THOUGHTS
What do you consider to be your “drop-dead” bottom-line convictions? Do you think that truth is relative, based on an “evolving” definition? What truth would be so elemental that you would suffer persecution for it? What would you die for? What is truth?
Jesus said that He was the way, the truth and the life. What does truth in that context mean? Can that statement be “spun” and re-crafted for today’s tolerant society? The word for truth used in John 14:6 is aletheia, which literally means “the reality lying at the basis of an appearance; the manifested, veritable essence of a matter.” In this statement, Jesus was saying that He was the perfect expression of the truth without evolutionary change dependent on man’s whims. He is not “merely ethical truth but truth in all its fullness and scope as embodied in Him.” [Vines Expository on Greek Words, p. 1171]
Pilate asked Jesus, “What is truth?” after Jesus had told him that He had come to bear witness to the truth. Pilate apparently did not recognize truth when it stood before him. He is not alone; many other men have failed to recognize that there are absolutes in life that mere man cannot change no matter how hard they try or how desperately they wish for a more lenient and tolerant position.
Truth does not change. We cannot divide it or multiply it because it is indivisible. Like the integer number one, you can never multiply or divide and get anything but one. However, man would like to divide the indivisible because he is not perfect truth as Jesus was. Not only that, he is not willing to acknowledge that he might not have all the answers. Pilate operated on incomplete truth; he succumbed to fear and to his own political aspirations when truth stood before him.
Those of us who know the Truth have the truth imbedded in our heart of hearts, especially if we have studied the Scriptures. We would like to say, like Peter, that we would follow that Truth to the death, but, like Peter, when reality sets in, we are afraid of what could happen to us. I believe that because the fully man part of Jesus wrestled with that too in the garden, He does understand our fears and our weaknesses. I believe that all of us in the coming days will have to decide what “truth” we are willing to fight for because I know the time is coming when we will have to make a stand. Whether or not that stand is on defendable ground is really up to us and the timing of our response. Many will wait until they are backed into a corner before they come to terms with their “garden experience,” and it will be a more difficult fight from a less defensible position. Over and over the apostle Paul and others exhort us to “stand firm.” Do you think that is a coincidence or did they know it would be necessary? Jesus told His disciples they would be hated because the world hated Him. Should we be surprised when the world does not readily embrace us when we tell the truth?
We are preparing for “A Time to Speak”, featuring CWA’s Senior Policy Advisor Wendy Wright and CWA's Chief Counsel Jan LaRue on May 1 here in Kansas City. We believe that to be in a position to defend the truth, Christians need to be equipped to speak out in the culture-wars. We can still take the high ground, the more defensible position if we act now. Wendy, Jan, and the entire staff at CWA have been on the front lines for a long time; they need reinforcements and a solid army of moms, dads and other saints to be lined up ready to fight, not only to defend but to take ground.
The elections are near. As in the past, this election will be a spiritual battle in the heavenlies, as well as in the rhetoric and debates. We will need discernment and wisdom in the coming days. We must vote and be involved. We need to convince other Christians that they need to be engaged; that the stakes are high. Christians traditionally do not vote in the same numbers as the secular world. We leave the battlefield to others who may not even know the truth because they do not have the Spirit of Truth living in them. Can we afford to let them define the truth for us?
Defense of the truth is a high calling. Will you answer the call?
In Him,
Judy Smith
State Director