What if some of the things we call truth are actually nothing more than opinions that have become popular? What if the greatest danger facing the Church today is not that people have rejected truth altogether, but that they have learned to redefine truth according to their experiences, preferences, traditions, and denominational expectations?
This brings us to a foundational question: is truth absolute, or is truth relative? The answer is not merely philosophical. It affects how we understand God, Scripture, salvation, holiness, prayer, faith, miracles, prosperity, spiritual authority, and virtually every aspect of Christian life. This is why modern Pentecostalism must seriously examine its teachings and practices in the light of Scripture.
Right and Wrong Cannot Both Be True
Let us begin with something fundamental. Right and wrong are absolute concepts. They cannot both be true in the same sense, at the same time, and under the same conditions. If something is morally right, its contradiction cannot simultaneously be morally right. For example, if lying is wrong, it does not become right merely because a particular culture approves of it. If stealing is wrong, it does not become right simply because someone feels justified in doing it.
This brings us to two fundamentally different approaches to truth: absolutism and relativism.
The problem with relativism is that once truth becomes dependent upon human perspective, there is no longer an objective standard by which competing claims can finally be judged. What one person calls truth, another can call error. What one generation calls righteousness, another can redefine as acceptable. And eventually, what Scripture calls sin can be reclassified as "another perspective."
Christianity Cannot Be Built on Relative Truth
Christianity is fundamentally incompatible with the idea that ultimate truth is created by human beings. Why? Because Christianity begins with God, not man. God is not discovering truth. God is the source and standard of truth.
James 1:17 describes God as the One:
"with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." James 1:17
That is profoundly important. God does not change because culture changes. God does not change because society changes. God does not change because theological fashions change. And God's truth does not become obsolete because a new generation finds it uncomfortable.
"Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever." Hebrews 13:8
The Christian faith therefore rests upon an objective reality outside ourselves. We do not determine what is true. We discover, receive, and submit to what God has revealed as true. Jesus did not say, "You shall know your truth." He said:
"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John 8:32
Notice the definite article: the truth. Not your truth. Not my truth. Not Pentecostal truth. Not Baptist truth. Not Catholic truth. Not Reformed truth. The truth.
And ultimately, that truth is inseparable from Christ Himself, because Jesus declared:
"I am the way, the truth, and the life." John 14:6
When Experience Becomes the Standard
This is where we need to examine contemporary Pentecostalism carefully.
But no movement should become so attached to its traditions that it becomes incapable of examining itself. The question should never be: "Does this happen in Pentecostal churches?" The question should be: "Is this consistent with Scripture and the teaching of Christ?" There is a profound difference.
- An experience can be genuine and still be misunderstood.
- A testimony can be sincere and still be interpreted incorrectly.
- A spiritual manifestation can be impressive and still fail to establish a doctrine.
- A preacher can be passionate and still be wrong.
Popularity does not establish truth. Experience does not establish truth. Numbers do not establish truth. Miracles do not establish truth. God's revelation establishes truth.
"These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so." Acts 17:11
That should be the attitude of every Christian.
A Simple Illustration
Imagine a group of people standing in a dark room.
One person says, "I feel that the door is on the left." Another says, "I feel that it is on the right." A third says, "I have a strong spiritual impression that the door is behind us."
Their sincerity does not determine the location of the door. The door has an objective location regardless of what anyone feels.
The same principle applies to spiritual truth. We can sincerely believe something and still be sincerely wrong. This is why Christianity cannot ultimately rest upon feelings, impressions, prophetic claims, personal revelations, or inherited traditions. We need an objective standard — and for the Christian, that standard is the revealed Word of God, interpreted in light of Christ.
The Danger of "God Told Me"
One of the most dangerous expressions in contemporary Christianity is: "God told me." Once a person attaches the authority of God to a personal opinion, questioning that opinion can begin to appear like questioning God Himself. This creates an environment where doctrines become immune from examination.
