A police officer pulls a guy over for speeding and
has the following exchange: Officer: May
I see your driver's license? Driver: I don't have one. I had it suspended when
I got my 5th DUI.
Officer: May I see the owner's card for this vehicle? Driver: It's not my car. I stole it. Officer: The car is stolen? Driver: That's right. But come to think of it, I think I saw the owner's card in the glove box when I was putting my gun in there.
Officer: There's a gun in the glove box? Driver: Yes sir. That's where I put it after I shot and killed the woman who owns this car and stuffed her in the trunk.
Officer: There's a BODY in the TRUNK?!?!? Driver: Yes, sir.
Hearing this, the officer immediately called his captain.The car was quickly surrounded by police, and the captain approached the driver to handle the tense situation:
Captain: Sir, can I see your license? Driver: Sure. Here it is. The Captain quickly discovered it was valid. Captain: Who's car is this? Driver: It's mine, officer. Here's the owner' card.The driver owned the car.
Captain: Could you slowly open your glove box so I can see if there's a gun in it?
Driver: Yeah, I'll bet that liar told you I was speeding, too! Lying to avoid punishment.
Driver: Yes, sir, but there's no gun in it. Sure
enough, there was nothing in the glove box. Captain: Would you mind opening
your trunk? I was told you said there's a body in it. Driver: No problem.Trunk
is opened; no body.
Captain: I don't understand it. The officer who stopped you said you told him
you didn't have a license, stole the car, had a gun in the glovebox, and that
there was a dead body in the trunk.
Driver: Yeah, I'll bet that liar told you I was
speeding, too!
Humans spend a lot of time by lying to avoid punishment.
The Apostles John and Mark use the Greek word, “alêtheia” (al-e-the-ia) when they are
writing about truth in their respective Gospels. This word means the literal
reality of God and the absence of any falsehood. It represents an absolute
value.
One of the most amazing things that has happened
over the last 20 years or so has been American society’s increasing belief that
truth is relative and is not absolute.
People have come to understand that human values
and truths can be manipulated.This means that politicians, teachers, church
leaders, and even our children live in fantasy worlds that insulate them from
shame, blame, and responsibility for their own actions. We’ve built a culture
of psycho-babble that rewards participation and not success, and stresses
overcoming the privileges of others in order to get even, not ahead.
Those of us who believe in alêtheia are the bad guys. We are the intolerant politically
incorrect buffoons who are standing in the way of multi-cultural harmony. We
don’t love our neighbors, we’re hypocrites, and we are judging others unfairly.
Why? Modern
Christianity has come so far as to say “Life is a journey without an end. We
are all on this journey together. We don’t know where the journey will end but
that’s okay!” You’ll even hear, “We may take different paths, but we all serve
the same God.” Do we?
Is Krishna, Allah, Buddah, Vishnu, Mother Earth the
same? Do I really have to fake you into thinking that someone who thinks
missionary climate change efforts are the same as preaching the Gospel? Do I really
have to stand beside a person who embraces Biblically forbidden spirituality
for the world to like me? Not gonna happen. The aleitheia of God.
This is the great deception and falling away that
John, Daniel, Isaiah, and Jesus spoke about in Biblical prophecy. Someday soon
these new “good Christians” will stand before Jesus and Almighty God and they
will find that truth has no shades of gray and that God doesn’t give second
chances in eternity. He doesn’t care what the community thinks.
Listen to our New Testament Lesson from Revelation
1: 4b-8: Grace to you and peace from him
who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are
before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn
of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.
To him who loves us and freed us from our sins by
his blood, and made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father, to
him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Look! He is coming with the clouds; every eye will see him, even those
who pierced him; and on his account all the tribes of the earth will wail. So
it is to be. Amen. "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God,
who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.
When we stand before Jesus each of us will be asked
to account for our time after we have heard the al-ê-the-ia of God. What will your response be? I warn you: The
contemporary ecumenical Christian church and the modern identification of
Evangelical Faith has undergone a revision in focus, ideology, and vision that
has led it away from the traditional doctrine, tenets, and truth of the Church
of Jesus Christ.
Ironically, the dominant version of contemporary
faith is through works, as the Scribes, Pharisees, and Sadducees practiced in
their day. It is not the content of the faith but rather the idea and
appearance of “faith” that is important to these people.
These churches and leaders are characterized by
three things.
1) Downplaying the ultimate authority
and importance of the Bible. Most won't
come right out and flatly deny the Bible, but most use differing ways to
redefine the Bible by saying “Let's not argue about the Bible. After all, it's
all about Jesus, right?" Really? How does one accept what Jesus said and
what the Bible teaches about Him --- and then try to deny portions of
Scripture? According to John 1: 1 and 1: 14, Jesus is the Word of God incarnate! They are
inseparable. He is the way, the truth, and the life, period.
They say Christianity is "how we search for a
kind of truth" where it’s all about "the journey," where nothing
is absolute, and not actually a search for truth itself. They believe that “right behavior” trumps “right beliefs”. This is why we have behavior police but not
truth police.
If we had as much fight in our society for aleitheia as we do political correctness we'd still be one nation under God.
2) The redefinition of traditional terms:
The new vision is that Jesus' use
of the term "Kingdom of God" was a political and not a spiritual
statement. Calling it a "peace network," "eco-system of
God," or God's "global love economy," Christians seek to bring
it to pass. They say, “The word salvation means us saving the planet!” All hail, Gaia!
LISTEN NOW! It is suggested that when passages like John 3: 16 say "world,"
it really means the physical Earth and not the lost humans on it! This is so
wrong head it’s almost funny if it didn’t mean global warming is thought to be
real.
3) Redefine the Mission and Purpose of
the Church: "Evangelical" use to mean bringing
individuals into a personal relationship with Christ.
Now it means bringing people into a setting that
claims to be the Church in order to experience the journey of their earthly
lives, including the notion that by their participation they earn salvation.
Remember the dumb idea that people ned
to get awards and trophies for participation? This is the ultimate idea of
rewarding participation!
Another deceptional teaching is that personal
salvation is thought of "a lie that we can be saved as individuals,
that any of us alone, can be in right relationship with God." They believe it is our ideas and actions that speack for the future salvation of humanity. Wrong headed as usual.
It comes down to the truth of the Scriptures and
the Truth of Jesus Christ. So my question to you is this: “Will you
already know the real truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth when
you get to Heaven?” Or the ecumenical kum-by-blah version?
Did you live out Jude 1: 3 - “Beloved, while I was very
diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary
to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once
for all delivered to the saints.”
Or will it be an experience that will probably
leave a mark as your surprise, despair, and hopelessness grows as you come to
realize you really should have paid attention? That that nice man or woman you
thought of as a pastor and teacher failed to tell you the truth?
Will you try to blame it on false teachers that
tickled your ears or will you recognize that God intends to hold you
responsible for yourself? Your call – will the truth hurt you or render you
perfect?
Render to God with thanksgiving joy for His
salvation draws near. Amen.
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