You Shall Not Surely Die [Full Content]

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In this month’s article, I prayerfully decided to share a time where I was dupped by a tire salesman when Melanie and I first got married.  When Melanie was pregnant with Ella, and she was getting ready to travel, I had her car taken to our local oil change place to get it serviced before hitting the road. The manager for the location called me and shared that my wife’s tires had cables showing.

Well, he had me over a barrel; my wife is getting ready to go out of town, and her tires are so worn in spots that the metal branding was showing. I did what every good husband would do. I had the tires replaced with new ones. Later on, I went by the tire company, and the manager shows me a mountain of tires in the back and says, “they are in there somewhere.” It was at that time I realized I was a victim of the old bait and switch tactic.

Whether it be people pushing CRT that divides people into categories of oppressed versus oppressor or someone driving their bike into Walgreens in San Francisco and loading garbage bags full of merchandise and driving out of the front door— follow the link above. What is causing people to act and believe in such outlandish ways? Like the manager did to me and my wife, there is a bait and switch effect taking place, and at its core, it is a muddling of belief and truth.

       1.How do we define truth?

Truth is revealed to us by God (creator) to all people (creation). He has shown it in two significant ways: the Bible and the earth we live on and all the vast reaches of space. At this time, you may be thinking- insert thought bubble, “Tommy, that’s what you believe as a Christian.” This shows how deep the bait and switch tactic grabs hold of individuals’ hearts. If nobody in the world believed the Bible and creation and that both point us all to a creator who has communicated, it would still be true.

As Christians, we are pressured by our culture to put people’s beliefs and emotions as central and truth as peripheral. Don’t believe me? Just examine commercials, T.V. shows, podcasts, documentaries, movies, and radio broadcasts; it is clear that individual beliefs and how someone feels are king. That does not change one thing about the truth that has been revealed to all of us. There are two categories when it comes to understanding life rightly: truth and belief. I only limit it to these two for the sake of brevity.  These categories are separate, and the truth category helps us shape the belief category properly. If you reverse the order, you will result in the bait and switch tactic, and the evidence of that is our present culture. Let’s look and see how truth is protected from belief.

    2. How is God’s revealed truth protected from belief?

What do I mean by the truth is protected from belief? Truth stands like a strong lighthouse that is getting hammered by the unforgiving waves of the ocean. No matter how hard the waves hit, the lighthouse still stands, allowing ships’ captains to navigate with safety. God’s revealed truth is like the lighthouse; it will enable all people – not just Christians- to navigate life safely. Look at how God shows His truth to all humankind.

“So that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and                on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” (Matthew 5:45)

Jesus is taking the order of nature and distributing grace to all under its umbrella to teach us how to love all people, not just those we like and who can benefit us. Christians should never take this grace of God in nature for granted; although, unbelievers do. No matter how much people want, individual belief to determine truth. Humans neither have that privilege nor can they make better moral decisions than a perfect and holy God. Here are two points all people need to understand about truth.

A. Truth is a person “Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life no one comes through the Father                   except through me.” (John14:6)

When you are reading the life of Jesus, you can understand the category of truth displayed. Unbelief does not change what Jesus did on this earth nor who he was, is, and will be. No more than the guy robbing his local Walgreens in San Francisco, denial of the robbery makes him innocent. The truth will always eventually expose all shortcomings of those unwilling to accept the freedom that it gives. The freedom is found in the second point on truth.

B. “The truth will set you free.” (John 8:32)

Notice the text does not say, “Your truth will set you free.” God’s truth is for all people and is not arbitrarily made up like man’s fluctuating opinion. God has taken thousands of years to reveal it to us kindly and progressively. This final revelation was found in Jesus, and the writers of the New Testament were used by God the Holy Spirit to recount the time Jesus lived on earth and how he used them for our benefit. The natural question that comes from the text is free from what? In the context of the passage, Jesus is referring to the slavery of sin. The religious leaders were boasting in their religious pedigree of being descendants of Abraham. While all along, they were slaves to sin. Sin is what motivates people to muddle truth by labeling it individual belief.

For us to leave them in this type of slavery and bondage of sin is one of the most unloving things we can do as those who have been changed by truth. I have alluded to the category of belief, but I want to talk about where beliefs come from and how it practically functions in our day-to-day lives.

          3.How should we understand the category of belief and how it practically functions?

We have beliefs about everything. Which candidate to vote for. If our spouse loves us. If that person is lying or not. How are our beliefs formed? They take shape through our fundamental assumptions. You may ask, how do I know what my fundamental assumptions are? Everyone instinctively uses these fundamental assumptions to answer every question and make sense of life around them. Ask yourself where you have come from? What happens after you die? How do I know what is right and wrong? This will expose your underlying assumptions.

These make up the category of belief in your life. Belief, although it is a separate category from the truth, can be influenced by truth. The belief category can be affected by the truth, but truth cannot be changed or influenced by belief.

Here is an example. Here are two truth claims- they may seem elementary, but both are being challenged in our current culture of madness. 1. A man is not a woman. 2. Stealing either a person or companies’ personal property is wrong.

This is an objective truth that any living, breathing human being who is old enough to think thoroughly understands. The truth category stands alone and needs no one to represent or examine its truthfulness. It is—in a real sense—protected from the invading tyrant of belief. If no one on earth believed these truths, it would still be true because the truth starts with God.

