Get All The Facts To Get The Truth
Word-Of-The-Day: ’But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on His own; He will speak only what He hears, and He will tell you what is yet to come.’ (John 16:13)
I was watching in the evening a newscast from one of the original ‘big 3’ networks, something I hadn’t done in quite a while. I’ve been more of getting the news from the web and watching ‘blurbs’ of cable news via YouTube. Most items were mundane, but a few big stories definitely showed a bias and one story in particular took a rather ‘woke’ position, though since the last election ‘woke’ has fallen out of vogue for most Americans.
It is not surprising a ‘big 3’ network newscast was slanted and biased; it is also not surprising a conservative channel’s newscast is also slanted in the other direction. Both provide, for the most part, facts. But in providing facts they don’t always tell the full truth.
One example of facts not always telling the truth comes from the old USSR’s reporting of facts, which left out the truth behind those facts. Say the USA chess team played the Soviets in a two-team tournament – and won! (‘MURICA! YEAH!)
“USSR 2nd, USA Next to Last in International Chess Tournament” would be the headline in the Soviet newspaper Pravda that is factual, but it neglects to tell the truth; the US won the tournament between the Soviets and the Soviets lost (perhaps badly), and there were no other competitors. The headline is factual, but really did not tell the truth of what actually occurred.
We as Christians must be careful when speaking and teaching the Word of God to others that we don’t give just facts but the whole Truth of the Word. God does love everyone – in John 3:16 Jesus opens with ‘God so loved the world…’. That God loves everyone is a fact, but we have to read the rest of the verse, and a couple of verses before and after, to realize that while God loves everyone, He expects a reciprocal act of obedience, to accept His son Jesus as Lord and to repent from one’s sins in order to gain Everlasting Life.
Unfortunately, many churches want to be ‘inclusive’ to all and omit some facts and promote other facts as the full ‘truth’. But to do so, to only give some facts and ignoring other facts is not telling the truth but is the beginning of lies. The serpent in Genesis 3 did the same thing to convince Eve to take a ‘bite out of the apple’, so to speak. God is not one to lie or only give partial facts; God is and must be a God of Truth. His Word must be of the full Truth or it is meaningless, and we do not serve a meaningless God with a meaningless Bible. Know that He and His Word are meaningful in the Truth.
Why is it important to know God is a God of Truth? We must know that God is not out to trick us with facts, that He is not going to do a ‘bait-and-switch’ on us whenever He is dealing with us. When God speaks to us it is as God says, with no subterfuge. God the Father, Jesus (God Manifested) and the Holy Spirit (God in Spiritual Guidance) is of course a God of facts, but with those facts in full also come with God’s Truth.
For us, we also must point out the Truth with the facts. Yes, Jesus lived, He was crucified, He was resurrected, and He ascended. We and others assume all of this is fact. But it is God’s Truth, and our Faith in God telling us the Truth, that puts the facts of Jesus into perspective and significance. The Truth is the Gospel message, that Jesus lived, died, and lived again to be the Ultimate Sacrifice; out of His Love to be the One who could provide us the means of escaping Sin and its penalty of being Hell-bound to being exonerated and being with God in Heaven forever.
Our religions provide facts, but not all facts provide the full Truth. Islam believes the facts of Jesus, as does the Jehovah Witnesses, and other world religions. But only the Christian, upon accepting Jesus as the Son of God and Lord of Lords, receives the Truth behind the facts, that the Gospel is the Agape Love of God providing a saving Grace to all of His people. Only a few will accept that Truth, to receive the gift of Grace.
Don’t just take facts as they are; look to God to get the Truth behind them. Understand that Truth always points to God, and to know the Truth you know that the words and commands of Jesus are true, and we need to go and share that Truth with others, not just the facts.
