopelessly in a haze for truths we want or values we like. His revelation to us provides certainty that objective truth and morality actually exist and can be known, that there is a purpose for each person, and that the future is secure. The Holy Spirit pierces the fog to give us light and understanding (1 Cor. 2:12). God has placed us in this culture at this time to be His ambassadors for truth. We hope this issue of TORCH will show you how to proclaim that truth confidently to a culture that has lost its confidence in everything. Dr. Bill Brown President Cedarville University Making Sense of Truth in the Tempest W