Truth Really Matters

Central About 25 years ago, I was encouraged to read the wonderfully organized book by David A. Noebel, Understanding the Times, all about the principal worldviews embraced across the globe and their implications for economics, ethics, psychology, history . . . and life.  Noebel was the founder of Summit Ministries in Colorado Springs; they conduct intensive training courses for high school and college students, helping young Christians to engage with anti-Christian philosophies as they begin adulthood in a spiritually contentious culture.

Recently I picked up the 2022 book by Summit’s current director, Jeff Myers, Truth Changes Everything:  How People of Faith Can Transform the World in Times of Crisis.  I cannot recommend this book, though, because of an utter lack of discernment between “Christendom” and a properly Christian / biblical worldview.  Myers continually cites Roman Catholic thinkers with no caution;  on page 190 he cites six different RC authors on one page!

Nevertheless(!), there are some nuggets worth mentioning, so we’ll glean what we can.

Myers is right about Truth driving our beliefs about God, politics, race, and everything else.  A major theme is Truth (absolute, objective) vs. truths (subjective, dependent on desire).  “Conflicting stories cannot be true and untrue at the same time and in the same manner.”  Either Jesus died on a Roman Cross (New Testament) or he didn’t (Islam).  Either Jesus rose again (NT) or He didn’t (atheism).  Either we have freedom of speech on campus, to share the Gospel, for example, or it is punishable hate speech to explain that sex outside of a biblical marriage is sin.

Weaponizing and warping language is a well-used tactic of today’s most virulent anti-Christian worldviews – the Marxist / leftist / woke.  Myers cites a Lenin biography (Victor Sebestyen) which notes his harsh and abusive method of argument, and how Lenin “almost single-handedly . . . changed the language on the revolutionary Left.”  His opponents were “scoundrels,” “cretins,” “filthy scum,” or profanely worse.  A Lenin associate observed that he did not just reply to opponents; he ridiculed and castigated them.

Lenin taught his team to “play the man, not the ball.”  It became “settled Bolshevik practice.”  Barack Obama’s hero and mentor, Saul Alinsky, in his book Rules for Radicals advises, “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.  There is no defense.  It is almost impossible to counterattack ridicule.  Also it infuriates the opposition, who then react to your advantage.”

The Christian in this spiritual warfare is not to play the same game.  Indeed we should be playing offense, but with the sword of the Spirit, proclaiming the Gospel, and trusting the Holy Spirit to do the hard work in the hearts of men.

Myers notes that fighting fire with fire admittedly gets more clicks.  “Watch person X humiliate person Y in three sentences” in a social media link gets more attention than “Watch person X respond to person Y with Truth and grace.”

I resonate with Myers that today’s important battles are not between Democrats and Republicans, between religious and non-religious, etc., but between the two competing views of truth.  Nancy Pearcey uses “total truth” and Francis Schaeffer calls it “true truth.”  (I recommend both authors unreservedly.)  Since ancient times most people have believed that Truth exists and can be discovered.  Only in recent generations has the balance tipped – in America now over half claim that truths are up to the individual.

A Summit / Barna study found that self-identified Christian churchgoers under age 45 were four times as likely as those older to agree that “if your belief offends someone or hurts their feelings, it is wrong.”  What an effective way to put the final nail in the coffin for 121 evangelism!  The Gospel does have a habit of offending, after all.  But even more so, the “Christian” who holds such a position cannot be born again himself, can he?

More results:  Only 6 percent of young adults agreed that “moral truth is absolute.”  Fear is so rampant now that 75 percent say they hold views they are unwilling to share lest they be shamed or lose their jobs.

The world has changed quite a bit in my own lifetime.  If these attitudes were as rampant across America in my youth, there is no way I would have joined the military and sworn an oath to defend the Constitution.  Back then I had to believe that my chain of command, all the way up to the White House, had as much respect for the Constitution as I did.

Modern folks tend to look for Truth in precisely the wrong place, Myers notes – within themselves!  How arrogant is that?  The Christian perspective is that Jesus Christ, the Creator, is the source of Truth (John 14:6).  Jesus wired up human beings and is the Author of the rest of reality.  He defines the questions and He provides the answers.  How should we live?  What is marriage and how do we make it successful?  What are ethical business principles?  How should we raise children?  What is the purpose of life?  What comes afterward?  What does God expect out of us?

People can manipulate and distort truths with word games.  Metaphors can illustrate, but they can also lie.  Nazis called the Jews “vermin” to help excuse their extermination.  Similarly, the Hutu leaders in Rwanda demonized Tutsis as “cockroaches.”  Unborn babies are called “products of conception” or “fetal tissue” to justify murder.  Myers cites Michael Bauman:  “When words lose their meaning people lose their lives.”

