The Truth War (2 page)

History is filled with accounts of people who chose to accept torture or death rather than deny the truth. In previous generations it was generally considered heroic to give your life for what you believed in. That is not necessarily the case anymore.

Part of the problem, of course, is that terrorists and suicide bombers have co-opted the idea of “martyrdom” and turned it on its head. They call themselves “martyrs,” but they are suicidal murderers who kill people for
not
believing. Their violent aggression is actually the polar opposite of martyrdom, and the ruthless ideologies that drive them are the exact antitheses of truth. There is nothing heroic about what they do and nothing noble about what they stand for. But they are significant symbols of a deeply troubling trend that plagues this current generation worldwide. It seems there is no shortage of people nowadays willing to kill for a lie. Yet few seem to be willing to speak up for truth—much less die for it.

Consider the testimonies of the Christian martyrs throughout history. They were valiant warriors for the truth. They were not terrorists or violent people, of course. But they “fought” for the truth by proclaiming it in the face of fierce opposition, by living lives that gave testimony to the power and goodness of truth, and by refusing to renounce or forsake the truth no matter what threats were made against them.

The pattern starts in the first generation of church history with the apostles themselves. All of them, with the possible exception of John, died as martyrs. (Even John paid a dear price for standing in the truth, as he was tortured and exiled for his faith.) Truth was something they loved and fought and eventually died for, and they handed that same legacy to the next generation.

Ignatius and Polycarp, for example, were early Christian truth warriors. (Both were personal friends and disciples of the apostle John, so they lived and ministered when Christianity was still very new.) History records that both of them willingly gave their lives rather than renounce Christ and turn from the truth. Ignatius was personally interrogated by the emperor Trajan, who demanded that he make a public sacrifice to idols to prove his loyalty to Rome. Ignatius could have saved his life by yielding to that pressure. Some might try to excuse such an outward act under pressure, as long as he didn't deny Christ in his heart. But the truth was more important to Ignatius than his life. He refused to sacrifice to the idols, and Trajan ordered that he be thrown to wild beasts in the stadium for the amusement of pagan crowds.

Ignatius's friend Polycarp, wanted by authorities (because he also was known to be a leader among the Christians), gave himself up willingly, knowing full well that it would cost him his life. Brought to a stadium before a bloodthirsty mob, he was ordered to curse Christ. Polycarp refused, saying, “Eighty-six years have I served him, and he never once wronged me. How then shall I blaspheme my King who saved me?” He was burned alive on the spot.
⁵

In every generation across the history of the church, countless martyrs have similarly died rather than deny the truth. Were such people just fools, making too much of their own convictions? Was their absolute confidence in what they believed actually misguided zeal? Did they die needlessly?

Many these days evidently think so—including some who profess faith in Christ. Living in a culture where violent persecution is almost unknown, multitudes who call themselves Christians seem to have forgotten what faithfulness to the truth often costs.

Did I say “often”? As a matter of fact, faithfulness to the truth is
always
costly in some way or another (2 Timothy 3:12), and that is precisely why Jesus insisted that anyone who wants to be His disciple must be willing to take up a cross (Luke 9:23–26).
⁶

MUCH OF THE
VISIBLE CHURCH
NOWADAYS SEEMS TO
THINK CHRISTIANS ARE
SUPPOSED TO BE AT PLAY
RATHER THAN AT WAR.
THE IDEA OF ACTUALLY
FIGHTING FOR
DOCTRINAL TRUTH IS
THE FURTHEST THING
FROM MOST
CHURCHGOERS' THOUGHTS.

The evangelical movement itself must take some of the blame for devaluing the truth by catering to people's itching ears (2 Timothy 4:1–4). Does anyone really imagine that many of the entertainment-hungry churchgoers who pack today's megachurches would be willing to give their lives for the truth? As a matter of fact, many of them are unwilling to take a bold stand for the truth even among other Christians in an environment where there is no serious threat against them and the worst effect of such a stand might be that someone's feelings get hurt.

