There's No Such Thing as "True for You, but False for Me"

(Monroe County Community College)

I taught Logic for seventeen years at Monroe County Community College. I used Hurley's Logic for ten years. Then, I switched to Lewis Vaughn's The Power of Critical Thinking: Effective Reasoning About Ordinary and Extraordinary Claims. 

In the first class session I presented a claim that is logical, but seems extraordinary to many students, because, unbeknownst to them, they are subjective relativists. They think that truth is relative to persons. That some things are "true for you, but not for me." 

That is absurd. I explain it like this, and, as I do, I have the sense I am stepping on some of our relativistic culture's most cherished beliefs.

Here we go!

Logic is about evaluating and formulating arguments.

An argument is a series of sentences that are statements.

A statement (also called a "proposition") is a sentence that describes a certain (as Vaughn puts it) "state of affairs." A statement makes a claim that a certain state of affairs obtains. Another way to put it is like this: a statement is a sentence that is either true or false. 

For example, consider the statement The lights in this room are on. This statement describes a certain state of affairs; viz., the lights in this room now being on. Now here comes the subjective-relativist crusher. If this statement is true (that is, if the state of affairs of the lights now being on obtains), then it is true for everybody. And if it is false, then it is false for everybody.

Consider the statement God exists. If that statement is true, it is true for everybody, even for persons who think it is false. And if that statement is false, then it is false for everybody, even for people who "know" there is a God.

But what about these statements? 

It's true for me that Pepsi is better than Coke. But it's true for you that Coke is better than Pepsi? 

Here the words It's true for me are redundant, unnecessary. At most, they mean I believe, or I think. Such as: I think Pepsi is better than Coke. 

Now note this: If that statement is true, then it is true for everybody. And we have this state of affairs: John likes Pepsi better than Coke.

Consider this statement: God told John, and no one else, that he is to start a ministry to the homeless. Isn't that statement just for John and not for everyone? Yes. Of course. But watch this: the truth of that statement is for everyone. That is, it is true for everyone that God told John individually, and no one else, that he is to start a ministry to the homeless.

What a person believes is irrelevant to the truth of their belief. Otherwise we would have the idea that believing something makes that state of affairs true. And then,  we'd all be infallible, which is absurd. In that case, if I believe I can flap my arms and fly, then I can flap my arms and fly. But it is false that I can flap my arms, vigorously, and ascend into the heavens. Even if I believe I can do this! 

The point here is: Beliefs do not make a state of affairs true. If that were the case, then I'm going to try this: I believe I am the world's strongest, wealthiest, most interesting man. But that is false on three counts. 

Beliefs are statements that are either true or false and - watch closely now - if a belief is true, it is true for everyone, whether they know it or not, or whether they believe otherwise.

Take this statement: There are an even number of stars in the universe. That's either true or false. What we believe about it is irrelevant to its truth or falsity, since believing something does not make it true. 

Now the truth or falsity of this statement cannot be known. But even though we can't know if it's true or false, it is either true or false. And if it is true, then it is true for everyone (because believing it to be either true or false is irrelevant to the actual state of affairs).

Therefore, a statement cannot be "true for you, but false for me." I might believe that a certain statement is true, while you might think it to be false. But a statement in itself is either true or false, and if true, it's true for everyone, whether they realize it or not.

Thus, someone who says Truth depends on the individual's perspective utters something incoherent. Anyone who thinks that truth is relative to individuals lives in a world of logical absurdity. The antidote to such a misconception is to show them that their statement (Truth depends on the individual's perspective) cannot be true, because it makes a truth claim that is for everyone. That is, it is self-refuting, hence logically incoherent.

***
My two books are Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God;

and Leading the Presence-Driven Church.

Our Concept of God Makes a Praying Difference

                                                                        (Grand Haven, Michigan)

Does my concept of God affect how I pray? Yes.

Does a praying life affect my mental health? Yes. The more I pray before the God I understand reduces fear and anxiety. 

For some recent empirical research to back up this idea see "Sociologist: Concept of God impacts power of prayer, anxiety-related disorders." Prayer seems effective in combating psychological challenges, like relieving anxiety. The level of effectiveness is connected with the person's concept of God.

