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Sunday, March 28, 2010

Truth exists, only falsehood has to be invented

 

Well, it's been some time now since we've had a lesson on the subject of "Truth" so that's what we're going to talk about here today. I have to tell you that my inspiration for an editorial on this topic came about because of a newspaper article I happened across last year and thought at the time that it would make a good basis for a short study about "Truth." Let's just do that, shall we?

The article of which I spoke was written about some comments made by a college professor lamenting the level of study and comprehension of students today. In discussing his views on this with the reporter he made this statement and I think you'll see why this stirred my thought processes. The professor said......

"Whether they realize it, ordinary people have become more comfortable with the idea that truth is relative and that emotion is a reliable and sufficient guide to finding it. For many of us, what's true is whatever is pleasing and useful."

After reading that statement, I think you can easily see what got me going on the subject of "Truth." (I capitalize it because I'm speaking of The Truth) A few years back they made a movie entitled "A Few Good Men" and if you saw it, you no doubt remember the courtroom scene where the Colonel was on the witness stand and spoke the most memorable line of the movie when he told the prosecutor: "You can't handle the truth!"

When it comes to looking at the spiritual aspects of our lesson, I believe that it's not that many people "can't" handle the "Truth" it's that they "don't" handle it "right." (2 Tim. 2:15) And, I further believe that the reason they don't do so is because they are one in the same as the ones Paul was speaking of in 2 Thess. 2:10. You know, the ones who "perished because they refused to love the Truth and so be saved." (ESV)

When we delve further into what Paul is teaching there in 2 Thessalonians we can see another tie-in to the statement made by the professor in regards to people following their emotions as a guide instead of The Word. Paul tells us that there are a lot of "deceptions" out there for people to follow rather than the Law of Christ and that they are there because they've been put there by Satan. In verse 11 we see him referring to them in another way - as "strong delusions."

You know, we've got a lot of "feel good religions" around us, don't we? People buy into those doctrines because of exactly what the professor said: "true is whatever is pleasing and useful." It's the same principle we see in another letter of the Apostle Paul, 2 Timothy 4:3, where he describes people seeing "Truth" by the use of their emotions as ones having "itching ears." Ones who "accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions." (ESV)

See how those two warnings by Paul tie together? Many people look for "Truth" by their emotions, by their "passions." And Satan has provided mankind with all kinds of "teachers" who operate with "wicked deceptions" and "strong delusions." In other words, there's no shortage of false and lying doctrines available to anyone who doesn't "love the truth" enough to study and know it. To "rightly divide" it as the KJV says it.

There's an old adage that I like to use in my classes when we're talking about "Truth" and it goes like this: "If you don't know the truth, you'll believe a lie." Isn't that the lesson in what Paul was teaching in 2 Timothy? That if we don't "study" to know the Truth, we won't know how to "rightly divide" it and then we'll believe any one of the "deceptions" or "delusions" that suits our fancy. We won't know any better. And trust me, Satan doesn't want you to know any better, to "know the truth" because if we do then it will "set us free." IE: from him. (John 8:32)

A man by the name of Georges Braque once penned these words, he said: "Truth exists, only falsehood has to be invented." What a tremendous statement, in light of what we've been seeing here in the writings of Paul. God exists! Christ exists! The Truth exists because God sent His Son to earth for the express purpose of bringing it to us. (John 1:17) And Satan exists with his express intention of being the "adversary,"the opposer,of The Truth (1Pet. 5:8) and as such, is the father of all the "deceptions" and the "delusions." IE: The inventor of all falsehood.

Yes, I believe that it's just like Paul said to Timothy when he said that there are a lot of people who have a "form of godliness" (IE: appear to be righteous or religious) but they've never gained a "knowledge of the truth." Therefore, what they teach is NOT "The Truth" but rather one of the deceptions. But, as said earlier and it serves as a serious warning to us, if we don't know "The Truth" and we want to be "religious" too, we'll probably buy into it and "perish" right along with our false teacher.

In wrapping up our thoughts here today, I think the professor hit the proverbial nail right on the head when he said that many people today make Truth "relative." They make their form of "Truth" whatever is pleasing to them, rather than doing what is pleasing to God. I guess another way of explaining the professor's "relativity" of truth as regards much of today's society is to say that, for many people, "Truth" is what's convenient to them. And sadly, this seems to apply both to our secular world and the religious world.

Ron Covey

First Corinthians commentary:  Get the new First Corinthians commentary from www.abiblecommentary.com.  Preview the First Corinthians commentary through Google books at http://bit.ly/dfw86d.  Other Bible commentary material from www.abiblecommentary.com includes a FREE on-line Romans commentary:  http://bit.ly/3MRU5I  
 

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