Fighting for Truth

 Christians must be Truth Seekers and Truth Speakers. FULL STOP! We must be a people that seek to understand the truth claims of others and their positions so that we can rightly understand their arguments. We must search out the Scriptures, the Sciences, historical claims, and all the rest to make sure that what then speak out for or against is true or can be rightly defended as the truest claims. This also means we must not create "straw men" of our opponents' positions, revert to ad hominem attacks, or fall into the trap of other logical fallacies, when depicting or arguing against what others might be putting forward. I state this because how we Speak about the truth and truth claims of others also reveals how dedicated one is to truth. We do not get to falsify other people because we believe their claims are false. We must be dedicated to seeking and speaking the truth at all times for the sake of rightly representing morality and the Christian ethic to all people.

You see Christians believe in absolute, universal, transcendent truth. Therefore, we must behave accordingly. We make no apologies for this either. NONE! We believe that God made the world and everything in it by speaking it into existence, because only He possess the power and authority to do so. We believe that He created this world in 6 literal days as a display of His power and creativity. We believe that He made everything GOOD when He made every living thing. And we believe these truth claims are the foundational truth claims of Biblical Christianity. One cannot ignore the first truth claims of the Bible and then desire to believe other parts of the book. The whole logic of the Holy Scriptures begins with the Truth claim that "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." To get to sin, covenant, law, miracles, and most importantly, redemption, one must see the collective truth claims of the Bible in their total cohesion and unity to rightly understand the fullness of the story that spans the 66 books in both the Old and New Testaments. By the time one makes it to John's Gospel and reads Pilate utter the words "What is truth?" while looking Christ in the eyes trying to decide what to do with him, you should realize that this is more than just a climatic scene in a short narrative, but this is the question EVERY observer of life must ask of the Holy Scriptures and its Savior ultimately. Yet, let me digress for a moment and deal with more practical matters concerning Christians and their dedication to Truth Seeking and Speaking. 

We are still coming out of the haze of a recent election where an overwhelming number of people went to the polls, or to their mail-box, and voted in historic numbers for the President of the United States of America. Now in this election, like all the others in my life-time, there were claims made by each side that lacked truth. Perhaps in some situations they were all out lies! But politicians and their surrogates lying or manipulating truth is about as surprising as turkey and dressing at Thanksgiving. Its more expected than not, and the only true hope is it better be good! If one is at least directionally true in a sense, their perspective might be more valued than one who is outstandingly false in their words or writing. Yet, because confidence in media, politician, and the foundational systems of our country are at an all time low, at least this is what we are told by pollsters that also seem to have a truth telling problem, there doesn't seem to be any place for truth at all. (Apologies to David Wells for borrowing the title of his book "No Place for Truth") Add all of this to the skepticism of the Covid-19 crisis and how different states, counties, and municipalities have handled it, and you get a recipe for misinformation, conspiracy theories, and all out deniers of anything claimed by the media at all. And let me be clear, this is not good for society or culture at large because when no one is trusted and skepticism rules the day it makes it that much harder for Christians to make the important claims that our faith, the one true faith given to the Saints, must make to a blind and deaf world. 

To demonstrate my point, I was at a basketball game recently watching one of my children play. Now, I will openly admit I love sports to a degree that might not always be beneficial, and especially when the Arkansas Razorbacks are playing anything versus anyone. However, at this particular game I was really bothered when the rules of the game were not properly applied in a crucial situation. Yes, there are times in sports where an official or umpire might make a judgment call that I disagree with, this happens all the times in sports when fans and players are more emotionally invested than the referees and perspectives can be blinding, but a rule being applied and followed is not the same as a judgment call. Even umpires, officials, or judges deciding a case are not free to ignore, misapply, or create new rules in the middle of a contest or anything else because this affects the fairness of the game or situation overall. In other words, when truth becomes relative in one aspect of life, you can expect that it will become relative in other places as well. One must believe in absolute truth because without them nothing in life can be rightly adjudicated or evaluated according to any accepted standard whatsoever, and as my example shows this goes for all of life. 

This is why fighting for truth must be the mentality and commitment of the Christian. We must fight for truth at home, at work, at church, and everywhere else we engage others. We must seek the truth when we read claims made by others or hear facts spoken. Then, when we speak, or share materials on social media, we must only speak the truth. Yes, as Christians, we have an obligation to speak the truth in love and not use it as means to belittling those who disagree with us. Truth is not a blunt force object to put our opponents in their place, Truth is a promise to live by and a joy to share. Christians must be Truth Seekers and Truth Speakers. We cannot compromise for any reason to this commitment. Nothing is worth sacrificing truth for and Christians must lead the way in this noble pursuit.