On part one of this Thought of the Day, I shared some insights regarding Jesus’s context for the words that “the truth will set people free.” We cannot interpret Jesus’s words in a vacuum. He tied the conclusion that the truth produces freedom to an active discipleship process that identifies knowing the truth with Jesus himself. I will expand on these two concepts on a later post, but today, I want to consider three essential elements to ascertain whether a claim or statement is true.
First, the absolutely most basic and essential requirement to know the truth is to know Jesus’s character. For instance, if a person says they know Jesus, but at the same time they harbor hate against other people, or desiring that others suffer harm, illness, incarceration, and even death, then, they are like the patriarch Job in the Old Testament. Job confessed that he had only heard of God, but that it was not until after his sufferings that he understood who God really is. Jesus is clothed in compassion, grace, and love, and he challenged his followers to imitate him.
Second, if we want to know the truth, we must rid ourselves of ideological, philosophical and political bias. The first century Jews knew everything they needed to know about the coming of the Messiah (Jesus Christ), but their commitment to the Mosaic Law, and their political biases for Rome had blinded them from seeing the truth. Jesus described the Pharisees as being blind on several occasions because they were not able, or were unwilling, to recognize the truth that comes from God. He said to the Pharisees that “his words could “find no place in them.”
Third, in order to know the truth, that is according to Jesus’s character, we must commit to search, discern, and accept the congruency that must exist between belief and reality, regardless of where it may lead. For instance, I have heard many Christian leaders make the asinine statement that Jesus was a socialist. If these people knew Jesus’s character, they would not even consider thinking about making such a politically charged statement. Do you want to know why? Well, I am glad you asked.
Socialism is a 19th century philosophical political movement rooted in atheism. Karl Marx, the founder of socialism, was a rabid racist, who was also an anti-God and anti-Christian demagogue. Since Jesus lived nineteen centuries before Marx created his poisonous philosophy, and since Jesus was God, it is not possible for Jesus to have been an atheist. When Christian begin to propose these types of ideologies, they are not looking for the truth. They are using propaganda and are aligning themselves with the enemies of Christ. Additionally, any student of history knows that socialism is directly responsible for the slaughter of more than 250 million people around the world in the last 120 years. Question: why would any Christian be willing to even consider this abomination as an alternative to Jesus’s teaching about the church?
Let me conclude making a bold statement: It is impossible to make a statement truth without acknowledging God, and his character. When people ignore God’s character, all their statements are tainted by worldly philosophical indoctrination or political bias. These biases become lies intended to enslave the minds of the poor souls who fall for Satan’s deceptions. Some of you may say, Bishop, you are too rigid. I would say, thank you and God bless. (To be continued…)
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