The Death Of Truth Series

The Death of Truth

Merriam-Webster definition of Truth is where we need to begin. You won’t find many word definitions that are this opposite between the dictionary and the Bible.

TRUTH – (noun) ((PERSON, place, THING or IDEA)) So, from whichever one you use to define TRUTH, will make all the difference in the world.

The dictionary’s definition of TRUTH – (Now listen carefully) “A STATEMENT or IDEA that is true or ACCEPTED as true”.

So what if the definition of truth is NOT widely accepted (by people) as true? Does that make it untrue? This definition seems to imply (By the worlds standards) truth can change and adapt? Can truth “evolve?” By definition, the dictionary says YES.

And so we look into….the death, of truth.

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We live in a world where diametrically opposed truths can and do coexist.

What’s true for you may not be true for me. No one can know truth for sure. If you say something isn’t true you are labeled intolerant.

If we don’t have a standard for truth, we can all just start adjusting it to fit our lives. To justify our guilt. To make us feel more tolerant.

With no standard anchor on TRUTH, we are all going off course.

Walk into a store full of clocks and watches. They’re all close but not exactly in sync with what time it is. Watches don’t have a standard like our computers, cell phones and GPS devices do. Those devices are constantly linked electronically …to an anchor.

Atomic clocks ensure we don’t vary off course even one second per 30 million years. They’re our anchor of standard time. Without that anchor we incrementally veer off course…hopelessly losing time.

Society is no different. If societal truth is not anchored in an absolute truth, it is ever changing to deal with our shifting belief systems in our different cultures. Culture changes, sometimes for the better, sometimes not.

Let’s simply take the last 50 years as an example.

One cultural change FOR THE BETTER was the civil rights movement was raging in the 1960’s. We were in a dark time where African Americans weren’t even allowed to use the same drinking fountains as white people. They couldn’t even use the same toilet as our culture deemed them as unequal.

In just 20 short years in the 1980’s we, as a society, went from that segregation to one that if you even spoke in a racist tone (and I don’t condone racism) but if you did…you would lose EVERYTHING. Your career, your life, everything.

Culture has changed. Does truth change with it?

Culturally you could smoke ON AIRPLANES 30 years ago. IN A PRESSURIZED TUBE OF CIRCULATED OXYGEN AT 40,000 FEET.

You could smoke in theatres, hospitals, grocery stores, you name it. Culture has changed in just 30 years. Has truth changed with it?

Let’s talk about homosexuality. Now I have your attention.

As a culture in 30 years we have gone from homosexuality being hushed about on most TV shows and movies and music to today, where anyone that even speaks their opinion against it is shut down, it’s getting there. You lose your career, your life. Even if it’s a loving opinion.

A national article that came out this week that talks about an executive that was only ACCUSED of an anti-gay remark that was immediately fired on the spot. He was screaming that he never said those things and that many of his friends are gay, they didn’t even wait around to see what was true and what wasn’t.

My soapbox: Most (not a blanket statement) of the gay/lesbian proponents are screaming equality! They want the right to be able to say whatever they want, even if it’s against Christianity. I’M FINE WITH THAT. I WELCOME THAT! The problem is at the same time they’re trying to shut us down, as Christians, from saying what we believe IN LOVE! In doing so those who are screaming for TOLERANCE are becoming the most INTOLERANT.

The Bible teaches homosexuality is a sin. It’s not the worst sin, it’s a sin. We all have sin. Lots of it. LOTS OF IT. No one here can point their finger at a homosexual and NOT point their own finger right back at themselves.

Do many Christians get this all wrong, treating homosexuals badly thumping them with scripture, sadly, YES. On the flip side, do many homosexuals demand rights for themselves while shutting down our rights to call it a sin? Absolutely.

Go get my sermon on CD at the bookstore, this is not a sermon on homosexuality, it’s only an example.

Are we, as Christians just supposed to become “tolerant” of it all?

Tolerance is the word these days.