Much of the visible church nowadays seems to think Christians are supposed to be at play rather than at war. The idea of actually
fighting
for doctrinal truth is the furthest thing from most churchgoers' thoughts. Contemporary Christians are determined to get the world to
like
them—and of course in the process they also want to have as much fun as possible. They are so obsessed with making the church seem “cool” to unbelievers that they can't be bothered with questions about whether another person's doctrine is sound or not. In a climate like that, the thought of even identifying someone else's teaching as false (much less “contending earnestly” for the faith) is a distasteful and dangerously countercultural suggestion. Christians have bought into the notion that almost nothing is more “uncool” in the world's eyes than when someone shows a sincere concern about the danger of heresy. After all, the world simply doesn't take spiritual truth that seriously, so they cannot fathom why anyone would.

But Christians, of all people, ought to be
most
willing to live and die for the truth. Remember, we know the truth, and the truth has set us free (John 8:32). We should not be ashamed to say so boldly (Psalm 107:2). And if called upon to sacrifice for the truth's sake, we need to be willing and prepared to give our lives. Again, that is exactly what Jesus was speaking about when He called His disciples to take up a cross (Matthew 16:24). Cowardice and authentic faith are antithetical.

WHAT IS TRUTH?

Of course, God and truth are inseparable. Every thought about the essence of truth—what it is, what makes it “true,” and how we can possibly know anything for sure, quickly moves us back to God. That is why God incarnate—Jesus Christ—is called the truth (John 14:6).

That is also why it is not particularly surprising when someone who repudiates God rejects His truth as well. If a person can't tolerate the thought of God, there is simply no comfortable place for the concept of truth in that person's worldview, either. So the consistent atheist, agnostic, or idolater might as well hate the very idea of truth. After all, to reject God is to reject the Giver of all truth, the final Judge of what really is true, and the very essence and embodiment of truth itself.

As we will observe shortly, that is precisely the conclusion at which many in the academic and philosophical realms have now arrived. They no longer believe in truth as a sure and knowable reality. Make no mistake: unbelief is the seed of that opinion. The contemporary aversion to truth is simply a natural expression of fallen humanity's innate hostility toward God (Romans 8:7).

But these days a majority of Americans claim to believe in the God of the Bible, yet still they say they are comfortably uncertain about what is true. A suffocating apathy about the whole concept of truth dominates much of today's society—including an expanding segment of the evangelical movement.

Many self-styled evangelicals today are openly questioning whether such a thing as truth even exists.
⁷
Others suppose that even if truth
does
exist, we can't be sure what it is, so it can't really matter much. The twin problems of uncertainty and apathy about the truth are epidemic, even among some of the evangelical movement's most popular authors and spokespersons. Some flatly refuse to stand for anything because they have decided that even Scripture isn't really clear enough to argue about.

Except for the massive scale on which such thinking has attained popularity today, and the way it is seeping into the church, such ideas themselves are really nothing new or particularly shocking. It is exactly the same attitude with which Pilate summarily dismissed Christ: “What is truth?” (John 18:38).

Certain avant-garde evangelicals sometimes act as if the demise of certainty is a dramatic new intellectual development, rather than seeing it for what it actually is: an echo of the old unbelief. It is unbelief cloaked in a religious disguise and seeking legitimacy as if it were merely a humbler kind of faith. But it's not faith at all. In reality, the contemporary refusal to regard any truth as sure and certain is the worst kind of infidelity. The church's duty has always been to confront such skepticism and answer it by clearly proclaiming the truth God has revealed in His Word. We have been given a clear message for the purpose of confronting the world's unbelief. That is what we are called, commanded, and commissioned to do (1 Corinthians 1:17–31). Faithfulness to Christ demands it. The honor of God requires it. We cannot sit by and do nothing while worldly, revisionist, and skeptical attitudes about truth are infiltrating the church. We must not embrace such confusion in the name of charity, collegiality, or unity. We have to stand and fight for the truth—and be prepared to die for it—as faithful Christians always have.

