Humility and Truth

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

People show they operate in reality, show they acknowledge truth, when they admit that human beings are fallible.  That is to admit no human being is God.

But people show they are committed to truth by the humility of admitting they themselves are fallible, and may be wrong.  That is to admit truth is greater than our Self.

Humility has a personal price.  We learn humility by being humiliated.  The greatest humiliation any of us can ever suffer is to admit that we are wrong.

The way of the world's "great ones," more in evidence today than ever before, is to assert that truth proves they are "right."  But truth flatters no man: truth is that all men are fallible.  Those who say truth glorifies themselves are lying, and the truth is not in them. (I John 2:4)


                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Freedom and False Freedom

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

There's a tendency in American Christianity to equate what scripture calls "freedom" with the “freedom” vaunted in the Declaration of Independence. That’s probably the essence of 90% of the “4th of July” sermons every year.

It’s a false equivalence.   America's founding doctrine is that freedom is a matter of exercising our “inalienable rights”…or as we call them in current political jargon, "entitlements"...and defending those "rights, by violence if necessary.

Jesus said otherwise.  He said freedom is a matter of knowing TRUTH (John 8:32).

If Jesus is right, the enemy’s greatest lie may be that by demanding, or even warring for, our “rights,” we can “secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.”

Brother Appolus, in his blog "A Call to the Remnant," gets Jesus' teaching about freedom and "rights:" and even more, Jesus' example: exactly right: “Would you be free today ? Lay down your rights.”

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Jesus Says How It Is

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

I know I'm increasingly one-note in my thinking.  I'm O.K. with that, because my understanding is that it's the right note.

When Jesus said "I AM...the Truth..." He characterized Himself as reality, Personal, whole and entire.  The personal implication for me, for every human being, is that living in reality is the only way of life that "works."  That may be why His full statement was, "I AM the Way, the Truth, and The Life."

When Jesus said satan is "the father of lies" He said the enemy of life is futile and destructive unreality.  And that satan himself is the personal, whole and entire source ("father") of unreality...beginning with his telling Eve she would "surely NOT die" by disobeying God, after God had warned her she would.

We know who Eve chose to believe.  And we know, from her and our experience, who told her the truth.

I choose to believe Jesus.  That means my whole and entire way of life is about loving truth.

That includes politics.  When Jesus said "I AM...The Truth..."  He said politics is not really about politics.  He said politics is a spiritual matter, in which we make a spiritual choice.  Our choice determines our life...or death.

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

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.

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

"Conservatives" and Their "Reality"

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Had to compress my comments, talking on a local site to a guy bloviating all the standard "conservative" talking points and attitudes.

Rather liked that the short-form comment seemed to get to the point (better than I usually do):
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bob: did you notice I strongly recommended, above, a belief in "objective truth" ?

If so, you can see why you're wrong-footed from your first statement, that "there [are} facts and there are Liberal facts."  Objective truth is, by definition, the same for everyone: and not under the control of any faction.

No, Bob: there are facts, and there are lies (or as "conservatives" like to call them, "ALTERNATIVE facts").

Reality is what it is: not what ANY human being ("liberal" or "conservative," since those seem to be the poles of your worldview) wants to conjure it.

To live in objective reality, you have to admit it exists; and you have to acknowledge reality is sovereign to your personal interpretation of it.

Those who aren't God, but want to believe reality is their own creation, really REALLY need to repent.

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Luther quote

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Someone sent me this quote today, attributing it to Martin Luther:

"If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the Word of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Him. Where the battle rages there the loyalty of the soldier is proved; and to be steady on all the battle front besides, is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point."

I always try to verify quotes by famous people before I believe them.  On this one, I found that some scholars trying to verify that quote had been unable to find it in Luther's writings; and suggested it may have come about as a paraphrase of the idea he expressed in a letter this way:

“...it does not help that one of you would say: ‘I will gladly confess Christ and His Word on every detail, except that I may keep silent about one or two things which my tyrants may not tolerate, such as the form of the Sacraments and the like.’ For whoever denies Christ in one detail or word has denied the same Christ in that one detail who was denied in all the details, since there is only one Christ in all His words, taken together or individually.”

(https://blogs.thegospelcoalition.org/justintaylor/2014/02/20/5-quotes-that-luther-didnt-actually-say/)

The quotations are similar.  Both speak of denying Christ in some "little point" or "detail:"  and in both, the assertion is that we deny Him when we do not defend the smallest item of Christ's Being because it is controversial to the enemy's world-rulers, or under attack by "the world and the devil."

As important as it is to verify every word we hear that purports to be true, that's not my point here.  I've repeatedly and fiercely (maybe even stridently) insisted, as long as I've written this blog (and even longer), that all things, and all men, and all ideas, are measured by Truth.

And that's my point.  Rather than the true provenance of a single obscure quotation, I cry out here that Truth itself is "controversial," and "under attack," in this "post-Truth" day.

In this time, it's not some "little point" or "detail" the enemy is attacking: Jesus identified Himself as "The Truth."

Where then are 80% of white American "Evangelicals" when Christ' very Being is under attack by the kingdom of darkness, the devil, and his world-rulers ?  They've enlisted in the enemy's army, under the command of his political commissars and false prophets.

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

The Purpose of Clarification

I wrote a few weeks ago that I strongly sense this is a time when God is clarifying all things.  Clarifying our minds, too, about all things.