Feelings do not alter Truth.  Between male and female, biologically, there is far more than XX vs. XY.  Apparently, there are at least 6,500 other genetic differences.  If a female says, “But I don’t feel like a female,” what does that even mean?  No wokester seems to be able to explain that.  Without objective criteria, harmful and irrational decisions are made that damage thousands of children.

If considerations of Truth are grounded in Scripture and the words of Jesus, and He promises guidance via the indwelling Holy Spirit, it is fairly hard to get into trouble, other than trouble which comes from the hands of the Adversary.

Jesus was quite the counter-cultural revolutionary.  Myers observes that He did not call His followers to defeat their enemies militarily; rather, to win them through love, hanging out with them until you can persuade them.  Christianity is not about following rules, but about living by principles that work in reality.  This enables the Christian’s testimony, helping to persuade the unbeliever why he should switch teams.  The hardest sell, of course, is to convince the lost fellow that his sins are serious and that he needs forgiveness, that genuine repentance is demanded along with a whole-hearted trust in the crucified and risen Savior.  Once born again, then a new life begins, and the Lord Jesus helps continually with that.

The Truth about the Christian life is that it is going somewhere.  Indeed, all of history is going somewhere, on a prophetic arc that leads to a New Heaven and a New Earth.  It’s a big story and we need to tell it.

One startling consequence of Christian Truth, as opposed to the ‘truths’ of other worldviews, derives from the imago Dei, the idea that we are made in the image of God; therefore, both human bodies and souls have dignity.  The incarnation demonstrated this, Myers claims, when the Creator forever became both a human body and soul.

In ancient times, pagans believed in alleviating suffering only for the ‘deserving.’  Christians opened up medical charities for everyone, though.  You cannot claim to love God without loving others, including enemies.

The 19^th century poet, James Russell Lowell, offers this dare:  “I challenge any skeptic to find a ten-square-mile spot on this planet where they can live their lives in peace and safety and decency, where womanhood is honored, where infancy and old age are revered, where they can educate their children, where the Gospel of Jesus Christ has not gone first to prepare the way.”

Searching for Truth is connected to our natural desire to learn, to grow.  A proper education, in contrast with mere schooling, helps us acquire wisdom to see meaning in what we do.  Once again, that quest starts with Jesus:  “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.”  (Prov 9:10)

Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls it “flow” when we have a sense of well-being and competence in our activities.  The greatest flow is achieved when we are working hard at something we find fascinating.  The lowest flow comes from leisure – watching TV, passively.  Older adults are happier if they keep learning.

J. Warner Wallace points out that the world’s top 15 universities were started by Christians with the expressed purpose (in most cases) of advancing the Gospel. Unfortunately, those universities are dedicated to Satan’s work now . . . for which they will be severely judged.

Today’s Christian had better not be dependent on the secular system to grow in knowledge and wisdom.  We can see God in everything, because He is the source of all Truth, whether mathematics or botany or atomic physics or music or even athletics.  The secularist may be intimate with the mechanics of a tree, but only the Christian can see God’s purpose in designing trees and revel in God’s glory for doing so with such spectacular results.

Myers has a thoughtful treatment on how the Christian faith informs just war theory.  War is always an evil, but when it is launched by evil men with evil purposes, the Christian view is to minimize the destruction and seek a just peace.  “Blessed are the peacemakers . . .”

Accordingly, aggression is condemned, but defensive war is legitimate to stop evildoers.  The goal is to seek a peace, not secure revenge or to gain wealth.  Destruction of a nation’s people or resources is wrong.  Since war can be properly waged only by governments, only the agents of governments may fight or be attacked; noncombatants should enjoy immunity as much as practical.

The admonition by the Lord to ‘turn the other cheek,’ applies to individuals, not governments.  Indeed, war is on a continuum, as I see it, of law enforcement.  Romans 13 advises criminals that a nation’s rulers ‘bear not the sword in vain,’ and that is the principal reason for God to establish government, so that we may lead peaceable lives.  Aggressive war is criminality writ large.

My sense of the individual ‘turn the other cheek’ principle is that it was designed especially for Christians under persecution, as a witness to unbelievers of the mercy and grace of God.  Throughout history, multitudes of martyrs have provoked other multitudes in turn to repent from their own sins and be converted.

Myers points to the ahead-of-its-time administrative law system delivered through Moses to regulate community life.  Securing town borders, protecting property rights, recording economic transactions to establish holdings, ensuring food safety, resolving disputes, and a host of other issues must be codified for peace within a land.

The ‘many truths’ ideas of postmodernism are totally unworkable when it comes to living life in reality.  The simple act of turning on a tap to drink water assumes a system of laws and taxes to acquire water sources, pumps, pipes, building codes, engineering standards, commercial enterprises for faucets, joints, valves, etc., and an entire waste treatment system for unused water.

