“Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
“You will not certainly die,”
“For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Abbreviated version of exchange, Genesis 3:1-5
“You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:44)
From the sand, into the sea,
My weight is moving carelessly.
I’m floating now, I feel the sun,
Casting off to have my fun.
It seems so peaceful and serene,
My senses now are not so keen.
The undertow, that silent force,
Gently pulls me off my course.
Suddenly, I realize,
The beach is hidden from my eyes.
I’m in too deep, I’ve drifted out,
There is no sign of life about.
I’m swimming in a sea of lies,
I can’t get back, He hears my cries.
“I am the way, the truth, the life,”
He calls to me, I end my strife.
Safely, He pulls me back to shore,
I’m safe with Him forevermore.
The lies have gone, He set me free,
When lies call out, to Him I flee.
Does anyone ever remember hearing the term “Fake News” more than five years ago? I don’t, at least not with any regularity at all if anyone did occasionally mouth those words. Obviously there have always been journalists, reporters, and other people involved in the propagation of news who are bias, who have hidden (or not so hidden) agendas and manipulate the news to sway public opinion or perception in a certain direction. However, I do not think that was the normative approach until recently. News reporters prided themselves in practicing “objective journalism”, just report the facts and let the readers decide for themselves what the facts mean. Nothing could be further from the way news is presented to the public in this day and age.
The “narrative” is what controls news and media now, not facts. This has become a very sick and twisted means by which many media and news outlets, as well as politicians and government leaders operate. It is by no means confined to those groups, but it has become increasingly more obvious through them. The narrative becomes the “ideal”. The ideal is the way any person, or group of people think things should be, not what reality actually is. The narrative seeks to perpetuate that ideal, whatever it is, in the effort to control how people think. The distortion of truth is justified by people who do so under the premise that “the end justifies the means”.
Many people believe that there is no such thing as “objective truth”. In this view, there is no such thing as ultimate truth. Truth that exists regardless of how anyone thinks or feels. For people who think this way, all so called “truth” becomes subjective. If you think about it, the idea of “subjective truth” is an oxymoron. It makes no sense. If all “truth” becomes a matter of private interpretation, then truth does not actually exist. Obviously, I do not think this way at all. It is my contention that ultimate “objective” truth does, in fact, exist, and it is our responsibility as moral beings, made in the image of God, to make it the business of our lives to find out what it is, and live our lives by it.
I wrote the above poem a couple of years ago after having a conversation with my brother about how we both feel like we are being bombarded with lies all the time. Lies are nothing new, but I think because we live in an era when communication is so rapid through the internet, lies are spread at what seems like the speed of light now. The world wide web was first called “the information super-highway.” I think it is the highway to hell.
“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” (Matthew 7:13-14)
So, why do human beings lie so much? In order to answer that question, we have to go all the way back to the beginning. You first have to believe what God says. You have to believe that our Creator IS truth, and it is impossible for Him to lie. If you do not believe that, it is because you have been lied to. If you do not believe God tells the truth, or that God even exists, it is because you have chosen to believe the lie that God lies. If God lies, what is your basis for believing anything? If you believe the lie you were told that God lies, or that God does not even exist, why do you not also consider that the person, or people who told you that God lies, or God does not exist, might also be lying? Consequently, if they are lying, then God does not lie, and He does exist.
Some people might say something like this: “No one told me that God lies. No one told me that God does not exist. I came to that conclusion on my own after considering the matter thoughtfully.” To that, I say “poppycock!” From the moment we are born, we begin to listen. We absorb. We might not consciously remember hearing something that has shaped the way we think, but we did. No one is born in a vacuum. No such human has ever existed that was born into total isolation and merely grew mentally, spiritually, and emotionally as his or her body developed with no input or influence from another human being. To say such a person has existed is nonsense.
We are all influenced by other people, either positively or negatively all our lives. We all make conscious decisions about what we chose to believe or not believe. No one comes to a totally objective conclusion about anything based on their own isolated thought process. That is just the nature of reality.
The LIE has its origin in the beginning, our beginning, in the Garden of Eden, with the father of lies, Satan himself. The lie was sown into the heart of man, and it first brought spiritual death (alienation from God, the perfect Creator, the origin of all truth), and the lie set in place the process of physical death that plays itself out in every human being from the moment they are born.
The liar twists what God said. That is what liars do. They twist a person’s words, or take them out of context. Politicians do this all the time. News outlets do this all the time. They frame a narrative, (how they desire for things to be), and they twist the presentation of the so-called facts to fit that narrative. This is the poison they administer to the masses to control how people think. This is mind control. This is how evil gains power.
We are all controlled by something. At the core, there are really only two options; we can turn to the God of all Truth and live in goodness and truth, or we can listen to the lies of the Liar, and continue on our march to death and destruction. Every person who has ever lived has made that decision for themselves with no one else to blame. Other people can influence you in either truth or lies, but you ultimately make the decision yourself about who, or what you listen to.
When Satan approached Eve, and Adam followed Eve’s lead in disobeying God, Satan did not overpower either of them and force them to do anything, he simply told them a lie, and they chose to listen and act.
Who are you listening to? Your life depends on you getting it right.
Danny's Stump 