March 2 - The Truth About The Truth

The Truth About The Truth

"For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth." John 18:37

Talk about absolute truth these days and most people will look at you like you’re an Edsel on the Autobahn.  Old-fashioned, out-of-date, and certainly stalling in a fast lane world.   For the first time in the history of this nation, we are living in a society that is rejecting the notion of absolute truth. Turn on the nightly news or take a course at a national university, and you will be infiltrated more severely than sponge with water.  

           

One researcher has found that although 88% of people in evangelical churches say the Bible is the infallible Word of God, 53% say there is no such thing as absolute truth! Well, what is even more alarming is that the percentage of young people in our evangelical churches who do not believe in absolute truth, is the same percentage as the youth who do not even attend church.

               

Steve Turner, a noted British journalist, wrote an expose of what might be called, "The Apostle's Creed" of the humanist. He has captured the spirit of our age perfectly when he says, “We believe in Marx, Freud, and Darwin (the holy trinity). We believe everything is okay, as long as you don't hurt anyone, to the best of your definition of "hurt," and to the best of your definition of "knowledge." We believe in sex before, during, and after marriage. We believe in the therapy of sin. We believe that taboos are taboo. We believe that everything is getting better despite evidence to the contrary. The evidence must be investigated, and you can prove anything with evidence. We believe there is something in horoscopes, UFOs and even the flat earth society. Jesus was a good man, just like Buddha, Mohammed, and ourselves. He was a good moral teacher. We believe that all religions are basically the same at least the ones that we read were. They all believe in love and goodness. They only differ on matters of creation, sin, heaven, hell, God, and salvation. We believe that after death comes nothing, because when you ask the dead what happened, they say nothing. If death is not the end, then the dead have lied, and it is compulsory heaven for all except perhaps for Hitler, Stalin, and Genghis Kahn. We believe in Masters and Johnson. What's selected is average, and what's average is normal, and what's normal is good. We believe in total disarmament. We believe there are direct links between warfare and bloodshed...we believe that man is essentially good: it's only his behavior that lets him down. This (of course) is the fault of society. Society is the fault of conditions, and conditions are the fault of society. We believe that each man must find the truth that is right for him and reality will adapt accordingly. The universe will readjust, history will alter. We believe there is no absolute truth except the truth that there is no absolute truth.” 

Pro-lifers are to be tolerant of abortion.  Christians are to be tolerant of immorality.  Saints are to be tolerant of sin. 

The view is so pervasive that I have become convinced that much of so-called tolerance is simply a disguise for cowardly hypocrisy. While grace and compassion must always abound, truth must always remain. Years ago, the following words were penned:

1) There is no room for tolerance in the chemical laboratory. Water is composed of two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen. The slightest deviation from that formula is forbidden.

2) There is no room for tolerance in music. The skilled director will not permit the first violin to play even so much as one - half note off of the written note, chord, or key. It has to be played as it was written.

3)  There is no room for tolerance in mathematics. Neither geometry,  calculus, nor trigonometry allows any variation from exact accuracy. The solution of the problem is either right or it's wrong.

4)   There is no room for tolerance in biology. One varying result out of a thousand experiments invalidates the entire theory. Everything is based on the theories.

5)   There is no room for tolerance on the athletic field. The game is to be played according to the rules with no favoritism shown to anybody. You have to play by the rules. 

6)   There is no room for tolerance in the mechanic’s shop.  The mechanic says the piston rings must fit the cylinder walls within one thousandth part of an inch if the engine is to run smoothly.  It has to be exact.

Bottom line, there is no tolerance in the area of truth…but always grace.   When it comes to salvation, heaven, hell, abortion, pornography, obscenity, right and wrong, the word is not tolerance, God’s Word is truth.  And that I believe …absolutely.

Terry Risser

Reflections:

1)   Where have you seen a tolerance most apparent in our society?

2)   Why do you believe tolerance is so comfortable and truth uncomfortable?

Consider reading the word today:

 

Copyright 2014- Terry Risser