Truth Or Dare I Dare You

I was having a conversation with an employee at a church about how the global center of Christianity moved from the Middle East to Europe, then to North America primarily because of the failure of the church in the previous center to be Christian. And that the global center of Christianity has again moved, this time away from North America to the global south for the same reason. He then accused me of advocating for that. That should have been my first clue that this was a useless conversation. It is ridiculous to say that stating a fact is advocating for it. That is a false equivalence fallacy, and that is a tactic by people who know they are wrong. The truth doesn't need that. That is why it is a common tactic among lie-mongers in today's secular culture.

After correcting that fallacy, I presented evidence of a clear command in the New Testament by both Jesus and Paul that almost no church in the west ever follows. To this he countered that different churches interpret scriptures in totally different ways. At that point I realized that this was going nowhere. Although I continued to tilt at the windmill like Don Quixote awhile longer. I cared about him enough to keep trying. But it was doomed by his twisted beliefs from the start. The complete foolishness of his position was incredible. And he was totally blind to it. No matter how I tried to point this out, the more he dug in his heels. This was not a millennial or other young person. This was a baby boomer that had been going to church most of his life, and someone I thought should have known better. Or at least I thought someone his age and experience ought to know better. Maybe not.

Think about it. Whether he knew it or not, his position was that because there are different opinions therefore there is no truth. Islam teaches that it is right and is justice to kill people who leave the faith, are homosexual, and so on. Does that mean that because there are different beliefs about killing there is no truth about murder, and killing people is okay? Absolutely not! But that is the thinking, or perhaps lack of thinking, that is behind this bogus position.

I was shocked by this conversation. I shouldn't have been, but I was. My entire life I have seen that most people who call themselves "Christians" just do whatever they want and completely ignore what scripture says about it. I listen to them quote scripture that actually condemns their own way of life, and it has no impact on them at all. To argue against there being truth is an excuse to reject anything that they don't like, such as commands to stop what they are doing. They are playing a religious game, but there is no evidence they are actually a Christian. The evidence is this is a social club to them, or it's so they can feel better about themselves. Unfortunately, this is nothing new.

Now the culture is using the same tactic of rejecting any real truth they disagree with and declaring what they think to be truth regardless of the mountain of scientific and moral evidence against it. It appears that the culture has infected the church with this truth denial fallacy. I wonder about that. While the culture has long argued against God and Christianity, they were arguing for what they thought was the truth rather than denying there was truth. Whereas this rejection of objective truth was in the church at least decades before the lie of "your truth" became a thing in the culture. Perhaps it is the church gone bad that is the real source of all this nonsense.

Here are just some of the scriptures instructing us about truth and scripture.

1 John 1:6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth

2 Timothy 3:16-17 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

John 8:31-32 So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, "If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free."

Ephesians 4:14-16 As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

John 8:44 You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

Psalm 86:11 Teach me Your way, o Lord; I will walk in Your truth; Unite my heart to fear Your name.

Clearly there is truth. It is objective and definite. It is not up for a vote or subject to the opinion of humans. To reject that is to reject being a child of Christ and be a child of the devil. And our objective source is scripture. Just because some goobers deliberately or lazily misread and misuse it does not mean scripture is the problem. They are. When a person plays a composition by Mozart badly, it is the fault of the musician not the composer. Either they were too lazy to practice enough or they don't have the talent for it. The same goes for the truth of scripture.

If you have doubts about the truth of scripture or Christianity, I would highly recommend you check out the books in the Recommended Reading section of the website. The Case For Christ by Lee Strobel is very good one to show the evidence for Jesus and Christianity is greater than the evidence for Alexander the Great or any other historical figure. And there are others that take a different approach, such as cold-case detective work, logical argument, and philosophy. Choose one that seems the best fit for you.

A different employee of a church rebuked me for calling out false beliefs and bad behavior. He actually advocated for letting people who claim to be Christians just live in their sin and error, even comforting them in it. He had no scripture to back this up because there is none. The Great Commission commands us to go into the whole world and make disciples of everyone. This does not mean to make sinners out of disciples by confirming their sin. We are commanded to speak the truth to one another, and to correct one another. How is allowing and even encouraging people in their sin and error compatible with that? It isn't.

This person had made up their own false gospel to replace the commandments of scripture. Not offending or hurting feelings are the only commandments in this fake gospel. Never mind that someone is going over a cliff. The worst thing in this false gospel would be to stop them from destruction. Instead this fake faith says we should comfort them as they go over the edge and tell them it's okay. It's not okay.

Proverbs 27:17 Iron sharpens iron, So one man sharpens another.

Ephesians 4:25 Therefore, laying aside falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbor, for we are members of one another.

James 5:19-20 My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth and one turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

Colossians 3:16 Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

To let another Christian go over a cliff without warning is wrong. It is sinful. To tell them it is okay is evil. This is why "Christians" in America look just like the unbelieving atheists and humanists in this country. This is why there is no difference between people in and out of western churches in divorce, sexual sin, porn use, drug use, abuse, criminal behavior, and so on. The western church has failed to be Christian. And so it has become useless. So the center of Christianity has moved on to where people are being Christian.

People who don't care about truth don't care about God. He is the truth. If we don't seek the truth we aren't seeking God. Can someone who isn't seeking God really be a Christian? It seems clear that the answer is no.

Are you willing to follow what scripture says, even if it contradicts you? Is truth important to you? Is God? Find a passage in scripture that challenges your beliefs and really think about it. Scripture is the truth. Anything else is deception. The truth isn't "out there," it is in God's word. Can you handle the truth? I dare you to find out.