Subjectivity can be defined as judgments that are based on individual experiences and feelings rather than external facts. For the Christian, the external facts are, as The Westminster Confession of Faith 1.6 says, “All the counsel of God concerning all things necessary for his own glory, the salvation of man, faith and life, is expressly stated in the Scriptures or by good and bad intentions. The necessary consequence can be deduced from Scripture: to which nothing should be added at any time, either by new revelations of the Spirit or by traditions of men. “

In subjectivism, individuals are governed by emotions, feelings, intuition, and mystical experiences. Subjectivism often manifests itself when you hear something like “I feel” instead of “I know.” As stated previously, the Christian must abide by the teaching of the Scriptures. The Christian must always ask himself, what does God say about this in the Scriptures? If Scripture is not used as the standard, nothing can be known with certainty about how the Christian should live. The Christian will be affected by the inability to make decisions based on the Bible if subjectivity is allowed to creep in. We want to know what God’s Word says for our lives and act accordingly.

Enter postmodernism:

Postmodernism is basically a new expression of subjectivism, which has become theoretical for many disciplines, including literature, art, economics, philosophy, and theology. Similar to subjectivism, postmodernism relies on feelings and experience above objective biblical principles. In postmodern subjectivism, a person’s feelings wrongly define what is believed to be true. Postmodernism can be described as a sophisticated form of clothed subjectivity. Furthermore, postmodernism is influenced by relativism. Relativism is the idea that there is no absolute truth. As long as relativism sticks to a philosophical system, it is only a matter of time until skepticism takes hold. Some try to escape this by adopting various forms of mystical irrationalism. At the end of the day, mystical irrationalism is like getting lost in a bottomless ocean.

Rather than using the objective standard of Scripture, a manifestation of the guiding principle of the postmodern subjectivist has become the “feel good about it” approach to getting to the truth in life decisions. Using the “feel good” approach as a guiding principle is nothing more than personal emotions or feelings that influence decisions. It is not an honor for God to lay our feelings and emotions at His feet (figuratively) and attribute them to Him in the area of ​​guidance and understanding of the truth. Tragically, the claim to “feel good” has been used as a pretext for all kinds of biblical misinterpretations and false applications. For example, many professing Christians “feel” that it is okay to have sex outside of marriage. However, it doesn’t matter where you worship as long as you do it somewhere (like at home watching soccer or fishing in the mountains).

The danger of subjectivity in interpreting the Bible:

Biblical objectivity is undermined when subjective feelings and experiences influence the interpretation of Scripture. By allowing a subjective experience or feeling to influence an understanding of the scriptures, it is not surprising that sound doctrine gives way to interpretations of the scriptures that are influenced by these same experiences and feelings. One can easily see the circular reasoning that plagues this approach. In the area of ​​understanding biblical truth, for the subjectivist, the Bible is interpreted in such a way as to support their experience-oriented interpretations of the Bible. Therefore, the subjectivist assumes that this must be what the Bible teaches, as they have felt, seen, or experienced it. This is nothing more than a dangerous subjectivist circle of interpretation. The role of Scripture and experience is reversed, experience and feelings thus gain an advantage. This is nothing more than reading the scriptures what you want me to say rather than submitting to the teachings of the scriptures.

The inherent contradiction of postmodern subjectivism:

Postmodern subjectivism has a problem with the certainty of knowledge given its dependence on experience and feelings that differ from person to person. An insurmountable problem is that when the postmodern subjectivist says, “there is no absolute truth.” A statement like this falls apart due to its own self-refuting internal contradiction. “There is no absolute truth” is clearly a statement that affirms the absolute truth. Then we can ask; Are your claims that there is no “absolute truth” true? We can also ask; Is your truth relative or does it even exist? Is a concept like relative truth true? If the truth is relative, all we have are arbitrary social conventions and it wouldn’t make any difference if one fan told another skinny to sit in the back of the bus. Even the postmodern subjectivist lives in such a way as to show that he believes in some kind of truth. All human beings speak of good and evil. Why try to find the truth if it doesn’t exist? The non-Christian may very well conclude that a wild life is the best option. The Christian has a better way.

The Christian believes that biblical truth is the basis for determining right from wrong. If the truth does not exist, neither good nor evil. To talk about evil and morality from a coherent postmodern subjectivist point of view would be nothing but irrational nonsense. Silence is your only consistent option. This is impossible, so his position is refuted. Subjectivist philosophy rejects the certainty of truth and ends up with self-refuting internal contradictions. Furthermore, as already alluded to, biblically speaking, holding philosophical beliefs that contain self-refuting internal contradictions is an expression of irrationalism.

How do we protect ourselves from subjectivism?

As Christians, we must be aware of our worldview. How do we do this? As Christians, we must be epistemologically self-aware. Epistemology is the study of how we know things. It is generally understood that there are three types of theories of obtaining knowledge, 1. empiricism (a view that experience, especially the senses is the only source of knowledge), 2. rationalism (a view that appeals to reason independent of man as a source of knowledge). knowledge) and 3. dogmatism, or scripturalism (all knowledge must be contained within a system and be deduced from its initial principles, in the Christian case, the Bible). It is easy to see that the first position mentioned, empiricism is inherently riddled with subjectivism given its dependence on experience. The second position is nothing more than a fallen man asserting his autonomy. We need to understand and hold on to a distinctively Christian theory of knowledge, as explained in the third position.

The guiding principle in simple terms:

No longer conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing, and perfect will. Romans 12: 2 (NIV)

Now, the Bereans were of a nobler character than the Thessalonians, because they received the message with great enthusiasm and they examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. Acts 17:11 (VIN)

Jesus promises that we can come to a knowledge of the truth in John 7:17. We can “know the truth” by searching for the truth by searching the Scriptures. See John 8: 31-32. We know from Scripture that God reveals the truth. See my Pagan Philosophy, Unbelief and Irrationalism at:
and The importance and need for special disclosure in Against Mundum.

The Bible is our sufficient rule for faith and practice:

For those who challenge us, we should always say; Show me this is what the scriptures teach, I’m not convinced by experience or feelings. Only the inspired Word of God is not misinterpreted because of feelings, experiences, or hunches.

The principle of Romans 12: 2 must always be in action, with our minds being transformed by the Word of God. In addition, we must remember Acts 17:11 and follow the example of the Bereans, evaluating each new teaching, each new thought, each new experience with the Scriptures. We should never allow our experiences and feelings to interpret the Scriptures for us. Rather, we must change and conform to Christ, we interpret our experiences and feelings in harmony with Scripture. Following this principle will protect us from the dangers of subjective misinterpretation of the Bible.