Baylor University sociologist Matt Bradshaw received a Templeton Grant and published his findings in the journal Sociology of Religion - "Prayer, Attachment to God, and Anxiety-Related Disorders Among U.S. Adults." 

"According to his study, people who prayed to a loving and supportive God whom they thought would be there to comfort and protect them in times of need were less likely to show symptoms of anxiety-related disorders — irrational worry, fear, self-consciousness, dread in social situations and obsessive-compulsive behavior — than those who prayed but did not expect God to comfort or protect them."

Perceived characteristics of God - such as loving, remote, or judgmental - affect the relationship between prayer and mental health.

For the praying person, what we think of God makes a difference.

I write more extensively in chapter 2 of my book Praying - "Praying and the Nature of God."

Churches - Experience the "Is-ness" of God

(Linda, walking at Sterling State Park on Lake Erie in Monroe)

(I develop these ideas further in my book Leading the Presence-Driven Church.) 

In Worship and the Reality of God: An Evangelical Theology of Presence, theologian John Jefferson Davis calls for a return, in worship and in the people of God ("church"), for ongoing encounters with God. It's not about the preaching, or the musicians. It's not about the stage lighting, or the coffee. It's not about you or me.

Davis talks about the transcendent "heaviness" of God, and the comparative "lightness" of all material and human things. He writes: "To say that the God of the Bible is "heavy" is to draw an intentional contrast with the weightlessness of God in much of contemporary culture and church life." (Davis, Kindle Locations 481-482)

Davis refers to Exodus 3:14, where, when asked by Moses for his name, God replies, "I am that I am." Davis writes:

"My colleague Gary Parrett has remarked that in Ex 3:14 God is saying to Moses, in effect, "I am not who you may think I am, or who you may wish that I am; I am who I am, and you need to adjust your thinking accordingly."" (Davis, Kindle Locations 2572-2573)

Davis cites John Durham's commentary on Exodus.

"Durham states that "I AM WHO I AM" also connotes the sovereignty and freedom of God in his self-disclosure: "By revealing himself as `I AM WHO I AM' the Lord had in effect said, `Yes, I have committed myself to you to be actively present with you, but I am not at your unfettered disposal. My active presence is mine and mine alone to exercise as when and under what conditions I choose" (p. 70)." (In Ib., Kindle Locations 2574-2576)

You and I can dispose of any idea that we have power to control God, or control our relationship with God.

God cannot, and will not, be manufactured, marketed, hyped, billboarded, bought, sold, or controlled. God IS. "This "is-ness" has the sense of "active presence"; this divine presence and reality is not "a bare `is' but a living force, vital and personal." (Ib., Kindle Locations 510-511)

This is what is missing in the Second Temple Judaism Jesus encountered. This is what is needed for influence to activate in the Church.



***
In my book Praying I have a chapter "Prayer and the Nature of God," emphasizing how our ontological conception of God shapes how we pray.

Two Posts for Christian Parents on Influence and Investment

 

Church-Involved Parents Influence Their Children

(Monroe county)

This is a reality check.

If you are a Christian parent but don't have time to gather with other Jesus-followers (which means: "church"), don't expect your children to be Jesus-followers. They will grow up to be like non-attenders or sporadic attenders like you. 

"Non-churchgoing follower of Jesus" is a self-contradiction. This is because Jesus came to establish "church" and work through this community of his followers. The person who says, "I'm a follower of Jesus but don't go to church" is misguided. Every real Jesus-follower is the church. "Church," therefore, is not something you either go to or not.

If you are a Christian parent and follow Jesus (which means you know you are "church" and gather with Jesus' church),  then the odds are your children will do the same. This is the conclusion of Notre Dame University's Christian Smith. "Parents are the #1 influence helping teens remain religiously active as adults." 

Smith writes: 

"The holy grail for helping youth remain religiously active as young adults has been at home all along: Parents.

Mothers and fathers who practice what they preach and preach what they practice are far and away the major influence related to adolescents keeping the faith into their 20s, according to new findings from a landmark study of youth and religion.

Just 1 percent of teens ages 15 to 17 raised by parents who attached little importance to religion were highly religious in their mid- to late 20s.

