How much do we love the truth? Is a love of truth necessary for us to be saved, or is it merely an one way to come to God? Does the Lord care if we fudge the truth about “non-essential” matters as long as we adhere to the main tenets of the Christian faith? I hope that by the end of this article you will agree with me that truth and error do not mix.
Some of the mainline denominations have been willing to compromise with LGTBQ+ ideology in order to avoid offending a large number of people who populate their congregations. By so doing they have divided their followers into two camps – those who are willing to embrace, or at least refuse to confront, error and those who believe we must firmly adhere to the Bible’s teachings. The United Methodist Church split right down the middle with the formation of the Global Methodist denomination. In most cases, however, the split is much less dramatic. Bible loyal congregants simply leave to find groups that are more hospitable to their convictions.
With some evangelical churches, the compromise with truth is often less stark. Some churches choose to avoid addressing potentially divisive issues, such as abortion, in order to attract large numbers of “seekers” to their meetings, where the gospel of salvation by faith in Christ is preached. These churches believe that tolerating error in some areas is permissible as long as the central gospel message is preserved. But what kind of disciples are being produced? It has been my observation that churches must continue doing what drew people in order to keep them. Are unity and growth more important than truth?
In this article I will show that truth can be a radically divisive thing that exposes who loves it and who doesn’t.
Those who are indifferent are lumped together with the second group. We cannot be indifferent to something we love.
I use the word “radically” in the above sentence in a most fundamental way. Radical comes from the Latin “radix,” which means root, core, or foundation. Radicals believe that they must be true to core principles, that behavior must correspond to foundational beliefs, and that we must love truth no matter what the consequences.
Jesus is a radical and wants us to be.
Jesus identifies himself the “truth” (John 14:6). When he stood on trial before Pilate, the Bible records the following interaction.
Therefore Pilate said to Him, “So You are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” John 18:37 (NASB95)
Jesus understood his purpose in coming to the earth was to testify to God’s truth and destroy Satan’s web of lies.
Interestingly, he also stated that people who are “of the truth” are able to “hear” his words. The rest are either indifferent or hostile. The Jewish leaders completely rejected the one who is the living embodiment of truth. They murdered their Messiah with the help of the Romans.
Lovers of truth have a God-given type of hearing that results in their understanding and believing the truth.
Without God’s help, we cannot hear or believe Jesus or his words.
“Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word. 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. 45 “But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me. John 8:43–45 (NASB95)
The Spirit of truth, the Holy Spirit, must work inside us to give us a love for God’s truth and draw us to Christ.
But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth... John 16:13a (NASB95)
When the apostle Peter confessed aloud that Jesus is the Messiah, Jesus replied that he could not know that truth unless it were revealed to him by God. (Matthew 16:17) Those who love truth were chosen by God for this privilege.
But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth, 2 Thessalonians 2:13 (NKJV)
We should be eternally grateful for the mercy shown to us and be willing to pray that others might have their eyes opened, too. Those who do not possess a love for truth will be lost forever, according to the Bible, entrapped and enslaved by the lies they believe. (2 Thessalonians 2:10)
Those who love the truth pursue truth wherever it may lead.
The first apostles followed Jesus even when they did not fully understand his words or were fearful of what may lie ahead. Our pursuit of truth must be just as selfless and fearless.
Those who love the truth will find themselves at odds with a world where falsehood reigns and not just in those areas pertaining to the gospel.
The entire world system lies in the power of the evil one (1 John 5:19), who is the father of lies (John 8:44). He has deceived the whole world (Revelation 12:9), and we would be naive to think that this is only in spiritual matters. Wholesale deception runs through our educational system, the sciences, including anthropology, psychology, sociology, paleontology, astrophysics, biology, and medicine, the arts and media, finances, and, of course, politics. I used to think that deception was, say, knee deep. Now I think it is like a vast chasm, where we cannot yet see the bottom. We are up against something far more formidable that we formerly thought. Those who love the truth must be prepared to stand against a whole world of lies.
