Category Archives: truth

Truth

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People think they are right. I guess that’s obvious, but it doesn’t hurt to repeat it. No one believes something because they think it’s wrong. If you believe something, you think your position is correct. You may have differing degrees of certainty, but, to some, extent, you are convinced of the truth of your beliefs.

There are other things you just haven’t thought about or don’t consider to be important enough to decide on. I had a language teacher in Argentina who told me she was agnostic, that she just didn’t know if there was a God or not. I told her the issue was important enough that she should really reach a conclusion one way or the other! But many of us are indifferent on a broad range of subjects.

It also takes a certain push to move us off of a position. That is, once we believe something, we tend to stay with that belief. We seek out like-minded people and read things that reinforce our beliefs. If we are in a loving church fellowship, we’re typically willing to believe what other members of that fellowship believe. And we aren’t going to question things just because.

If we go to a church that doesn’t use instruments, nothing in our Bible study will make us want to use instruments. If we go to a church that does use musical instruments, we won’t find anything in Scripture that will cause us to question that. We tend to believe that what we and others around us are doing is right.

That’s why there are so many subjects where some look at others and say, “Why can’t they see this?” or “How can they justify that?” Snake handling. Head coverings. Multiple cups in communion. Speaking in tongues. Church buildings. Saturday night Lord’s Supper. Church-supported children’s homes. Calling a man “Reverend” or “Pastor.” Baptism by immersion. So many topics that people marvel that others can’t see in the same way.

I write all of this not to point fingers at anyone, but to remind myself that I am subject to the same human tendencies as everyone else. I am influenced by my culture. I am predisposed by my background and present context. I read things as a 50-year-old Texan who has lived half of his adult life outside of the United States. I read as one raised in the churches of Christ and trained at an institution affiliated with those churches. I have my experiences that have shaped me, my sins that have warped me, the grace I’ve been shown that has challenged me to be more than what I am.

We approach Absolute Truth and grow in humility with every step we take toward that Truth. Where we once thought that we could dominate it, we come to see that we are incapable of fully grasping it. We realize that every expression of truth must be uttered with wonder and humility, for that Truth is greater than us. We don’t define it; it defines us. Every bit of that Truth that we see reminds us of how much we can’t see yet and how much of what we thought we’d seen before was an illusion.

In the end, we do well to remind ourselves that Truth isn’t really an it; Truth is a person.

We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true — even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. (1 John 5:20)

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6)

Only dead men can tell the truth

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Mark Twain wrote a piece that he was afraid to publish. According to his earliest biographers, this was more out of concern for his family than concern for himself. The money that he earned by writing provided for his family. He didn’t want to endanger that income.

Twain wrote a piece called “The War Prayer” which attacked war in general and religious fervor surrounding war in particular. His family feared the piece would be considered sacrilegious. Others around him also discouraged Twain from publishing the piece. When his illustrator, Dan Beard, asked him if he would press ahead and publish “The War Prayer” anyway, Twain replied:

“No, I have told the whole truth in that, and only dead men can tell the truth in this world. It can be published after I am dead.”

Do you agree? Can dead men tell truth in a way that isn’t permitted to the living? Does an author’s death lend strength to his words or do they lose power without his presence to support them?

Is it true that only dead men can tell the truth in this world?

(some information taken from Wikipedia)

Liberals and conservatives: a simple definition

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In one of the comments on yesterday’s post, Bobby Ross talked about being called on to define the terms liberal and conservative as regards the church.

I’m sorry I wasn’t there, because I could have made the task easier. The definitions are quite simple: A liberal allows things I think are wrong, a conservative thinks things are wrong which I choose to allow.

This definition is simple because my opinion is that of openmindedness and reason, of careful, objective study. My opinion is that of sound doctrine and veracity. If you disagree with me, you have rejected the truth and strayed into error, be it on the left or on the right. You are unsound. Should you continue in your ways, you will be guilty of willful disobedience.

You have been warned.

To tell the truth

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oathThe post from the other day offering a clarification about the erroneous e-mail that was circulating alleging that Muslims had attacked a church is getting read a lot. The church in Lubbock that was connected to the original message has posted a clarification as well, but apparently a lot of people are looking at what I wrote the other day. I think it’s already the most read post I’ve written; that’s almost sad in a way.