In contrast, 82 percent of children raised by parents who talked about faith at home, attached great importance to their beliefs and were active in their congregations were themselves religiously active as young adults, according to data from the latest wave of the National Study of Youth and Religion.

The connection is “nearly deterministic,” said University of Notre Dame Sociologist Christian Smith, lead researcher for the study.

Other factors such as youth ministry or clergy or service projects or religious schools pale in comparison.

“No other conceivable causal influence … comes remotely close to matching the influence of parents on the religious faith and practices of youth,” Smith said in a recent talk sharing the findings at Yale Divinity School. “Parents just dominate.”"

Smith adds: "One of the strongest factors associated with older teens keeping their faith as young adults was having parents who talked about religion and spirituality at home."


***

The Power of Investing Spiritually in Our Children

(Kitty Hawk, NC)

I have served for many years in our church's Children's Ministry. This is so good for me, as a pastor. I get to know our kids; they get to know me. I get to spiritually invest in their lives. This is among the most important things I do as a follower of Jesus.

Philosopher James K. A. Smith writes:

"Spiritual formation in Christ requires a lot of rehabituation precisely because we build up so many disordered habits over a lifetime. This is also why the spiritual formation of children is one of the most significant callings of the body of Christ. Every child raised in the church and in a Christian home has the opportunity to be immersed in kingdom-indexed habit-forming practices from birth. This is why intentionality about the formation of children is itself a gift of the Spirit. It’s also why carelessness and inattention to the deformative power of cultural liturgies can have such long-lasting effects. The “plasticity” of children’s habits and imaginations is an opportunity and a challenge."

(Smith, James K. A.. You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit. Kindle Location 1031. Emphasis mine.)

***
My three books are:

Leading the Presence-Driven Church

Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God

Encounters with the Holy Spirit (Co-edited with Janice Trigg)

DECLARATIONS OF IDENTITY

 

                                                               (Our office downstairs)

JOIN US at Redeemer this morning as we declare our identity in Christ!

https://www.youtube.com/c/RedeemerMonroe

DECLARATIONS OF IDENTITY

•         At the cross I was made a new creation; therefore, I do not have to be influenced by any baggage of the past.

•         I am not who my past experience says I am; I am who God says I am.

•         I have been set free and released from all bondage through what Jesus has done for me.

•         Today is the day of my breakthrough — I am free!

•         I am clothed with Christ, therefore I release His presence everywhere I go.

•         My touch releases the healing grace of Jesus.

•         I am a God-pleaser, not a people-pleaser.

•         I am able to prophesy, heal the sick, deliver the oppressed, and walk in increased wisdom, boldness, and creativity through the power of the Holy Spirit.

•         God’s Kingdom will advance everywhere I go and in everything I do.

•         I am constantly stumbling into the favor of God.

•         My life overflows with God’s love, making it impossible for me not to love others.

•         People’s responses to me do not determine how I love them.

•         I am permanently tapped into Heaven’s infinite supply of love.

•         I often experience an open heaven.

•         I speak to any worry, stress, or anxiety, and I say you cannot stay. Peace reigns in this temple.

•         My heart and mind are guarded and protected by God’s peace.

•         As a child of God, it is my privilege and birthright to hear my Father’s voice.

•         As I focus on Jesus and spend time in His presence, I am being transformed into His likeness.

•         God’s love for me is not dependent upon worldly measures of success.

•         It’s impossible for me to spend time in God’s Word and not be radically transformed.

•         I encounter God’s love and power every time I am in His Word.

•         I belong to Jesus. My identity is: Beloved child of God.

Release from Shame

 

                                                                      (My back yard.)

Adam and Eve were both naked.

And they felt no shame.

Genesis 2:25

I've had a couple of surgical procedures in my life that required me to be in an operating room. One was having my diseased gall bladder removed.

I remember being awake as I was brought into the room. The entire space was filled with light. Around me, I saw no darkness at all.

I am thankful the surgeon and technicians did the operation in the light. The light would reveal anything in me that was dangerous. In the light, disease gets exposed. 

Darkness, on the other hand, is the place of hiding and deception.

When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food 

and pleasing to the eye, 

and also desirable for gaining wisdom, 

she took some and ate it. 

