Truth or Lies:
What is Your Lot?

By Billy C. Sichone

Introduction

Knowing THE TRUTH is most critical for the welfare and salvation of someone. If they are not sure or even believe a lie, they certainly soon or later get to pay the price, at times a very heavy one. The sooner some one resolves or settles this matter, the better for their souls. In an increasingly pluralistic and relative age, it can be difficult at times to exactly tell one from the other. A clear discerning mind is thus essential. In this discourse, we explore these two aspects: truth or lies leaving the ball in your court to decide your destiny, though we urge you to choose truth. It's benefits are immeasurably worth the pursuit.

Grave or light Mistakes

In life some mistakes can be committed with relatively few and light consequences. This is because they can be corrected or redone so that the ramifications are not as grave as one would imagine. There are however other mistakes with seriously forbidding repercussions. No amount of excuses, sorrow, regret, remorse or explanation will suffice to remedy such errors. They have far reaching, and perhaps un-correctable consequences into the future.

Among this class of grave mistakes relates to our eternal destiny. While we are alive and here on the earth, we may have opportunity to toy around with those silly mistakes but should we die in that unregenerate state, we lose the privileges of entering eternal life. The repercussions and ramifications of such a terrible mistaken choice will land one in the lake of fire (John 3:16; 2 Thessalonians 1:9). It is for this reason that Satan launches an attack, specifically targeted at the mind. He is fully aware that if the "command" or "nerve" centre of our thought pattern is captivated, the chances are high of controlling every other area. Consequently, the evil one, and indeed the humanist or heretic focuses on the mind. He will suggest all sorts of things or mind deflecting ideas through books, movies, magazines, pictures, causes, cartoons, music, strange corrupting internet sites, social media and a whole host of avenues, all targeted at the mind. It is therefore essential to not only inoculate the mind with correct information, but with the Truth as it is in Jesus. The humanist, for instance, has mistakenly believed that if humanity is sufficiently educated, proficient at doing Science, trained for duty, exposed to and rightly skilled, s/he can develop into a mature better being, though he is essentially intrinsically good already, so it is claimed by pundits. For such thinking men and women, Sin and depravity are out rightly denied as mere figments of imagination. Thus the world progresses on that plane of relativity, egocentrism with an uncompromising belief that absolutes are not possible. Constructivist perception is what matters. Moreover, the worldly would attack any claim to absolute truth and standards. In their world view, everything is relative, contingent on subjective opinions not objective standards. Truth is what I make it to be not what others think or impose. I am the measure of all things, subjectively determining what is truth or not. By that token, many "truths" exist.

The Biblical view

But the scriptures demand and state that there is only one set of truth and any other is false, worth rejecting. If one starts off with a humanistic mindset, then chances are that they will reject the truth altogether and vice versa. It is not a matter of opinion but fact. For our purposes, we briefly investigate a number of passages in the scriptures stating that only the Truth found in God's revealed will is THE TRUTH, not "a" Truth.

We kick start this Biblical excursion from John 8:31, 32 & 36 where the Lord Jesus talks to those that believed in Him and abode in Him, they would know the truth, which truth would set them free. A number of implications immediately come to the fore:

a. That to be a true disciple of Jesus, one needs to be in Jesus, that is to be engrafted into Him, born again having communion with God. In other words, person must be regenerated and have a living relationship with Christ as we have it in the mystical union.

b. The Christian must know Christ, whom to know is eternal life. Any other knowledge cannot give life eternal except that special knowledge as made manifest in special revelation.

c. The person that truly abides in Christ will know the Truth and the truth shall set them free. This liberty or freedom comes about as the divine truth is imbibed and made part of one's being and life. This knowledge of Christ in a saving way results in total liberty from all bondages including sin and it's consequences. This liberty can be understood in different senses one of them being able to know what is right as opposed to the wrong. A Christian need not fear any thing once I. Christ though some false teachers claim that one can be a Christian and yet remain unfree. This claim goes against scriptures' assertion in John 8:31,32,36.

d. By implication, there is a lie that is constantly being floated around by the Devil and his cohorts. Christ has come to set the Christian free.

e. The second implication is that the Christian has nothing the fear because being in Christ drives out all possible fear.

We may safely conclude that if a person has Christ, they should know the truth and thus expel the lie. This lie comes in various ways which may include belief systems opposed to God's word.

The second passage we consider is John 8:44 which basically points to whom those not belonging to Christ actually belong. Jesus states that those that have not accepted Christ and thus unregenerate are children of the Devil and thus cannot obey the truth of God. A number of thoughts are implied in Christ's statements:

a. Anyone who does not have Christ is spiritually impotent, blind, groping around in darkness and thus cannot enter the Kingdom of God unless they turn to Christ.

b. Those not in the Truth as in Christ Jesus cannot accept the words of Christ because they have another master, their father the Devil. Anything to do with Christ does not stir them to obedience or warm their hearts.

c. Those outside Christ are spiritually dead and thus cannot discern the things of the Spirit (Ephesians 2:1). They walk around in darkness and obey their master and father, the Devil.

d. The Devil, by his essential nature has been a liar and in fact, the Father of lies. He will therefore not submit to God nor allow any of his subjects so to do.

The third and final passage is 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12 where the apostle prophecies a great delusion in the last days. He states that a time would come when men would prefer to believe the lie having received a spirit of stupor. They prefer to obey and believe what man teaches rather than what God wants them to believe. This fearful verse has some hair raising implications:

a. The evil one in the last days will be so subtle that even the saints may be misled.

b. There will be a system of thinking in the last days that shall develop inimical to the word of God. This may include all the theories and "isms" in the world that treasure human philosophical thinking away from God or His word. The sad thing is that the lie will be applauded and accepted by the world while any differing view suppressed.

c. There is such a thing as "THE TRUTH" distinct from all others. While men may boast about their theories and philosophies, none of them is Truth as much as the word of God is Truth.

d. Truth liberates and drives out all fear (I John 4:18). If we do not realize our rights in Christ, we will needlessly fear any and every thing. Truth also gives light, illuminating the path and way of life.

From the three positions advanced above, it is critical that the Truth is first established and secondly internalised or believed. By believing it, we will be able to detect, identify and subsequently reject the lie. If we do not have this discerning ability, then we stand in great danger of being misled or confused by the errors of the times.

Conclusion

We may conclude that the battle rages the hotter as the years roll on. As we approach the end times, this attack on the mind and battle to establish or replace the truth with the lie will continue. From every angle, the Christian is consistently bombarded by onslaughts from the world, the flesh and the Devil. Eternal vigilance is called for towards of deadly toxic influences on the mind fostered by tricky movements like the New Age Movement, Occult, cults or the heretics. The saint is thus encouraged to be forearmed with the Belt of Truth, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit. Most of the troubles we presently experience will then be history.

Bibliography

De Waay Bob, "The Truth Versus the Lie"

Brown Rebecca, Prepare for War, Whitaker House, 1987.

Wolford S Marvin, Free Indeed from Sorcery, Pathway Press, 1999.