Recently, a Christian teacher in my school gave me this book to challenge my thinking. It is the book, “Think”, by John Piper. In this essay, I want to share about something that I learned from this book–relativism.

People who practice relativism believe that “there is no objective, external standard for measuring the truth or falsehood of a statement”. They say that the word ‘truth’, does not exist outside you. They say that whatever that you may think is ‘true’, is not a standard that everyone else in the universe should agree with. The book then shows how relativism is harmful.

In the book, John Piper encourages us to make serious thinking an important part of our pursuit of God. This goal is based on the conviction that God exists, is the ultimate Truth, and will never change. Therefore, God is a “firm, universal, never-changing foundation” for the truth. Who God is and what He says is truth. But this goal is useless if this truth cannot exist or cannot be known. One way relativism is shown is to say: “God, I don’t bow to your standards. I create my own.” So relativism of this kind is definitely something that is wrong and evil.

One major example of the seeds of relativism that the book provided was from Matthew 21:23-27. When Jesus was teaching, the chief priests and the elders asked him, “By what authority are you doing these things?” Then Jesus replied that if they answer one question, he will tell them his answer. He asked them if John’s baptism came from heaven, or of human origin. They said among themselves, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will ask, ‘Then why didn’t you believe him?’ But if we say, ‘Of human origin’—we are afraid of the people, for they all hold that John was a prophet.” So they told Jesus that they don’t know, and Jesus did not give them his answer

Here, Jesus asks them to choose between two simple sides of a truth: either John’s baptism is from heaven or from man. So they start to think carefully and calculate. This is a kind of reasoning that hides the truth. In fact, the truth is irrelevant here. All they want is not to be shamed by the people, and to not be harmed. What matters to them is not the truth, and that goes against our goal in pursuing God.

In this book, I learned about how even the seeds of relativism can be very destructive in our connection with God. Relativism doesn’t meet the purpose of thinking: to find the truth. It uses thinking as self-protection and an escape. This is something that I have learned to never follow. I believe that God is the Truth, and that he will never change.

By Hazel Lim Zhan