She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, 

and he ate it. 

Then the eyes of both of them were opened, 

and they realized they were naked; 

so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God 

as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, 

and they hid from the Lord God 

among the trees of the garden.

Genesis 3:6-8

They felt shame.

Shame beckons people to hide. Shame's environment is darkness. This is a spiritual darkness, a breeding ground of Satan, who tempts shame-filled people to sin in order to cover up their shame. Which, hellishly, gives birth to yet more shame; which inclines the shame-diseased person to sin to cover up shame; which produces more shame..., hence more deception....

It's the age-old battle between light and darkness. It's binary. This is not about "shades of gray." That idea is postmodern nonsense.

As a follower of Jesus, I know that Jesus is not ashamed of me. He calls me out of darkness, into his marvelous light. I want to be in the light. I want to be exposed, so that any darkness in me will be revealed and surgically removed by the Great Physician. Search me, O God, and know my heart!

This is the message we have heard from him 

and declare to you: 

God is light; 

in him there is no darkness at all.

1 John 1:5

God has taken my shame, and called me by a new name.

If we walk in the light, 

as he is in the light, 

we have fellowship with one another, 

and the blood of Jesus, his Son, 

purifies us from all sin.

1 John 1:7

I now release you from the self-perpetuating cycle of shame.

You belong to the Light, not to the darkness.

Amen.

TWO SERMONS ON HEALING OF SHAME

 

                                                      (Monroe County Community College)

Here are two sermons I gave on Healing of Shame.

HEALING OF SHAME: PART 1

This audio does not have the story I told to introduce the message.

The story was this.

Linda and I received a beautiful bouquet of flowers from a friend. It was ordered through Monroe Florist (they do a great job!). The flowers had a card on it, from our friends.

We kept the flowers in a vase on our kitchen table.

When the day came to throw them away, Linda took them and placed them on a bench on our front porch.

I was out doing something at the time. When I came home, I saw the flowers on the porch. I thought, "How nice - someone has given us a gift of flowers. I read the card. I saw the tag that said "Monroe Florist." 

And I saw the horrendous condition of the flowers - hung over, decaying. And I felt anger.

Anger - that Monroe Florist would deliver flowers like this to us!

So, I called Monroe Florist. "You delivered worn-out, beat-up flowers to our house!" 

The florist person checked her records. "Sir, we have no record of delivering flowers to your home."

"I have them before me. I am reading the tag that says "Monroe Florist" right now!"

"I am sorry sir. We have no record of such a delivery.

I hung up. What was going on?

Then Linda came into the kitchen. I told her the story. She said, "You called who?!"

Monroe Florist.

"John, these are the flowers given to us a few weeks ago. I put them on the porch to have you throw them into the garbage."

Oh.

I felt embarrassed.

The sermon picks up at this point...

HEALING OF SHAME: PART 2

Overcoming Shame

(Monroe County Community College)

(I am re-posting this for a friend.)

I have struggled with shame, even as a follower of Jesus. 

One resource that has helped me is Lewis Smedes' beautiful book Shame and Grace: Healing the Shame We Don't Deserve, Smedes was a professor at Fuller Theological Seminary. Like me and many others, Smedes had inner wars with shame and self-hatred.

Shame, says Smedes, is different than guilt. We feel guilty for what we do. We feel shame for what we are. "A person feels guilt because he did something wrong. A person feels shame because he is something wrong." (9) 

Guilt is a good thing when it is God-given. We should feel guilt, we should have a conscience, if we hurt someone. But shame, the unhealthy feeling of unworth that is distorted, exaggerated, and utterly out of touch with our reality, is an emotion out of hell.

Smedes writes:

"If you have a nagging feeling that you do not measure up to the person you ought to be..., the generic label for what you feel is shame. We have shame when we persistently feel that we are not acceptable, maybe unworthy, and are less than the good person we are supposed to be. Shame is a vague, undefined heaviness that presses on our spirit, dampens our gratitude for the goodness of life, and slackens the free flow of joy. Shame is a primal feeling, the kind that seeps into and discolors all our other feelings, primarily about ourself but about almost everyone and everything else in our life as well."