What happens when God’s commands and men’s laws come into conflict?  Myers cites Brother Andrew who smuggled Bibles illegally behind the Iron Curtain.  The principle is simple:  “We ought to obey God rather than men.”  (Acts 5:29).  Although simple, it’s not necessarily easy.  Christians have to be willing to suffer the consequences of standing up for the Gospel in opposition to the Satanically-driven rulers of this world.

Although work is a consequence of the Fall – “the sweat of thy face” – the Lord Jesus has redeemed work for His followers:  “Do all to the glory of God.”  Much of humanity has missed this message.  A Gallup world poll across 160 nations has reported that 70 percent of workers struggle or suffer in their lives, rather than thrive.  Eighty percent lack engagement – “enthusiasm about, and commitment to their work and workplace.”  The tasks of daily toil suck the life out of most people.

Gallup estimated that low employee engagement costs the global economy seven trillion dollars a year in lost productivity.

Philosopher Soren Kierkegaard famously sought “to find the idea for which I am willing to live and to die.”  He thought that if he could see the world from God’s perspective then, like Archimedes, he could move the world with a long enough lever and the knowledge of where to place a fulcrum.

But of course we do have God’s perspective, through His word.  And He promises to walk with us as we embrace the Great Commission that Jesus gave to us.  Hopelessness and pointlessness are for those who don’t know the Lord.

We can ask God to bless and multiply the ‘mundane’ work we do.  Myers observes that the human mind has created more wealth than all the natural resources of the world.  Only two of the world’s twenty wealthiest companies derive their profits from natural resources like oil.  The others develop software, make financial arrangements, and develop systems to deliver products and services.

Myers quotes the traditional Kenyan proverb, “You can count the number of seeds in a mango, but you cannot count the number of mangos in a seed.”  Myers was instructing a group of high school students on the ‘multiply’ principle, to encourage them to find ways to create more pies, rather than just seek to grab a piece of existing pie.  A young lady asked him how she could do that in her dog-walking business; she charged $10 an hour and there are only so many hours in a day.

Before he could respond, her eyes lit up and she answered herself.  “Wait.  Who says I must walk only one dog at a time?  Or that I have to be the only person doing the walking?”

Good stewardship requires thinking.  Given that we must work to support ourselves and our family, we may as well make as much money as possible in the time we have to give to it.

When people you know are within geographical proximity, don’t let social media burn bridges.  Myers has a friend in a high-conflict environment who regularly asks potential or actual adversaries, “Can I take you to coffee and hear your viewpoint and share mine?”

Some useful conversational gambits arise simply from the Christian perspective of valuing another as made in the image of God and caring about the relationship, not just your goals.  For example:  “Tell me more about that.”  People generally will love to do that!  Also, ask questions.  A skeptic states, “Evolution proves that the Bible is untrue.”  You might ask what they mean by “evolution,” “proof,” and “truth.”

If someone passionately claims, “I could never believe in a God who would allow evil,” you might say, “It sounds like there is a story behind that.  Would you be willing to share it with me?”

A 2021 survey of American adults indicate that they suffer from many significant fears.  The Bible’s message repeatedly includes, “Fear not.”  We musn’t forget the people we interact with are generally having a hard time.

In the Christian perspective we walk day by day in eternity.  C. S. Lewis noted that atheists think that nations and civilizations “must be more important than individuals,” because “individuals live only seventy odd years each and the group may last for centuries.”  But, he observed, to the Chrisitian, “individuals are more important, for they live eternally; and races, civilizations, and the like are in comparison the creatures of a day.”

Jeff Myers closes his book with an anecdote about a guy who walked past his house in Manitou Springs, shaking a stick and proclaiming, “Love!  Peace!  Happiness!”  Jeff looked puzzled, so the guy explained, “I just made a new wand and I’m casting happy spells on the neighborhood.”  Jeff smiled and said, “Thank you.”

He regrets that he didn’t think to explain to the fellow that peace, love, and happiness don’t happen by magic; we’ve got to actively work at it.

I’m flabbergasted that after consideration that was Myers’ regret.  Why didn’t Jeff see that the fellow was a lost soul in need of meeting the only true Source of love, peace, and happiness?  Why wasn’t he instant in season, out of season, to share the Gospel, to at least give the fellow something TRUE to think about.

Sigh.

Well, we ought not to miss our own opportunities to help someone out eternally.  Or simply go to your local grocery store and create some opportunities.  Stop for gas and go inside so you can engage some more souls.  Stop by Taco Bell on the way back and give the drive-through worker a stack of tracts for the entire crew.  Let me know how you feel about it afterwards.

• drdave@truthreallymatters.com