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“Don’t be naïve. There are difficult times ahead. As the end approaches, people are going to be self-absorbed, money-hungry, self-promoting, stuck-up, profane, contemptuous of parents, crude, coarse, dog-eat-dog, unbending, slanderers, impulsively wild, savage, cynical, treacherous, ruthless, bloated windbags, addicted to lust, and allergic to God”
(2 Timothy 3:1-5 MSG).
“The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it” (Albert Einstein).
A most popular word today, especially according to the media, is “balance.” Supposedly, the media reports a balanced view of current events, giving equal weight to both sides of the story. Now we all know this is not true. But if it were, it would not be either right or fair. To present a balanced view as though both sides are equally valid often perpetuates lies and creates confusion. After all, how do you balance evil with good, or light with darkness, or truth with lies? Though I choose truth over lies, light over darkness, and good over evil, I no longer am assured I’m in the majority.
Before I share a quote regarding the Israel-Hamas war, let me make something clear. I am part Jew, but that doesn’t mean I believe all Jews have a God-given exemption from evil. I wouldn’t say that about any race or nationality. I’m most concerned with what God says about the Jews and Israel, and it’s clear that his love, history, and plans for them have nothing to do with their innate goodness. After all, the Jews have experienced God's severe discipline regularly for centuries!
With that in mind, I report a Fox News interview of Tal Hartuv, victim of the October 7 event, who says, “We are talking about a war where there are two sides, and the sides are this: savagery against civilization, evil against good, dark against light, cruelty against kindness, death against life. I am absolutely convinced that those who give a platform to consider both sides in the name of balance are more than irresponsible."
I'm not expecting you to agree with her, but only to realize that both sides in this conflict would say there is no possibility for a "balanced" perspective. If either side did use that word, though, it would be said in this sense, "You need balance, because you don't understand MY perspective."
Here's what the prophet Isaiah wrote just before the Babylonian conquest of Judah and Jerusalem in 584 BC: “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Is 5:20).
At that time, truth was in confusion because God’s people had turned their backs on him in order to worship foreign gods. Under the power of the Father of Lies himself, they descended into all manners of evil. Sadly, so it is again today, and not only in Israel and Gaza.
When he stood trial before Pilate, Jesus said, “I came into the world to testify to the truth. All who love the truth recognize that what I say is true.” Pilate then asked, “What is truth?” (John 18:37-38). I think he was rolling his eyes as he asked the question. You see, truth was confused in Jesus’ day, too. The religious Jews, especially the Pharisees, were his most powerful enemies. The religious Jews of today are still enemies of Jesus and Christians (I’ll clarify that in a later post). Jesus called them “blind guides,” “hypocrites” “whitened tombs,” and a “brood of vipers” (Matthew 23). It should be clear that Jesus didn’t promote balance; he spoke truth, even against his own people. His words wouldn’t go too far with the “woke” or “politically correct” crowds today.
I can’t think of another time in history when truth was so confused with lies, when evil was called good, and darkness was called light. Of course, certain past leaders and events come to mind (Hitler, Stalin et al) but the whole world was set against them. Today the deception seems universal.
I don’t have to go back to my childhood, but perhaps to my middle-age, when this wasn’t so. Of course, sin and evil have always been with us. Sexual addictions, perversions, abuse, atheism, witchcraft…these things are not new, but the vast majority of people, and the “officially agreed” narrative of even the media, was fairly unanimous in acknowledging these were immoral, bad, no-no’s, abnormal, indecent. No longer today, when full-blown Satanism is not only accepted, but celebrated as the correcting balance to what are considered outdated and meaningless myths and superstitions.
Before we can go any further in considering Truth vs Balance, I want to step aside to discuss “discernment,” without which we will all be lost in the lies and deceptions which currently capture the majority of humans.
“But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil” (Heb 5:14).
Discernment is the ability to discriminate or distinguish between good and evil, right and wrong, Spirit and flesh, God’s way and humans' way. The scripture quoted above says those who have discernment are mature, and that they’ve practiced their discernment over time.
Some say it’s discernment if they point to another person and judge them. Many church people have used their supposed discernment to “call out” other Christians in the worst way. That’s not discernment; that’s sin (see Matt 7:1-4). More often it’s called projection, which happens when a person puts what’s in their own hearts onto others.
True discernment, on the other hand, is about detecting and recognizing truth. In matters of discernment, we want to access what God says regarding the subject at hand. After all, Jesus said, “I am the…TRUTH” (John 14:6).
Did you know there’s a simple way to detect where the truth lies when two people are arguing opposing viewpoints? It’s a simple method of determining who’s right and who’s wrong. It has to do with detecting arrogance.
Imagine two people in a serious disagreement. John and Joe are breathing heavy toward each other. John is haughty, arrogant, self-important, autocratic, and unimpeachable (in his own mind). Joe, on the other hand, is confident but level-headed, humble, gracious, even soft-spoken and calm, though firm. He doesn’t return evil for evil. If he’s attacked, he isn’t defensive, and he ignores absurd comments instead of engaging them.
Nearly always, the arrogant, haughty soul is in the wrong. And in the process of the disagreement, he is revealing yet more negative truths about himself and the spirit that drives him. Yet naïve people like John who lack discernment equate their arrogance with truth and certainty.
I was at Happy Hour, the restaurant-bar where I’m a regular and where I currently lead a Bible Study on Sunday afternoons. I was sitting at the bar eating my lunch and talking quietly to a friend, when a woman across from me shouted hello. She said she had met me at the church where I was Associate Pastor.