Smedes says the "shame equation" is this: one wrong act equals one bad person. If that were true (which it is not), then I am a very, very bad person. I have done wrong, even to people I love, and then whipped on myself for days afterwards. Even though I know Jesus died on the cross for my failures, I have crucified myself over things I have done.

How dark can shame be?

Smedes tells the tragic story of a gifted piano player named Lech Koplenski, and an adoring fan named Chenska Wolenka. Lech played piano at a local cabaret, and Chenska, an attractive woman, loved Lech and wanted to see him get a break and become a concert pianist. There was a producer of concerts who would come to the cabaret, and Chenska became friends with him. She hoped to draw his attention to Koplenski's gifted piano playing. The producer told her that he would help if she would sleep with him. She did. He made good on his part of the bargain. Lech Koplenski became a concert pianist star.

Lech never came back to the cabaret. Smedes writes: "All that Chenska had left over was a deep shame of herself. One early morning in May she jumped from her apartment window to her death. Taped to her mirror was this sentence: I am filth." (18)

The perverted Cartesian reasoning looks like this: 

I failed. 

Therefore, I am.

If you live with unhealthy shame, what's the way out of it? Smedes says "the experience of being accepted is the beginning of healing for the feeling of being unacceptable." (107) "Being accepted is the single most compelling need of our lives." (Ib.) 

This is where God and his grace enters in. "The surest cure for the feeling of being an unacceptable person is the discovery that we are accepted by the grace of One whose acceptance of us matters most." (108) 

God, in his grace, overcomes our shame. He loves you.


***
My two books are:

Leading the Presence-Driven Church

Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God 

I co-edited, with Janice Trigg, Encounters with the Holy Spirit.

Lord, Show Me What to Do

 

                                           (Sunset in Grand Haven, reflected in a window.)

Someone asked me this. "In these crazy times of the coronavirus, gender confusion, racial tension, economic uncertainty, abortion issues, cancel culture, microaggressions, uber-politicization, and culture wars, how is it that you know what you are doing in leading a church?"

My answer to them was: "I don't."

I don't know what I am doing.

This past Sunday morning, as I was worshiping with our people, I prayed "God, I don't know what to do. Please show me what to do next."

I do not always know what to do. My verse has become Hebrews 11:6.

By faith Abraham, 

when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, 

obeyed and went, 

even though he did not know where he was going.

Abraham did not know where he was going. Yet Abraham obeyed the call of God, and went. By faith. Abraham stepped out, not knowing where his feet would land.

Faith has to do with the unknown. Out of the mouth of the person of faith come the words, "I don't know." Because when I know, it's not faith.

Faith is RISK. Risk means cognitive uncertainty. 

As a pastor, as a follower of Jesus, I do not have to act like I always know what I am doing. But I do have to live as someone who knows the One who calls me and goes before me. 

I just need to know the next step. Step by step, my God will lead me. That has been my constant experience, in fifty years as one of His sheep. My faith is rooted in an existential certainty that the Lord is shepherding me through the dark valley.

By faith he made his home in the promised land 

like a stranger in a foreign country; 

he lived in tents, 

as did Isaac and Jacob, 

who were heirs with him of the same promise. 

For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, 

whose architect and builder is God.

Perhaps you are a parent. You are having to make hard choices about your children's schooling. Or, you are an employer, who is facing difficult decisions with your employees. You work in a hospital, exposing yourself to risk every day. You own a small business; how can you remain open? You have lost your job and can't find work; how will you put food on the table? 

Your mother is quarantined in a nursing home; when will you hold and touch her again?

You have contracted the virus; what's next?

When facing the unknown, what's next is either nihilism or faith, despair or hope, the decadent city or the city with foundations.

As I think back over fifty years of following Jesus, it is evident that he has never failed to guide me. He has always heard my cry. As I place my trust in him, i am confident that he is about to show me what to do.

Spiking the Infinite Regress

 

                                                         "Who sanitizes the sanitizer?"

I saw this cartoon in today's New Yorker. 

The question sets off an infinite regress.

This is the problem Plato and Aristotle dealt with; viz., how to "spike" the infinite regress. Is it Plato's Forms? Or Aristotle's "Unmoved Mover." 

The question (its form; its implication) - even today - fuels metaethical discussions.