The new year has bolted onto the scene with a sobering and upsetting reality as protestors swarmed our nation’s capital and violently forced themselves inside. The breech of the Capitol building was a horrendous and destructive act that sent a terrible message to the world.
Then, the House of Representatives voted to use gender-free language in its chamber rules. This means that words like husband, wife, father, mother, son or daughter would be replaced with spouse or child. Franklin Graham responded to this debacle by referring to Genesis 1:27, which says, “And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created Him, male and female He created them.” Graham stated that the move to exclude gender specific language “is shaking a fist in the Creator’s face, trying to deny His authority. If those claiming the name ‘progressive’ are allowed to have their way, we won’t even recognize this nation in a very short time.”
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy tweeted, “This is stupid. Signed a father, a son, and a brother.”
Missouri Rep. Edmund Cleaver, former pastor and mayor of Kansas City, prayed as the 117th Congress opened its session. He concluded his prayer by saying, “We ask it in the name of the monotheistic god, Brahma, and God known by many names by many different faiths. Amen and A woman.” He was criticized for his theatrics, with many people reminding him that “amen” is non-gendered. It means “so be it; yes; I agree; truly or verily.” The American Heritage Dictionary says that amen is “used at the end of a prayer to express approval.”
Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio tweeted, “This is out of control. Can we get an amen?”
Graham wrote, “Regrettably, even prayer is no longer sacred to some in our halls of Congress. One thing is obvious — we need more of it. Amen.”
Occurrences like these are just the tip of the iceberg. We have moved from a postmodern time to post-truth confusion. In the post-truth era, truth is at best subjective, and at worst nonexistent. It is not unusual to hear people talk about “my truth” in conversations today. What does that mean? To a post-truth mindset, truth is what I want it to be. As ridiculous as it sounds, that is where we are today. But where does it leave us as we face the future?
More than ever, we need truth. But we must first have an understanding that truth is real, objective, and verifiable. If someone believes two plus two is six, they are either mistaken, mentally challenged, or maybe post-truth. If people promise to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth in a court of law, they must know what truth is and that it exists. Otherwise, the oath is invalidated because the witness may share their personal subjective “truth,” which may have no element of honesty or reality in it.
God is the God of truth. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. The Old Testament moral law commands us not to bear false witness. In other words, tell the truth. The Word of God is truth without any mixture of error. Truth exists at the highest level to the lowest extreme.
If truth is discarded for a philosophy of simply making up what we want to believe without the benefit of any standard of right and wrong, we are destined for delusion and eventually destruction. It is impossible to build anything that has eternal value and worth without building it with truth. Truth is essential — from the simplest math equation to the most complex scientific discovery to a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ.
God created us male and female. A male should marry a female. The marriages from that kind of union may be blessed with a boy or a girl, and those children should be taught they have a God-given gender. That may not be politically correct in a godless culture, but it is the truth.
We can do better than American citizens attacking the Capitol. We can do better than a professing Christian praying in the House of Representatives with a conflicted or confused idea of truth. We can do better as Southern Baptists, but we can only do better if we trust the God of truth and obey His Word. In John 17:17, Jesus prayed to the Father, “Sanctify them in the truth. Thy word is truth.” Christians are not called to conform to this world, but to be salt and light in a world system that does not embrace truth or the God of truth. We are set apart to be different, which means we accept and live truthful lives. That may conflict with the culture, but it may also be an instrument of God for good in the world. Let us lead the way as people of truth.
First Timothy 1:17 says, “Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.”