Non-controversial

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Jesus said "I AM . . . the Truth . . ." (John 14:6).

Nobody then who follows lies and liars is following Jesus.

It's a controversial thing to say today, to politicized American Christians.

It should NOT be.

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Who's Next ?

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Many people, even some of his former followers, are beginning to see that Donald Trump's presidency is disastrous for our country.

It makes me cautiously hopeful.  It's always good when people are honest about reality.  Living by lies (or the "spin" today's deceivers give it, "alternative facts") inevitably brings people, and nations, to a bad end.  Jesus said He IS "the Truth" (John 14:6): and scripture affirms that people and nations perish when they will not "...receive the love of the truth so as to be saved" (II Thessalonians 2:10).

It will be good when Trump is removed from the office where he has the power to do harm to the country.  But no individual politician completely embodies the enemy's destructive spirit, until antiChrist comes on the scene.

It's been clear from the start that; as much as he operates in the enemy's spirit of lies, immorality, pride, unrighteousness, and greed; Trump is neither smart enough nor "slick" enough to fill the role of anti-Christ.  According to scripture, anti-Christ will be a unifying figure who is almost universally adored and trusted.  Jesus said that deceiver would be able to "...mislead, if possible, even the elect" (Matthew 24:24).  But it's increasingly clear that the majority of  people...maybe even millions of his white "evangelical" followers..no longer believe or trust Trump.

I think it's easy to see how the enemy might manipulate our current politics to his purposes.

Those who've tied their political fortunes to Trump will frantically try to disassociate themselves from him as he sinks in public estimation.  They will try to shore up their political fortunes by putting forward a "leader" perceived as more honest, intelligent, and likeable than Trump.  They will easily find such a person: 99% of people meet that criteria.

But in the political nature of things, many who've become disgusted with the evil politics that Republicans (and the vast majority of America's Christians) have so long practiced, will be convinced that only voting counter-Republican will "save" them.

If the enemy is smart...and he is, very... he can be expected to manipulate the other parties to also offer a person smarter, more attractive, and more masterfully deceitful in hiding his evil spirit, than Trump.  The enemy's surest deception might be to give us a Democrat, or Independent, or third-party, evil "savior:" someone who appears personally and politically opposite to Trump.  That ploy could be very successful with the simple-minded, the politically-minded, and those lacking spiritual discernment...surely the large majority of humanity.

I think the Spirit is saying we should be alert, and sharply discerning, towards anyone presented us as the "anti-Trump:" and especially careful to not be deceived by his anti-Trump political credentials.

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

If Jesus Were Truth

"Jesus said . . . “I AM . . . The Truth . . ."  (John 14:6, my emphasis)

 
But if Jesus were "The Truth," Christians would love Truth.

But if Jesus were "The Truth," Christians would surrender their lives to Truth.

But if Jesus were "The Truth," Christians would know they're saved by Truth (II Thessalonians 2:10). 

But if Jesus were "The Truth," Christians would say "Truth is Lord !"

But if Jesus were "The Truth," Christians would heed Truth.

But if Jesus were "The Truth," Christians would follow Truth.

But if Jesus were "The Truth," Christians would HATE lies.

But if Jesus were "The Truth," Christians would turn away from liars


But 

"Jesus said . . . “I AM . . . The Truth . . ."

The Spirit of Reality

The blog-post by our Australian brother Tim about "post-truth" Christianity, which I re-posted a couple weeks ago, included a particularly striking insight

"It’s sad fact that many (even professing Christians) really have no love of the truth, preferring to mould a more appealing (to them) version of 'reality' to live by."

His linkage of "truth" and "reality" is spot-on.

We know there's a profound sense in which "truth" and "reality" are somehow the same kind of thing: though we can't easily say how that's so.  "Reality is the manifestation of truth" is the working definition I've come to: though I'm certain there's a lot more to that equation than my formulation takes into account (or that limited human understanding can take into account).

Another way of putting it might be that "reality" and "truth" are both what really and truly IS.  And that makes both, to my understanding, theological quantities, since God IS "I AM THAT I AM."  Theologians who have opined that God is "Ultimate Reality" are probably close to the mark.

Jesus' Own Person seems to bear out that equation.  He used God's Own Name when He revealed His Being is exactly Truth: "I AM...The Truth" (John 14:6).  Jesus is the Word (Logos) of God through Whom "...all things were made," and without Whom "...nothing was made that has been made" (John 1:3).  "Truth" and "reality," including the physical reality of creation, are joined in Who Jesus IS.

The confirmatory "flip-side" is that the enemy, rebel against All that God IS and does, is, in Jesus' words, "the father of lies" (John 8:44).  From the first time we meet him in scripture, he is working to deceive human beings by questioning God's Truth ("Has God really said . . .?", my emphasis) and denying the reality God made ("You surely will not die . . .", my emphasis).

The enemy has not changed his tactics.  They still work.  Even though, as Tim notes, refusal to love truth necessarily means relinquishing reality as well...and forces people to invent their own.

I find it interesting that the political faction Christians have followed for 40 years is the premier anti-Truth and anti-reality voice in America.

Like all political factions, it's always "spun" truth to achieve electoral success (the only "good" political factions serve): though rather more outrageously than other factions.  But the surprising election of its "post-truth" candidate this year has hugely confirmed that faction in the "wisdom" of post-truth politics: that truth doesn't really matter for electoral success.