Still, I think that every time one of these mistruths gets clarified, some people learn to be careful before passing on something they’ve received. For years, a rumor would raise its ugly head from time to time, something about Madalyn Murray O’Hair trying to limit religious broadcasting in some way. (The exact form varied according to the time the rumor was being circulated) Apparently the rumor began in 1975 (if not earlier) and circulated in its various incarnations for over 20 years. I even heard it in a sermon; when I pointed out to the preacher that the story was a hoax, his reply was, “So?”

And that’s the response I hear so often when these things are shown to be false. One of the commenters on this blog even said basically the same thing about my post the other day. I know one brother that constantly circulates e-mails that he’s received, primarily about politics. A few of them are even true. When I’ve pointed out the falsehoods he’s distributed, he always basically says that since the person he is attacking is evil, it doesn’t matter if what he spreads is true or not.

Yes, it does matter. We must be known as people who speak the truth. People who are careful to speak the truth. If we win a victory by telling lies, that victory is nothing but a defeat.

We must not be mongers of rumors and half-truths, speculation and accusation. We have a message for the world, a divine one, one that will not tolerate being packaged with a lie. If we hold on to the lie, we will lose the truth. It will not remain with us. It cannot remain with us. Just as holiness cannot abide with sin, truth cannot and will not reside where lies are at home. We will speak nothing but the truth or we will come to speak nothing but lies.

Let us spread truth. If we accidentally share something that isn’t true, let us not rest until we’ve done everything in our power to rectify that.

The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. So help us God.

When mistruths go viral…

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featherThe story was making the rounds of the Internet. Probably still is. One of the latest versions carried the subject line “MUSLIMS ATTACK CHURCH OF CHRIST IN LUBBOCK.” That’s the kind of story that will get people’s attention. Images of robed Middle Easterners bursting into a church building in the heart of the Bible Belt. Religious persecution. A hint of what is sure to come with all that is going on in the U.S. today.

There were three minor problems with the account of this incident:

  1. The attack didn’t happen in Lubbock.
  2. It wasn’t a church of Christ that was attacked.
  3. The attackers weren’t Muslim.

What actually happened was three convicts decided to disrupt a church service in a prison. It wasn’t a religious act, nor a political one. It was the act of a few prison malcontents; hardly an unusual happening. It scared some of the Christians and they jumped to conclusions about those that interfered with the assembly.

There is an e-mail going around written by Wayne Horton with an accurate account of what happened. It reads, in part:

I got this email last week. The prison about which they speak is the Price Daniel Unit in Snyder. I was there in the late 90s as their Chaplain. I am the one who recruited the men who go there form Greenlawn. They are good men. But they made a mistake.  The guys who did that were NOT MUSLIM. They were three guys from medium custody and they just came to cause trouble.  It frightened the Green Lawn guys  because they’d never seen that behavior before.
The Greenlawn elder who wrote the email has apologized to the prison officials and the Muslim prison community. I repeat these guys were not Muslims.
There is so much fear among Christians of the Muslims, this is not going to help. Please contact everyone you’ve sent this to and tell them the truth. Call Greenlawn and speak to Jack Cummings. He will tell you it was NOT muslims.
A Volunteer is the safest person on a prison compound. This was just a bad-acting medium custody trouble-maker. Every other inmate in that Chapel would have protected Jack and the other volunteers.
Now, in case anybody wants to accuse me of trying to protect Muslims, I’m not.  I believe – same as you – that it is by the name of Jesus ONLY that men are saved and no muslim has trusted Jesus so no Muslim is saved.
We just don’t need any more animosity between us.  We need to be able to talk and study honestly with them.

My guess is that it won’t be passed around nearly as much as the inaccurate story. People rarely put the same effort into spreading the truth as they do in spreading mistruth.

So here’s my suggestion. If you received this story or if you receive it in the next few days, contact the person who sent it and ask them if they’ve read the corrected version. If not, share it with them and ask them to send it to whomever sent them the misleading one. And ask them to send the correction to everyone they sent the false story to.

I don’t have any illusions of actually stopping this story. It will probably show up in sermons and blogs for years to come. But maybe, just maybe, we can remind people to be responsible with what they forward. If you discover its not true, I think you have a moral obligation to send out a retraction/correction. As Christians, we need to stand for truth.