This article on Muslim scholars denying the historicity of any Jewish claim to the temple mount in Jerusalem, got me to thinking. If you tell a lie often and vociferously enough, eventually people will start to unquestioningly accept it. Soon it becomes de-facto “truth” in the eyes of many. Many contemporary politicians have honed this skill to an art form.

I have mixed feelings about the web site Letters From Leavers. There’s no doubt in my mind that many of the letters posted have some basis in truth, and the church needs to take a hard look and ask itself some tough questions. On the other hand, seeing only one side of the story is not conducive to asertaining the truth - especially if you’re looking for a basis for corrective action. Any good counselor will tell you there are usually three sides to the story: each offended party’s side of the story… and the truth. Hearing only one side is not a healthy way to form conclusions. In any disagreement or dispute, rarely (almost never) have I ever seen the truth manifested when only one side makes its’ case known.

Imagine a sports-mad culture, deep into Eastern spirituality and political globalism, where ethical convictions have dried up leaving a moral hole into which rush the deep waters of religious syncretism in which paganism thrives. Where women, finding child-rearing an inconvenience, abandon or abort their babies with increasing frequency. A society where superstition reigns and divorce and remarriage touches everyone. A society overrun by sexual deviancy and perversion. Sound familiar? Such was the Roman empire in the 1st century A.D – the world of Paul the apostle.

It’s popular to believe that everyone ultimately wants to know the truth. While this concept is the thesis of many a popular Hollywood movie, it’s a fallacy. The reality is that most live in denial of the truth. The wife who is unwilling to admit her husband is an alcoholic when it’s painfully obvious to everyone else. The parents who cannot face the reality that their child is a drug addict. The person who ignores symptoms of serious physical illness and refuses to go the doctor because they fear the truth. The suitor who cannot face the truth of a rejected marriage proposal. The victim who cannot acknowledge the truth of the conman who has fleeced them.

Dan Wallace gives us some wise counsel that Compromise is not a Four Letter Word.

“We could look at the Christian faith from two poles: love and truth. In one sense, love is all about compromise. Paul told the believers at Philippi to consider each other as more important than themselves (Phil 2.3). That is the height of compromise; it is unselfish living, living for others and for Christ and forsaking one’s own desire and ambitions for the greater good. On the other hand, the Christian faith is all about maintaining a standard—a standard of conduct and a standard of belief. In this sense, truth—or a common creed—is the thing that should never be compromised. But here’s where things get messy.”

Michael Patton has penned an outstanding article on Googling for Truth: The Importance of Irenic Theology in our Postmodern World. This is must reading for everyone in entirety. And if you like what you see, then migrate over to his Introduction To Theology as the article encapsulates much of what that course teaches.

History records this conversation Between Protagoras and Socrates in the 4th Century B.C. …

Protagoras: Truth is relative. It is only a matter of opinion.
Socrates: You mean that truth is mere subjective opinion?
Protagoras: Exactly. What is true for you is true for you, and what is true for me is true for me. Truth is subjective.
Socrates: Do you really mean that? That my opinion is true by virtue of its being my opinion?
Protagoras: Indeed I do.
Socrates: My opinion is: Truth is absolute, not opinion, and that you, Mr. Protagoras, are absolutely in error. Since this is my opinion, you must grant that it is true according to your philosophy.