“It is better to tell the truth that hurts - then heals,
Than to tell a lie that heals then kills…
“It is better to be hated for telling the truth,
Than to be loved for telling a lie.“ —unknown
"One of the greatest difficulties is to keep before the audience's mind the question of Truth. They always think you are recommending Christianity not because it is true, but because it is good. And in the discussion they will at every moment try to escape from the issue ‘True-or False’ into stuff about a good society, or morals, or incomes of Bishops, or the Spanish inquisition, or France, or Poland—or anything whatever. You have to keep forcing them back, and again back, to the real point. Only thus you will be able to undermine...their belief that a certain amount of ‘religion’ is desirable ;)
but one mustn't carry it too far. One must keep on pointing out that Christianity is a statement which, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The one thing it cannot be is moderately important." —C.S. Lewis
A.W. Tozer once observed that, “Truth is a glorious but hard mistress. She never consults, bargains or compromises.”
;)
A.W. TozerTo be sure, this bit of wisdom is more than distasteful to the modern mind. Tozer’s observation sticks in the craw of conventional thinking in this present age, an age that has grown to relish and enjoy a religious and philosophical menu that is chock-full of mushy morsels and ‘have-it-your-way’ metaphysical delights. Indeed, we have become so conditioned to the menu’s pluralistic pablum, that the culture has actually begun to gag at even the thought of hearing about the hard and persistently uncompromising “Truth” to which Tozer alludes.
And that is certainly understandable.
Truth, after all, has always been offensive and hard to swallow, but today, apparently, it has become unbearably so. Indeed, in the name of …(ahem)…’tolerance’, many laws have sprouted up in the land that are designed specifically to protect anyone from ever having to hear anything at all about the claims and challenges that such a glorious “mistress” (ie., Truth) might present.
Author and theologian, David Wells has observed that the only currently acceptable view today is one that sees truth as “….a process, a river with no origin and no end, that never reaches the sea, but always gets wider and truer as it flows on and on…”
The natural man rebels against the very distasteful and offensive notion that absolute Truth (like a “stone cut without hands”) exists. And quite naturally, the natural man within us kicks against all the goads that claim it’s so.
“The words of the wise are like goads, their collected sayings like firmly embedded nails---given by one Shepherd.” (Ecclesiastes 12: 11)
;)
But, protest and kick as we may, in the words of Winston Churchill:
“The truth is incontrovertible. Panic may resent it … ignorance may deride it … malice may distort it … but there it is.”
Such is the nature of the inconvenient Truth. “Firmly embedded nails” are hard to shake.
“Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’” (John 14:6)
“Truth’s Been Buried…..Deconstructed!”
(And the world just Pilates on….)
“Truth”?....Oh, please, son, that’s just crazy!
No one, no where’s got THAT key!
Truth’s outdated…It’s disproven!
Don’t go barkin’ up that tree!
“Truth”, you see, is just a con game…
Son, don’t climb out on that limb!
Too much “Truth-talk” isn’t healthy,
Tenured profs all call it sin!
They say “truth” is pure deception!
Son, it’s just the devil’s game!
Drop it, boy, it’s worse than folly…
You’ll be ridiculed….disdained!
I suggest more higher learnin’….
Study up!...Get P-H-D’d!
What you need’s more education,
‘Til your mind, at last, is freed!
Son, you need to stand on Reason!
Come on!…Chest out…head held high!
Then let Pride shout, “MAN’S THE MEASURE!”…
(“Truth” was always just a lie.)
Truth is, boy, you’re makin’ trouble!
“Truth”’s what all good profs deny!
Look, boy… Jesus tried that angle…
And it got him crucified!
Son, you need new revelation!
Turn!...Repent!... Hey!.. Just come clean!
No one’s gonna buy your message;
What you lack, boy’s SELF-esteem!!
So, wise up and drop the ‘Truth’-talk.
Son, if Jesus swung ’n’ missed…
You’d be crazy to pursue it!
Follow your subjective Bliss!
Play it safe… Don’t follow Jesus!
Lamb of God?... Ha!...Dead ‘n’ gone!
Truth’s been buried…deconstructed*,
(And the world just Pilates on…)
"Christ Before Pilate", Duccio, 1311
“Jesus answered [Pilate], ‘You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason, I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.’
“What is truth?” Pilate asked. With this he went out again to the Jews…..” (John 18: 37-38)
;)
"Crowning With Thorns", Titian, 1642Lord, we’ve mocked, and we have scorned You ,
Lamb of God, come have your say!
O, Good Shepherd, help us seek** You ….
God!…The Truth, the Life, the Way.
Give us grace to pray sincerely,
Give us hearts to You, Lord, wed.
Help us turn to hear more clearly…
Nails of Truth, Lord, please embed.
Free us from incomprehension…
Give us, Father, ears to hear!
Take us to the Cross of Calv’ry,
And then please, Lord, draw us near……
“The fundamental problem Jesus was exposing to Pilate and to the world is not the paucity of available truth; it is more often the hypocrisy of our search.” —Ravi Zacharias
"Ecce Homo", Ciseri, 1880
“Like an eternal jack-in-the-box, the Christian truth will always spring back. No power on earth can finally keep it down, not even the power of Babylonian confusion and captivity. ‘At least five times,’ noted GK Chesterton, ‘the faith has to all appearances gone to the dogs. In each of these five cases, it was the dog that died.’” —Os Guinness
;)
Women at the Empty Tomb", Fra Angelico, 1441
* Ironically, the ‘new revelation’ that absolute Truth has been ‘deconstructed’ and found to be no longer true, is now being promoted as being…(you guessed it)… absolutely true.
** The" honest" search for the skeptic (click here)