After a few minutes, this same woman shouted at me from across the bar. I mean, she was red-faced screaming, and in one long sentence she yelled, “ARE YOU A CONSERVATIVE PASTOR JIM I MEAN ONE OF THOSE IDIOT MORON TRUMPERS ARE YOU ANTI-ABORTION WELL LET ME TELL YOU I’VE HAD TWO ABORTIONS AND BOTH WERE THE BEST DECISIONS I EVER MADE IN MY LIFE I’M SICK OF ALL THESE CONSERVATIVE CONSPIRACY SPREADERS WITH NO BRAINS THINKING TO KEEP ME FROM DOING WHAT I WANT WITH MY BODY!” My friend and I hadn’t been discussing any of these things, though I might fit some of her chosen categories. I had no idea what set her off, but the look on her red-hot face made it clear she was the one with the problem.
I let her simmer down; and the bar returned to its normal chatter. After I finished eating, I walked around to where she was seated with her quiet husband. I gently laid my hand on her shoulder and said, “Whatever you overheard me say that made you so upset, you know you’re hurting yourself with that anger. No matter what, I want to bless you with the love of Jesus. He can give you peace and calm inside. I’m sorry for whoever originally created that hurt inside you.” I didn’t know how she’d respond, but I was shocked when tears fell down her face, her arms went around me, and she said, “I was so wrong to do that. I hope you can forgive me.”
The angry, hating, shouting, self-righteous (sorry to say), give themselves away and rarely turn out to be the good guys, no matter what they think of themselves. But the mature and discerning can minister truth under the cover of a godly spirit and calm demeanor.
Now let’s apply this back to Truth vs Balance. How can we unravel all the lies and find truth? Well, there is only one 100% reliable source of truth and that is the Bible, confirmed by the inner revelation and assurance given to us by God’s Spirit as we pray and listen. It’s there we find the real balance of justice and mercy, sin and forgiveness, impurity and holiness.
Discernment means we almost never have a real balance in the issues which people so hotly debate today. We can have balance if what we’re arguing is thin vs thick pizza, Toyota vs Honda, Caribbean vs Pacific beaches, or country vs rock ‘n’ roll. In the major issues, though, the issues creating the hatred, confusion, and polarization prevailing over Planet Earth today, there is no possibility for balance. Why? Because the word itself is an illusion used to promote destruction of the truth!
We have a two-fold problem:
FIRST, apart from those who know and trust God and the Bible, most people don’t believe there is undebatable, irrefutable truth, but only opinions based on human logic or sense. Balance, then, simply means maybe I’m right maybe you’re right, since truth is defined as whatever each person believes.
SECOND, even most Christians follow their own opinions, because they don’t know the clear answers that are right there in the Bible. They say they believe it yet don’t know all it contains! So they end up following the same narrative as the unbelieving world and by doing so deny the truth!
Here’s an example: I asked Google to list articles about “Christian Views on Aliens.” Now that’s a serious topic with far-reaching ramifications for our world today (I may write an entire post on it). Here are some of Google’s responses:
“What Would Life Beyond Earth Mean for Christians?”
“If We Made Contact with Aliens, How Would Religions React?”
“What Happens to God When We Find Aliens?”
“Christian Theologians Prepare for Extraterrestrial Life”
“Of Jesus and Aliens”
“We Believe in Miracles…So Why Not Aliens?”
“Would Christianity Survive Discovery of Aliens?”
You might assume I believe there’s no such thing as aliens, which would be true if I were not a serious student of the Bible, which clearly tells us (brace yourself):
•Aliens, ET’s and space travel have been happening throughout human history and are recorded in the Bible.
•Humans and Angels came together not too long after creation to create half-supernatural giants who taught knowledge God didn’t want us to know.
•There are three heavens and one is what we call outer space.
•God made five classes of living beings, but there is a sixth.
…and that’s just the tip of the “truth iceberg” on that one current subject!
I think most of us who call ourselves Bible students, even lifelong Bible students, somehow kept skipping over countless parts of the Bible we couldn’t make sense of. Now, as these very things enter the mainstream of normal conversation, media, science, and government, those “crazy” parts of the Bible start to make sense, and we’re waking up to truths we never before understood! That’s a major part of what’s happening to me right now in this late in life (but never too late) “reconstruction” I’m pursuing. But as we unravel more of these former mysteries, we see that they cannot possibly be “balanced” with the narratives swirling around us.
The hour has come for each of us to consider a grand reconstruction of our lives…body, soul, and spirit, but not according to what seems sensible to us. We can no longer agree that everyone’s view is valid, but rather that the purpose of the current narratives is a ruse created to erase truth with “what's best for all" when it's simply false and best for the few.
If you’re reading this blog titled “Furious Faith,” I have to assume you want to know what that faith really is in relation to the issues of your life and world. In speaking to the Jewish leaders, Jesus referred to “your father the devil.” There is no balance between that father and “Our Father who art in heaven.” Ultimately there is one truth which cannot be compromised by any balance. It’s a painful reality, one most Christians shy away from affirming publicl;y, yet so vital to keep at the front lobe of our brains:
Earth is the closest to hell Christians will ever know.
Earth is the closest to heaven everyone else will ever know.
As you yield yourself to reconstruction, make every effort to spend yourself for the eternal good of those living in this current darkness, and to speak the truth in sacrificial love, always choosing truth over balance, unashamed to be found oh so different, yet wonderfully and attractively so!
Be blessed, and be a blessing, today and always.
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