absolutes

In this post-modern world that we live in, I've realized that I'm an oddity because I believe in absolutes.  This realization struck me almost two years ago when I was talking to two different Christian friends about whether they believed in absolute truth.  One told me that he believed in love, which I found to be a strange answer.  He related everything back to feelings & love, which I found especially odd seeing as this was a guy.  The second friend and I dialogued about this all the way up the Incline in which he made quite the case for not believing in absolute truth.  What I really think is that so many people & outlets in this world tell us that truth is determined by each person.  This past Sunday, our pastor preached on John 14:5-11. John 14:6 is the focus of this passage: "Jesus answered, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me."  This is a bold declaration that is exclusive & difficult.  As C.S. Lewis writes in Mere Christianity, " I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: “I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.” That is the one thing we must not say. A man who said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to."
This passage was especially powerful to me when I first read Mere Christianity in college.  I choose to fall at His feet and call Him Savior & Lord.  The declaration in John 14:6 is very difficult in the light of pluralism and relativism that run rampant in our world.  Because I am a Christian, I will strive to love others as Christ loves me.  That means that I will tolerate their worldview, but it is not valid based on the absolute truth stated in John 14:6.  This is considered especially awful to those that subscribe to relativism and believe that everyone is allowed to determine their own truth.  I especially loved a quote that the pastor gave from Flannery O'Connor: "The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it."  This world, and especially my own generation, seems to think that truth is a fluid concept that changes based on circumstances or sincerity.  I believe that there are absolutes in this world, beginning with John 14:6 - Jesus is the only way.