It's no accident that the same faction also champions various kinds of reality-denial.  One major example is that "climate-change denial" is a virtual litmus-test for members of that faction, a legacy of their demi-god founder, Ronald Reagan.  Other varieties of reality-denial, including some very "fringe" ones (white-supremacy, for example), also make that faction their ideological home.

Tim's observation that "truth" and "reality" are linked seems sound theological insight: both are established by God, in His Own Being.

It should tell us something that American Christians have followed factionalists whose spirit is contempt for truth, and denial of reality: the same sins Adam and Eve fell for.  To those with spiritual eyes to see, that faction...and the Christians who do its will...abundantly show their spiritual patrimony.

May deceived Christians repent !  May God destroy those who deceive His people !!

Amen.
 

More Truth

"The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love...God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him."  (John 4:8, 16)

 I'm thinking again about what it means when Jesus says "I AM...The Truth..." (John 14:6)  That's been the core of my Christology for some years: as it SHOULD be for everyone's Christology (along with His Self-identification as "The Way" and "The Life").

I'm thinking even more about what it means that Jesus IS "The Truth," as the contrast between Himself and the "post-truth" world grows wider and more stark.

I am fully convinced (including experientially) that Jesus is God, powerful and able to do whatever He will: able even to BE an abstract noun.  But it seemed one of His "hard sayings" (John 6:60, KJV); such as when He identified Himself as the "Bread" from heaven, which we must eat to "abide" in Him.

"I AM...The Truth" seems a "difficult statement" (in the NASB's translation).  Most difficult of all, to understand how we can functionally identify with Him...the essence of faith.

It helped, as I studied, to see that in Greek there is a verb "to truth," used in Galatians 4:16 (translated, "tell the truth"), and Ephesians 4:15 (translated, "speak the truth").  In both cases, "truth" is an action we are exhorted to do.

 But the greater understanding came in testing Jesus' words.  If Jesus IS "Truth," every scriptural mention of "truth" should still make sense when His name was substituted for "truth."

It was a convincing test: and one that gave further light.  "You will know Jesus, and Jesus will make you free" (John 8:32) particularly stood out.  As it did that God's Spirit is repeatedly called "the Spirit of Jesus" (John 14:17, 15:26, 16:13).  The clincher was that He asked the Father to sanctify us in Truth/Jesus, because "Your word is Jesus" (John 17:17).

Jesus gave us a hard saying to understand, when He told us Who He IS.  But He also gave us operational understanding in which to act in identity with Who He IS.

That understanding is obvious, and simple.  Those who love Jesus love truth.  Those who follow Jesus, follow truth.

It's exactly analogous to what the opening scripture (above) tells us: God's identifies Himself as Love...and all who are His, love in identity with Who He IS.

By this we "test [ourselves], to see if [we] are in the faith" (II Corinthians 13:5).  We can know that we "...[have] both the Father and Son" (II John 1:9) when we are "truthing in love" (Ephesians 4:15).

And by that same measure with which we measure ourselves, we can unmistakably know the "many deceivers...and the antichrist" abroad in this world (II John 1:7).  They are those not merely devoid of truth and love: they actively embrace and walk in the spirit of their "father, the devil;" and Jesus said he is a murderer and a liar (John 8:44).

The deceived of today's "post-truth" world (including many "Christians") are unabashed in their desire to be ruled by unrighteousness, by love for violence and lies.  But in this world of darkness, God is making His light even brighter.

To all with Spiritual eyes to see, He is today giving increasing clarity of vision...to know Him more clearly, and more fully, as "The Truth."  To those who receive Him as "The Truth" He IS, He gives the power to become "sons of God"...as He IS (John 1:9).

Political Thoughts in a Political Year (aren't they all ?)

None of my core beliefs are stronger than this: Jesus IS Who He said.

He said "I AM the way, and the truth, and the life..." (John 14:6).

Who Jesus IS carries with it an absolute logic for His followers: everyone who honestly loves Jesus, loves truth.

Loving Jesus is what it all comes down to, and what everything in our lives comes from. So I was thinking today on one of "His many benefits" (Psalms 103:2) that I've particularly become aware of in this political year.

If we honestly love Jesus, we love truth. In a political year (but also every other year), those who rigorously love truth are immune to all the political "spin-doctoring" that surrounds us. We're immune to all the politicians shading the truth, and mouthing half-truths, and telling outright lies to manipulate our thinking...for their political advantage.

It absolutely infuriates me to be manipulated: that is the worst form of slavery. John Dewey wrote that "Plato defined a slave as one who accepts from another the purposes which control his conduct." When people choose to think the way a politician wants them to, so they will do what the politician wants them to...don't they choose to make themselves his slaves ?

If we honestly love Jesus, we love truth: and that keeps us from being manipulated by politicians, their lackeys, or their pathetic deceived followers who believe and spread their lies.

This may be part of what Jesus meant when He said that all of us who love Him are His true disciples: and His true disciples "...will know the truth, and the truth will make you free” (John 8:32).

Sold to the highest bidder

Jesus says, "I AM...the truth..." (John 14:6).


Hearts not completely sold on TRUTH will be sold to a clever liar.

But it's amazing that so many sell cheap to any tawdry lie they're offered.