A “horseshoe Einstein ring” taken by Hubble
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10 They say to the seers, “Do not see,”
and to the prophets,
“Do not prophesy the truth to us.
Tell us flattering things.
Prophesy illusions.
OK, I’ve avoided the definition thus far, but now it it time to whip out the dictionary and have a go:
truth
…noun, plural truths [trooth z, trooths] (Show IPA)
1. the true or actual state of a matter:
He tried to find out the truth.
2. conformity with fact or reality; verity:
the truth of a statement.
…~ Dictionary.com, “truth“
So, basically in order to be true, it must be real. It cannot be made up. It cannot be fiction. This is why I often point out that truth and reality are synonyms.
So, where does reality come from? What is reality? It might sound obvious, but secular and pagan philosophers have argued over the existence of reality for ages. However, if truth is something defined by reality, then reality must exist else truth doesn’t exist either.
You and I can say something, but that doesn’t make it true or real. God, however, spoke and the universe was created. God doesn’t just speak truth, He defines it!
God is the author of truth. God is the author of the reality in which we live. Who else should we turn to for truth?
Of course, we can pray and ask for truth, but He has given us a written record of truth that takes an entire lifetime to study and meditate upon. Jesus prayed to the Father:
17 Sanctify them [His disciples] through thy truth: thy word is truth.
~ Jn 17:17
So, if we are people of truth, we should be looking at the record of truth that God left for us! We should be digging into it every day, we should be realigning our perceptions with it, and we should realize that anything not contained therein might be facts or discoverable truth but not revealed truth, but more like mere speculation.
Our ideas must be based upon Scripture. The world decides what it wants to believe for the most part and reads into Scriptures, eisegesis. We are to do the opposite — take out of, exegesis, the principles for godly living. Yet, I still see trends within the COG organizations that can lead to the former rather than the latter.
For example, someone pointed out to me something I’d noticed as well. “We won’t turn there, since we are all familiar with the Scripture …” during sermons and offeratory messages. Well, yes, it is familiar. It is supposed to be familiar. If it is to stay familiar, we should honor the routine in which the process takes us, whether it be a holy day offering or weekly Sabbath. God gave us those routines so they would be familiar — IOW, so we don’t forget!
Even when I was a teen in the Church, I would marvel at how some would “Bible study”. They would get out the Plain Truth or some booklet and read it. Now, I’m not knocking other publications, but isn’t the main textbook supposed to be the Bible? My gut tells me that those people, many of whom long ago wandered off here and there, probably thought, “I don’t have to turn to those Scriptures. They are familiar.”
People would roll their eyes whenever HWA talked about the “two trees” yet again. They were familiar with the topic. Yet, how many of them actually got it?
You can be “familiar” with something in your head, but your heart be downright bored by it. Once it stops penetrating the heart, that is when the spiritual cancer of apathy begins to grow. That is why the love of the truth is vital! That flame must be kept burning.
Because at the end of the day, there is truth and then there are lies.
11 In my alarm I said,
“Everyone is a liar.”
Every human being on this planet is touched by deception in one form or another. You cannot believe something because your church organization writes it, HWA wrote it, I wrote it, etc., because we are all fallible human beings. Only God is perfect, and only His word is substantiated truth.
4 God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.
~ Ro 3:4
It still amazes me how much stock we put into the here and now, and particularly to time and earth bound beings rather than the source and creator of truth. When God speaks, things happen and reality is formed.
Are we listening?