chris cobb

[Disclaimer: in this post I am not accusing Cedarville of anything. I am just following a train of thought as I explore the Truth and Certainty Debate.]

Are the following true statements?

"One of the best predictors of juvenile behavior is the young person's sense of self-esteem. A proper self-love leads to a lower incidence of teen pregnancy, teen violence, and teen substance abuse."

Psychologists have for years promoted the idea that healthy self-love leads to healthy lives. This observation has become received truth for Christian psychologists. Using the dictum "all truth is God's truth," Christian pastors, psychologists, youth workers, and social workers have bought the self-esteem teaching lock-stock-and-barrel.

It certainly sounds reasonable. For years we have been told that there are studies which demonstrate the truth of the statement. And indeed, if reality is ultimate and God is not, there is no real defense against it (other than to do more studies). Truth ceases to be something special, something Godward, and instead is viewed as the product of men's efforts and observations. Truth becomes what we say it is, rather than what God says it is. And if all truth is God's, then when we call it truth, it is automatically God's. Hence, man defines truth and God must acquiesce.

Back to our opening question. Would you like to hazard a guess as to how many theories of human personality, human development, etc, have been based upon the received truth of self-esteem? How many books have been written or sermons preached on it? Or perhaps what percentage of "Christian" counselors and pastors have been trained in such notions? Perhaps the figure is close to one-hundred percent. It has even found its way into theology, with at least one pastor/theologian seriously proposing that sin should be defined as an inadequate sense of self-esteem.

All truth is God's truth, right? There is just one problem. The balloon has finally popped on the comfortable bubble of self-esteem. Psychologist Roy Baumeister of Florida State University has been blowing rather large holes in the concept for several years now, and has probably destroyed it beyond repair (Baumeister actually studied the studies that were done, and found them quite flawed). Unfortunately, it will take years for the news to get to the church and Christian colleges.

Many would not have believed me about the death of self-esteem if I had merely cited Scripture. Admittedly, one reason they would not have is because the Christian peddlers of the idea have baptized it with Scripture without concern for context or proper hermeneutical principles, and so it might appear to some as simply a battle between two differing Bible-bangers.

But I cited Baumeister to demonstrate that the dictum "all truth is God's truth" does not coexist with Scripture in a subordinate fashion, it instead swallows it up (the phenomenon is called technically, 'integration'). What serious reader of Romans 3:10 and following would have ever bought into the self-esteem notion unless persuaded by the fact that psychological studies had proven the concept of self-esteem, and since all truth is God's, the self-esteem teachings must be God's too?

If truth is that which corresponds to reality, rather than something different (perhaps, transcendent?), then what we are left with respecting truth is nothing more than man's observations, judgments, and interpretations pertaining to reality. These become  ultimate. Hence, man is the ultimate arbiter of truth. In a fallen world with fallen interpreters whose hearts rage against God, I'd say that Truth might take a beating. Might even get hung on a Cross.

So what about the truth of self-esteem? Was it true in the decades of the sixties through 2000, but now it is no longer true? Since all truth is God's, has God changed now that the self-esteem teachings are being debunked?

All truth is God's truth? Really?

Perhaps we had better ask, What is truth?