But Scripture gives us a different principle:
"Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God." 1 John 4:1
The command is not merely to believe. It is to test. The Christian therefore has both faith and discernment. We must be willing to ask difficult questions:
- Where did this teaching come from?
- Is it explicitly taught in Scripture?
- Does it agree with the character of God?
- Does it preserve the distinction between Creator and creature?
- Does it exalt Christ?
- Does it agree with the whole counsel of Scripture?
- Or have we simply accepted it because it has been repeated for decades?
Reformation Requires a Standard
This is precisely why I speak about reformation within the Pentecostal movement.
Reformation does not mean attacking Pentecostals. It does not mean rejecting everything Pentecostal. It does not mean replacing one denomination with another. And it certainly does not mean creating another personality-centered movement.
Reformation means bringing doctrine and practice back under the authority of the truth of God's Word. The Protestant Reformation challenged teachings and practices that had become established within the Church because Scripture demanded examination. The principle remains relevant:
- Ecclesiastical tradition must bow to Scripture.
- Popular teaching must bow to Scripture.
- Personal experience must bow to Scripture.
- Prophetic claims must bow to Scripture.
- Theological systems must bow to Scripture.
No preacher, denomination, movement, or ministry should occupy the place that belongs exclusively to Christ.
Christ, Not Experience, Is the Center
The ultimate question is therefore not: "Is this Pentecostal?" The ultimate question is: "Is this Christian?" And Christianity is fundamentally Christ-centered. Paul wrote:
"For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified." 1 Corinthians 2:2
That is where the Church must return — not to the latest spiritual trend, not to the latest motivational formula, not to a theology built around material success, not to a system in which human words are treated as mechanisms for controlling reality, not to an obsession with manifestations, but to Christ and Him crucified.
The Christian faith is not ultimately about what human beings can say, decree, visualize, manifest, or achieve. It is about what God has accomplished in Christ and how human beings are called to respond to Him in faith, obedience, and perseverance.
The Choice Before Us
We are therefore confronted with a fundamental choice.
These are not merely academic questions. They determine the kind of Christianity we will transmit to the next generation.
If we teach people that truth changes according to circumstances, they will eventually have no reason to believe anything is absolutely true. But if we teach them that God is the unchanging source of truth, that Scripture is authoritative, and that Christ is the center of the Christian faith, we give them something solid upon which to stand.
Jesus described the person who hears His words and does them as someone who builds on a rock. That is the Christianity we need — not Christianity built upon shifting cultural sands, not Christianity built upon personalities, not Christianity built upon experiences, not Christianity built upon traditions that cannot withstand examination, but Christianity built upon Christ and His truth.
Absolutism and Relativism at a Glance
| Absolutism | Relativism |
|---|---|
| Truth exists independently of the knower and is fixed by God's character and revelation. | Truth is shaped by the individual, culture, or circumstance of the knower. |
| A claim and its direct contradiction cannot both be true at the same time, in the same sense. | Competing claims can each be "true for" the person who holds them. |
| Scripture functions as the final court of appeal for doctrine and practice. | Experience, tradition, or consensus can function as a co-equal or higher authority. |
| Consistent with James 1:17 and Hebrews 13:8 — God does not change. | Struggles to account for a God who "is the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever." |
Conclusion
The Pentecostal movement does not need merely another revival. It needs the courage to examine itself. It needs the humility to ask whether every doctrine it has inherited is genuinely biblical. It needs the discernment to distinguish between the work of the Holy Spirit and human enthusiasm. And it needs the willingness to abandon whatever cannot survive the test of Scripture.
This is not a call to division. It is a call to reformation.
Let us therefore return to the foundation. Let us test everything by Scripture. Let us reject relativism wherever it compromises biblical truth. Let us refuse to make human experience the final authority. And above all, let us return to Christ.
Because the Church does not need a new truth. The Church needs to recover the truth it has been called to believe, proclaim, and live. Let us not be carried about by every changing theological current. Let us stand firmly upon the Rock.