CHURCH LEADERS ARE
OBSESSED WITH STYLE
AND METHODOLOGY,
LOSING INTEREST IN THE
GLORY OF GOD AND
BECOMING
GROSSLY APATHETIC
ABOUT TRUTH AND
SOUND DOCTRINE. FOR
THE MOMENT AT LEAST,
THE BATTLE APPEARS TO
BE TURNING IN THE
ENEMY'S FAVOR.

According to Scripture, the ages-old conflict over the truth is spiritual
warfare
—a cosmic battle between God and the powers of darkness (Ephesians 6:12). And one of our enemies' favorite tactics is to disguise themselves as angels of light and infiltrate the community of believers (2 Corinthians 11:13–15). This is nothing new either, but I'm convinced it has become a very serious problem in the current generation. Unfortunately, precious few Christians seem willing to take the threat seriously. The church has grown lazy, worldly, and self-satisfied. Church leaders are obsessed with style and methodology, losing interest in the glory of God and becoming grossly apathetic about truth and sound doctrine. For the moment at least, the battle appears to be turning in the enemy's favor.

When God gave the second commandment, which forbade idolatry, He added this warning: “I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me” (Exodus 20:5). Scripture elsewhere makes it clear that children are never directly punished for the
guilt
of their fathers' sins (Deuteronomy 24:16; Ezekiel 18:19–32), but the natural consequences of those sins do indeed pass from generation to generation. Children learn from their fathers' examples and imitate what they see. One generation's teaching establishes a spiritual legacy that succeeding generations inherit. If today's “fathers” abandon the truth, it will take generations to recover.

Church leaders are especially responsible for setting the example. What we desperately need today are “shepherds according to [God's] heart, who will feed [believers] with knowledge and understanding” (Jeremiah 3:15; Acts 20:28–31). But it is every believer's solemn duty to resist every attack on the truth, to abhor the very thought of falsehood, and not to compromise in any way with the enemy, who is above all a liar and the father of lies (John 8:44).

The Truth War is, after all,
war
. Warfare is always serious, but this is the battle of the ages for the highest of prizes, and therefore it requires of us the utmost diligence.

WHY TRUTH IS INEXTRICABLY BOUND TO GOD

We'll begin chapter 1 by defining truth in biblical terms. We'll also notice that every attempt to define truth in
non
biblical terms has ultimately failed. That is because God is the source of all that exists (Romans 11:36). He alone defines and delimits what is true. He is also the ultimate revealer of all truth. Every truth revealed in nature was authored by Him (Psalm 19:1–6); and some of it is His own self-revelation (Romans 1:20). He gave us minds and consciences to perceive the truth and comprehend right from wrong, and He even wired us with a fundamental understanding of His law written on our hearts (Romans 2:14–15). On top of all that, He gave us the perfect, infallible truth of Scripture (Psalm 19:7–11), which is a sufficient revelation of everything that pertains to life and godliness (2 Timothy 3:15–17; 2 Peter 1:3), in order to lead us to Him as Savior and Lord. Finally, He sent Christ, the very embodiment of truth itself, as the culmination of divine revelation (Hebrews 1:1–3). The ultimate reason for
all
of this was for God to reveal Himself to His creatures (Ezekiel 38:23).

All truth therefore starts with what is true of God: who He is, what His mind knows, what His holiness entails, what His will approves, and so on. In other words, all truth is determined and properly explained by the being of God. Therefore, every notion of His nonexistence is by definition untrue. That is precisely what the Bible teaches: “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God'” (Psalm 14:1; 53:1).

The ramifications of all truth starting with God are profound. Returning to a point we touched on earlier: here is the reason why once someone denies God, logical consistency will ultimately force that person to deny all truth. A denial that God exists instantly removes the whole justification for any kind of knowledge. As Scripture says, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge” (Proverbs 1:7).

So the necessary starting point for gaining authentic understanding of the fundamental concept of truth itself is an acknowledgment of the one true God. As Augustine said, we believe in order to understand, and our faith in turn is fed and strengthened as we gain better understanding. Both faith in God as He has revealed Himself and the understanding wrought by faith are therefore essential if we hope to apprehend truth in any serious and meaningful sense.