The human race comes along and says, let’s call evil good and good evil. How does that play out in the 21st century we live in? The LGBTQ says a man can be called a woman and mutilate himself if he wants to, if he feels that’s what he wants to do. Someone can demand to be called her when they are a him. A guy can drive into his local Walgreens with his bike and take a garbage bag full of items and ride out of the store, while the security guard wonders if he should call 911.

Captain Obvious is becoming a prophet in our culture “You do You!” Abortion now becomes women’s healthcare. We keep hearing phrases like this: “well, that may be true for you, but that is not true for me.” When belief takes the place of truth, it dissolves into a heap of meaningless subjectivity. Where good can be evil, up can be down, men can be women, women can be men, police who enforce the rule of law are the enemies, while the mob gets sympathy, hard work is considered worthless, and being a victim gets you a pass to say and do anything you want.

I don’t agree with the last few sentences, but this is how belief in the 21st century practically functions. In other words, it is a train wreck waiting to happen. The pin is pulled on the grenade, and all are just waiting for it to go off. People continue to substitute belief for truth because enough people are unwilling to stand up and love them enough to show them the contradictions and arbitrariness. It’s like having something on your face, and no one loves you enough to say anything.

For any belief to make sense, it has to have its foundation in objective truth. Read this statement, “All people deserve equal rights.” How many times have we heard this chanted the past year by the Black Lives Matter organization? Thousands. A Christian would give that a hearty amen. However, those whose individual belief determine their truth ultimately begin to unravel. How? There is no such thing as equal rights. There are only individual beliefs. “You do you! Whatever floats your boat, do it.”

So for a white officer to kill a black man in cold blood is not bad or good. For an Antifa mob to break into a business and loot it and burn it to the ground is not bad or good. You get the picture. Anyone who haphazardly merges the category of belief in place of truth will reap disastrous results. A real-life example is the dumpster fire of 21st Century America. It might make for a cool meme on a Twitter account or a neat T-shirt phrase, but a personal belief that disregards objective truth is disastrous.

Here is the good news. Truth is always protected from individual belief because the truth is universal. I have established completely separate categories that are distinct from each other. Truth is separate from belief, and belief is separate from the truth. When individual belief tries to do away with objective truth, it gives us current 21st Century America. We have seen that the category of truth stands like an unshakable lighthouse. We have seen that truth is a person, Jesus Christ, which means that truth can influence and change our individual beliefs. Accepting God’s objective truth brings new beliefs. This is what it means to repent. We agree with God we are wrong, and we change our beliefs. We are then given new underlying assumptions. Our belief cannot pollute the potency of truth, but truth can remove the stain and the effects of flawed belief. Where did this blurring of categories begin?

It started when God created man. Here is a quote from the worst mistake in human history, “‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’”  But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:4-5)

Some background on this text is found in Genesis 2, “And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden;  but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it, you will certainly die.” (Genesis 2:16-17)

Look how the serpent subtly substituted his belief, “you will not surely die” for God’s truth, “but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it, you will certainly die.” Satan appealed to the truth, “you will be like God knowing good and evil,” but deceived them with his sinful belief, “you will not surely die.”

This trick of spiritual bait and switch has been played out repeatedly throughout human history and continues because of man’s rebellious heart.  

You will not either die or be held accountable so,  good can be evil, up can be down, men can be women, women can be men, police who enforce the rule of law are the enemies. At the same time, the mob gets sympathy, hard work is considered worthless, love is love (lust), you need to be true to yourself, and being a victim gets you a pass to say and do anything you want. I hear the enemy whispering this to my Nation, and way too many are listening.

What does this mean for daily living and the conversations that you are having with unbelievers? You have to realize that every unbeliever, even if they are well-meaning, instinctively pulls a bait and switch on you. You are getting into a conversation with them. They agree to similar things that you believe equal right for all, freedom of speech; however, as the conversation continues, they pull the switch on you showing their belief is temporarily trampling objective truth. Their worldview is made of subjective opinion that is just full of inconsistencies and arbitrariness.

You see their individual belief reigns supreme in their minds as they are the king of their own small universe; however, they find themselves in God’s reality. We call that real life, where we live, buy, work, function, and have our being in him. One day their house of cards of flawed belief and subjective opinion will crumble, and they will be held accountable to Him. How much do we have to hate them not to share that truth?

Here a few questions to use. If either individuals or cultural beliefs are king, why do you get mad about anything or what other cultures do to their citizens? (Examples: Jeffrey Dahmer or North Korea)  If individual belief determines truth, why was George Floyd’s (insert any recent trending news story) murder wrong? Why were the looters and rioters wrong in Seattle last year? Why is someone cutting you off in traffic wrong? Why is someone driving 40 mph on the interstate in the passing lane wrong?

The lost and dying world is trying to pull a bait and switch on God in the small reality of their mind; therefore, they will do this in their conversations with you. Don’t fall for it. It is the oldest trick in the book. Love them enough to learn how to navigate these conversations and then have them with neighbors, co-workers, new friends at the cash register at Wal-Mart, and family. Remember, truth and belief are two separate categories. Truth can influence belief, but belief cannot change absolute truth: God. Truth is a person, Jesus, that will set us free from our false realities of sin. That manager fooled Melanie and me, but the human race will never be able to trick an all-knowing God.

Jesus calls unbelievers and believers—where we are still struggling with sin—to give up our flawed beliefs and submit every day to him in repentance and faith and rest in his objective truth. Love your neighbor, co-worker, and humankind enough to proclaim God’s objective truth to see their lives transformed. You will hear from me next month. Here is how you find out the benefit of being a monthly champion