The Truth Shall Set You Free

It has become fashionable today to believe that truth is relative. If you believe that your ideas are true, then that is fine, whilst I will believe that my ideas are true. Even though our stated ideas may be polar opposites, it doesn’t matter, as long as we are both equally convinced of our own ideas. This is the prevailing dogma today, as people are encouraged to embrace each other’s religions and to simply ‘put their differences aside’. In addition, we hear continually that ‘we all serve the same god anyway’, so why does it matter?

Whilst considering the current low view that the world has of truth, I read the following from a book by A.W. Tozer: “When men deal with things earthly and temporal they demand truth; when they come to the consideration of things heavenly and eternal they hedge and hesitate as if truth either could not be discovered or didn’t matter anyway.” Although Tozer wrote these words a few decades ago, his words ring true today even more than they did in his day.

If we consider how we look at things that are earthly, just imagine two men (e.g. the Wright brothers) trying to build an aircraft, whilst holding different views on the existence of gravity. One says: “I believe that there is a force that will bring this aircraft to the ground, so we must build it with that force in mind”; the other says, “Such a force is just a figment of your imagination, I think the aircraft will fly without us considering that imaginary force”. I am certain that their construction would have ended in disaster if they simply ‘put their differences aside’!

Yet, heavenly and eternal matters are of far greater importance than that which is earthly. Whether or not you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God is more important than whether or not one understands gravity. Many people lived perfectly normal lives long before Newton was whacked on the head by an apple. Many people also lived before Jesus came to earth, but only those who believed that He already lived (as He is God) and would pay for their sins were saved. There are examples in the Bible of people who lived even before Abraham (e.g. Noah and Job), yet they were saved by faith in the same God who appeared to Abraham. In the same way that the law of gravity was present before people quantified it, Jesus Christ was Lord before He revealed Himself as a man on earth.

But how can we know that Jesus Christ is the Truth, above all of the other prophets of other religions? How can we stand by Him and declare that His Word the Truth? Unfortunately, there are precious few examples of Christians today who refuse to compromise on this point. These days, all that it takes for Christians to denounce the Word of God as being completely true is a little pressure from so-called ‘science’ or society. Under such conditions, it is no wonder that some may think that my statement that belief in Christ is more important than gravity is a little extreme.

Yet the Christians who lived and died before us, and those continually being persecuted in countries where there is no freedom of religion, will agree with my statement. Just read through the Book of Acts or the Foxes’ Book of Martyrs, and you will find accounts of people who proclaimed that belief in Jesus Christ was more important than life itself. The disciples of the Lord who saw Him after He was resurrected proclaimed that He was alive. That their proclamation was true was borne out by the fact that they were willing to be tortured, thrown in prison, and even die before they would dream of compromising their belief (Acts 5:22-42).

These early Christians saw the risen Christ themselves – they even touched Him and felt His wounds (Luke 24:36-43). They simply told others what they saw, and proclaimed that it was a fact. If a group of men got together and decided to make up a story about their prophet being alive from the dead, their hoax would be uncovered the moment their lives were threatened. Yet these men would not back down from their claim, and Steven in Acts 7:56 proclaimed that He saw the Lord Jesus at the right hand of God, even as he faced the people who would kill him for saying such a thing.

Besides these early Christians, we have the witness of those who lived centuries after Jesus rose from the dead, yet they too proclaimed His resurrection as being absolutely true. The gospel of Jesus Christ was so precious to these people that they would suffer the loss of all their possessions, the lives of their loved ones, and their own lives, just because they refused to compromise on their claim that He is the Truth. When the Roman Catholics were persecuting Christians, the persecutors would only ask the Christian to recant specific parts of the Bible that disagreed with the Pope’s views. These people simply refused, stating that the Word of God could not be compromised on any point – they lost their lives as a result. Today we still hear accounts of great faith coming from Christians living in countries where the Truth of God is not welcome.

The testimony of the martyrs to the rest of the world is a simple one: Jesus Christ is the Truth, and belief in Him is the only way to be reconciled with God. I fear that the so-called Christians living in countries that allow religious freedom are undermining this simple message. If ‘science’ claims otherwise, then we can ignore Genesis chapter 1. If our society wants the Church to allow sexual promiscuity and homosexuality, then we can ignore the bits of the Bible stating that such things should not be tolerated in the Church (Romans 1:26-27; Galatians 5:19; Ephesians 5:3; Colossians 3:5). After the long list of points on which the modern ‘christian’ is willing to compromise, there is little of the Bible left to believe and there is little of the Church left to distinguish it from the world.

The consequences of this low view of truth are far-reaching. Because people preach that truth is relative, they consequently claim that sin is relative. If one person believes that their lifestyle is not sinful, then it is fine, as long as they are happy that way. These ideas are based on the fear of offending people because, somehow, that is worse than condemning them to hell. But, of course, heaven and hell have also become relative – if you believe that they exist, you will land up there and, if not, you won’t go anywhere. Some people will face God at the end of their lives, some will be reincarnated, and some will just decompose in the earth.

It amazes me that people are so easily sold on this idea. If this is so, then reality is not real – it simply does not exist. Truth doesn’t exist either. If truth does not exist, then one wonders why we find it so important not lie in a court of law. Following this reasoning, no one can tell a lie, because the truth is what they make of it. No one should be sentenced to prison for any crime, because they were only doing what they believed was true (this includes nutters that commit mass homicide). Contrast these vague ideas of truth with the plain statement in 1 John 1:8-9: If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The truth is absolute, and every human being has sinned against God – we all desperately need the Saviour to forgive us.

Following on from the idea that truth is relative, is the statement that ‘everyone is following the same god, anyway’. If everyone were really following the same god, then that god would not be worth serving. In one religious book he tells Muslims to kill Jews, and in the other He claims to be the God of the Jews. To some people, he says they must just ‘be good’ to reach paradise or be favourably reincarnated, to others He says that they cannot do anything by themselves, but must believe in Jesus to get to heaven. How could these things be reconciled? Following this theory, the man who flew a plane into one of the Twin Towers in New York will meet up with one of his many atheist/Christian/Jewish/Hindu etc. victims, in paradise or heaven! I’m sure they’ll happily shake each other’s hands…

No, I believe that the truth is absolute, and that it can only be discovered in the Word of the one true God. This is the holy Triune God – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit; and the Son is described as the Word of God in the gospel of John 1:1-4 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. Thus, to compromise on any doctrine that is clearly declared in the Word of God is to deny the Lord Jesus Himself. To deny Him on earth carries this grave warning: But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 10:33).

To those reading this who know Christ as their personal Saviour, I would encourage you to take the Word of God as seriously as the martyrs who have gone before us. To those who do not yet know Him and have not been born again, I ask that you would come to Him yourself through prayer and reading the Bible. Once you have met Him, you will realise why thousands of people lost their lives because they knew that He is the living God. It is easy to compromise on an idea you think may be true, but it is incredibly difficult to compromise on something you know is true. To those who call themselves Christians, yet are willing to compromise the Word of God, I ask – are you absolutely certain that you know Him? Please take the warning in Matthew 10:33 seriously.

I will end with the words of the Lord Jesus in John 8:31-32: Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”