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By April J. Buchanan | Community columnist

Among professing Christian’s today, there is much contentment in an understanding of God and what it means to be a Christian that if examined Biblically often looks little to nothing like who God is or what it means to be a Christian.

In many churches today, there is much emphasis on felt needs, subjective experiences, and what appeals to the lost, but often at the cost of sound doctrine.

In our post-modern culture, many, even within the church, are content to “live and let live” or “you have your truth, and I have mine.” The problem is, this doesn’t correspond to reality, and it does not work. Could we make such a claim when our boss’s truth is that he does not owe us, but our truth is that he does? These both can’t each be true. How do we determine truth?

Everyday, we appeal to objective truth, especially when we feel we have been wronged. We care about truth, but do we care when it matters most or only when it agrees with our subjective idea of truth?

As Christians, we say we love God’s Word, and it is sufficient but many dine weekly on what makes them feel good but is doctrinally unsound. As a result, many are spiritually weak and malnourished. When challenged, many do not know how to give a gracious defense for what they believe, because they have not learned sound doctrine.

How are we approaching God’s Word? Do we have the postmodern approach of, “I’m glad that works for you but not me” or “that may be true for you but not for me”? Is God’s Word objective? Is it sufficient? Is it all about Christ and what He has done or is it all about us?

In a culture that is increasingly hostile to objective truth, what an opportunity we have to be able to share the truth with them, but first we need to be established in the truth ourselves.

Throughout church history we see scripture is not always honored as the sufficient, inerrant, authoritative, Word of God that it is. This is not something new to the church today. Our concerns are not only outside with a culture increasingly hostile to the truth, but inside the church.

Opposition and hostility to the truth and those who adhere to it, is not new, it’s just new to us. In our nation, we have long been accustomed to even those who do not share our Biblical worldview, to share much of the same values we hold. Now we are seeing our nation become more secular, and it’s hostility toward God more clearly. This is also exposing much of what is false in the church. It’s causing some churches to examine themselves Biblically and return to or hold on to a solid foundation and others to seek how to be more culturally relevant at the cost of sound doctrine.

Where do we stand? While things consistently change in our culture, we can take comfort in that God’s Word does not change.