"All things" kinda resonates for me with "Alpha and Omega," Who Jesus IS.  And it makes theological sense to me that Jesus is God's clarity to us, in all things.

Jesus said "I AM...The Truth."  That's been the most clarifying realization of my life.  So I'm always super-aware of anything about Truth...and anything against Truth   How could I not be, when Jesus said that IS His very IDENTITY ?

Jesus' statement is not abstruse "head-polish" theology.   Truth exists.  Truth exists as part of the ordinary reality of our world.  (Which is, of course, what today's holiday supposedly celebrates about Jesus.)

We think and act, every day, in ordinary dependence on the existence and operation of truth in our world.  Juries are charged to sort out the facts of a case they hear, and witnesses to tell "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth."  We expect journalists (real journalists, at least) to report what really happens: even the weatherman.  The professions of scientists and historians is to look for truth, and report it truthfully.

So it's particularly significant that "post-truth" is the Word of the Year, describing people who ignore "objective facts" in making their decisions.  It's particularly significant that this year we needed that new word, for the new idea that Truth doesn't really matter.  Significant, too, that that new word and new idea came out of politics.

In that political attitude toward Truth, I think God's spoken some simple clarity: especially to Christians.

If your politics makes you unable to distinguish between righteousness and unrighteousness, your politics are not of God.

If your politics tells you Truth doesn't matter, your politics are not of God.

If your politics leads you to believe lies and follow deceivers, your politics are of "the father of lies" (john 8:44).

Christians who've let politics confuse them about Truth need to repent their politics.

Repent immediately and deeply.  This is a time God is clarifying all things, including who is really His.  He knows His own by their love of Truth: because that's who actually loves Jesus.

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.
 

God's Word Without Glasses

I was thankful God directed me to the teachers He did, local and national, when I was a new Christian.  Bob Mumford and Derek Prince were the two main Charismatic leaders whose teaching I followed.  They, with Don Basham, Ern Baxter, and Charles Simpson joined together in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in the early '70s to hear and spread God's word for that time.

I always admired that these men, each having his own successful individual ministry, willingly entered into covenant with each other.  To teach and live the Kingdom of God, they submitted their ministries, their teachings, and their personal walks to each other.

I admired their integrity.  After Derek Prince was widowed, he met a woman he was convinced God told him would be his wife.  But Prince submitted his re-marriage to the others.  When the other men counseled against the marriage, he parted from his fiancee.  It was only after the other men became convinced God approved the re-marriage, and gave their approval, that Prince and his second wife were wed.

More importantly, these leaders showed public integrity.  When they perceived that the "Shepherding" movement that grew from their collaboration had gone beyond scripture's teaching, Prince, Mumford and Simpson distanced themselves from that movement and publicly repented their involvement in it.  (Basham and Baxter had passed away in the meantime.)

They were very different men. I consider Prince my mentor in the faith.  I was baptized in the Spirit after one of his teaching-meetings, and thank God for his teachings then, and in all my Christian walk since.  Prince was born in India in a British military family, and had been a fellow in Philosophy at Cambridge University before he became a Christian.  His scriptural teaching was as thorough, logical, and penetrating as his academic training, and always powerfully spoke God's word to my heart.

Bob Mumford had been a knock-about American kid, with divorced parents and a 9th-grade education.  His teaching style was as folksy and humorous as Derek Prince' was intellectual and disciplined.  Bob used to say that when people were laughing, he could hit them in the teeth with the gospel, and never even split their lip.  I loved the teaching of both men, and loved the contrasting ways God made His word memorable !

One teaching of Bob's I especially remember was about wearing "glasses" when we read scripture.  As he put it, "If you're wearing your Baptist glasses, you can find water baptism in the Song of Solomon."

We all know what he means.  People can always "find" what they want to find in the Bible.  The problem is that's only their prelude for reading out of the Bible what they wanted to find.  We wear our "glasses" because we think they'll help us "read" the Bible better.  They actually make us blind to the Truth: which the Bible is.

We've all heard hundreds of these "the Bible says/teaches..." deceptions.  Christian clowns or white supremacy, prosperity gospel, abortion "rights," gun "rights," unitarianism, "Christian socialism" and "Christian conservatism," bus-ministry, capitalism, monarchy and democracy, cremation, angel-worship, slavery...  Whatever glasses you choose to wear, you can "find" it in the Bible.

(If you can't "find" it, you can always put it in the Bible by way of false "translation"...like the Jehovah's Witnesses' New World version of scripture.  Or invent a "Bible" of your own, like the Book of Mormon.  For those who want to hear something other than the truth of the Bible, the ways of lying, and the lies, are infinite.)

Truth is One, Jesus.  My experience in life fully convinces me that all Truth is in the Bible.  The way to get to more of Him is to go further into what the Bible says.  Jesus is also the One Way.  When we take our pet theories and doctrines out of scripture context, we move away from Jesus, and take scripture the wrong way.  Taken out the unity Truth IS, our "proof-text" scriptures become not-quite-truth.  Even in the natural, we don't consider a bit of Frank's body, removed from Frank's body, is still somehow "Frank."
 
There's no secret to reading scripture truthfully.  Come to scripture with an honest heart: read scripture without your glasses.  Ask the Spirit to "lead you into all truth," as Jesus promised He would.

Everybody knows this.  The amazing thing in these dark times...when our One Hope of Life is The Way we follow The Truth...is that so very, very, few do this.