The truth of the Bible must spill over into every area of life; otherwise, we have believed the lie that Christianity does not have any place in the “real world,” but belongs inside the church building only.
We cannot allow the great lie birthed during the Age of Reason to stand: science cannot be separated from God’s truth as revealed in the Bible.
Jesus was not afraid of controversy. He split rabbinic Judaism right down the middle. People had to choose between the Talmud and the Messiah. There was no gray area. Those who were drawn to the Truth were saved. The rest were destroyed, including Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 AD.
The truth just naturally divides because it exposes those who love it and those who hate it.
Jesus warned:
Do you suppose that I came to grant peace on earth? I tell you, no, but rather division; Luke 12:51 (NASB95)
In the last days, I believe it will be increasing necessary for God’s people to hold steadfastly to biblical truth without compromising in any area.
We have the responsibility to stand publicly for the Bible’s truth with a godly attitude.
The Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, 25 with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, 26 and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will. 2 Timothy 2:24–26 (NASB95)
God expects us to exhibit humility, patience, mercy, and love as we stand for truth, without compromising, having the goal to help people repent from their love of error and embrace truth. Thankfully, some who currently hate truth will come to their senses and become lovers of truth. We do not yet know who they are, but God does. If we testify to the truth, it will enable them to hear and believe with the Holy Spirit’s help.
We understand that honest people reach different conclusions when interpreting scripture.
When it comes to what some call “non-essential” doctrines, those that will not determine our eternal destiny, we charitably allow for differences of opinion. Examples are views about the end times or the Armenian-Reformed theology debate. In both of these cases, we hold to what we believe is true, but allow other persons to think differently. We disagree about the end time because it has not taken place yet and we are unsure how to properly interpret some prophetic sections of scripture. We disagree over the Armenian vs Reformed dispute because we tend to see one side of the issue more clearly than the other. It is a disagreement over some of the details of how God saves us, not whether he does. When I teach, I present both sides, but then tell my listeners what I believe and why I think it best agrees with the Word of God. It is important, but non-essential in an eternal sense. Nevertheless, we still must take sides because truth demands it. We speak the truth in love, but we speak the truth.
However, some truths are so important, and their corresponding lies so devious, that we cannot be so generous as to simply politely disagree.
The LGBTQ+ controversy is a case in point. To embrace homosexuality and transgenderism is to rebel against the Creator and his purpose in sexuality. It is also a rejection of the Bible’s testimony. Another case for us to consider is the debate around whether Genesis Chapter One should be taken as a true history of creation or interpreted as poetry to make room for modern astrophysics.
It must be obvious that Satan wishes to undermine the Bible’s truthfulness and authority. What better way than to discredit the very first chapter of Genesis?
Some Christians feel comfortable embracing the Big Bang theory, even though it fundamentally contradicts the Genesis creation account and gives legs to the deceptive theory of evolution. I humbly admit that I previously saw no contradiction between the Big Bang explosion and God’s speaking the creation into existence, I now see that it contradicts the Bible.
To compromise Genesis Chapter One is a departure from and denial of biblical truth that sets the stage for greater errors down the road and leads ultimately to atheism.
How can we knowingly embrace or even wink at a clearly anti-biblical position, if we are lovers of truth? Please seriously think about this. Sadly, a large proportion of the mainline church has compromised with LGBTQ+. Perhaps sadder still is that most of the church rejects Genesis Chapter One as a true account of creation, having capitulated to modern astrophysics without so much as a whimper of protest!
It seems that sola sciencia might be a better motto than sola scriptura for many evangelicals today.
Perhaps we are not yet as open to the truth of God’s Word as we think we are. We still have a long way to go, but I thank God that he is very patient with us as we stumble along on our journey toward fully embracing God’s truth, and the Holy Spirit is relentless in guiding us into that truth. Hallelujah!
