Truth Or Consequences

By John Stallings


The simplest story, fact or fiction, -told using the proper turn of a phrase or combination of adverbs and adjectives can make a fairy tale or an out and out lie sound like the truth.

Properly worded, even a horrible crime can be made to sound natural…even noble. Tragically in our culture, using words to conceal the truth has been raised to an art -form.

The attitude is that lying is O.K and very often necessary.

Every now & then over the years 20/20, Prime Time, or one of the big network T.V shows will have a segment about lying. It’s astounding how pervasive lying is & how early in life it starts.

We’ve been in the political season now for months and the lies are beginning to take their toll on all of us. We have one of the biggest political liars right here in Orlando. Don’t get me started. This man will lie when the truth would sound better. But he’ll be retiring soon, though not of his own volition.

Gone are the days when greatness and honesty were a “package deal.”
We have moved very far away from the age when a man’s word was his bond….to a society in which people are more accepting than ever before of exaggerations, falsifications, fabrications, misstatements, misrepresentations, gloss-overs, quibbles, concoctions, shuffles, prevarications, word flourishes, misspeaking, the truth covered & varnished. It sounds like Isaiah is describing present day America when he says;

---No one calls for justice; no one pleads his case with integrity. They rely on empty arguments & speak lies. They conceive trouble & give birth to evil. Ish.59:4.

One day a minister noticed a group of boys standing around a small stray dog. “What are you doing’ he asked? “Telling lies” one of them replied. “The one who tells the biggest lie gets to keep the dog.” The minister was shocked and said, “When I was your age I would never have thought of telling a lie.”

The boys looked at each other, sad and seemingly a little disappointed. Finally one shrugged, pointed at the minister and said, “I guess he wins the dog.”

We’ve all been faced with situations where we haven’t exactly been truthful if for no other reason than to protect someone’s feelings. I think most of can go a step further and admit we’ve told a few “whoppers” in our lives. The little boy had it right when he said-“A lie is an abomination to the Lord but an ever present help in the time of need.”

I find it interesting that in our culture when ;

“Truth has fallen in the street,” still perhaps the worst thing that can be said about a person is that…he or she is a liar.

How much false advertising is out there? How many times have you purchased something [especially on T.V] and the product didn’t perform anywhere near the way it was promised? Clearly they have oversold the widget and that’s a nice way of putting it. T.V salesmen will build a product up and have you setting on the edge of your seat and then they say, “The price of this product has been cut to the bone—$19.95, but if you act now, we’ll send you two for the price of one.” How much quality can there be in something they’ve cut in half but can still sell you two for the price of one? Pleeaase!!

There is so much hype and spin and massaging the message out there that we don’t know what to believe and in the end the truth becomes the causality. Let’s be real; we find it hard to believe anything disseminated by the media. We’ve ended up with a society where the truth doesn’t matter, the facts don’t matter and sometimes we wonder if they even exist.

Technology has made it possible for a teenager to start a rumor on Facebook and soon a multitude have heard the embarrassing or incriminating news about so-and-so. Lying and stealing go hand in hand. My mother used to say, “You can lock up from a thief but you can’t lock up from a liar.” A stolen camera or T.V set can be retrieved but where would you go to get your reputation back?

Someone has rightly said;

“When I lie, I begin to lie easily and with proficiency. When I lie it gets harder to know what the truth is. When I lie, I lose touch with what I really think, really feel, really am. When I lie I no longer know myself. When I lie I don’t know whether what I say is what happened or what I want to have happened or what I’m afraid happened or what I want others to think happened. When I continue to lie I’m becoming a walking charade of dueling fantasies.”

If there’s anything in scripture that’s absolutely clear, even if only by the sheer force of the number of times it’s prohibited, or spoken about negatively, it would be that lying disgusts God; it contradicts His very character. The Bible teaches that God cannot lie.-Titus 1:2. The hallmark of Jesus’ character was-I am the truth.

NO LIARS IN HEAVEN

We dare not take a soft-stand on the subject of lying. We are clearly told there will be no liars in heaven. Have you noticed that the Bible doesn’t say, “All murders will have their part in the Lake of fire?” Or “all of any group of sinners shall have their part in the Lake of fire?” Certainly these folk, minus forgiveness will be there but the Bible in referring to them doesn’t say they “All”___ will be there. But the Bible does say, “ALL LIARS” will have their place in the lake of fire.” (Rev.21:8.)

God wants us to know “all liars” includes “little white lies- I love your hair—you’re not fat,” Lies of convenience- “read my lips, no new taxes”—or— “I didn’t inhale” small lies like- “my dog ate my homework,” religious lies, like “volunteer to do church work, it’ll only take a few minutes a week,” --- “My message will be brief, ---give me just two more minutes of your time-- I’m almost through preaching”---& business lies—the bait & switch merchants. Also, we now have a new art-form known as SPIN. If a politician has the ability to successfully “spin” a version of truth that will soothe the listeners or deceive them, he’s admired by many people & considered someone worth looking up to.

President Barack Obama is recognized as a glib speaker and consequently many feel he’s a real politician and to them it naturally follows that he’s a “great leader.” I heard a voter recently say, “I don’t trust Obama because he’s a great speaker, and I don’t trust great speakers.” I’m not sure that should be a litmus test but I have a feeling it might soon be.

Sometimes it’s hard to tell the truth because people don’t always want to hear it. If experience has taught me anything it’s taught me that most people take truth in small doses.

Winston Churchill said; “Occasionally men stumble over the truth. Most pick themselves up and go on as if nothing had happened.”

A man was standing in front of a judge all beat up and bleeding. The judge asked him to please describe the man who so brutally attacked him. He told the judge he’d rather not describe the man because that’s what he was doing when the man beat him up.

PRACTICAL REASONS FOR TRUTHFULNESS

The main reason the world agrees that lying isn’t good is very practical. What kind of place would the world be if we weren’t at least in general agreement that we should relate to one another on some level of truthfulness? What upsets us most about someone lying to us is; from then on we can no longer believe them.

In a world where lying was accepted, you obviously couldn’t trust anything you read or were told. You would have to find everything out for yourself, firsthand. You’d have to invest enormous amounts of time and money to check out the simplest matters. In fact, you probably couldn’t check out the simplest matters.

You could never get a decent education because education depends upon taking the word of what you read in your lesson books. Think about all the benefits we have from living in a world where a great deal of trust exists…a world where people practice truth telling, at least for the most part.

Would you want to let a surgeon cut on you who had taken short-cuts in his education or lied about his credentials or training? I personally trust very few people even with scissors. Even fewer with razors. I’d get up and walk out if I heard my doctor say to his nurse, “would you hand me that thingie?”

And merciful God please keep me off any bridge built by an engineer who flunked Engineering 101.

A world with a modicum of sanity recognizes that for a wide variety of extremely practical reasons we need to be able to trust that what people tell us is true. When people don’t tell the truth havoc reigns in homes, relationships and in society.

Think how much of the world is messed up by lies -even when we put such emphasis on truth-telling. Do you ever think about the practical consequences of lying and the ripple effect it has on our culture? Of all the sins man is capable of; lying is very likely the most destructive.

Think about the Barney Madoff mess. There are once wealthy people eating government cheese because of this man. Think about the banking scandals, what we’ve seen done by the heads of major corporations that lie about their companies financial picture causing millions of dollars to be lost in the stock market resulting in thousands of people losing their jobs.

Look at our present political picture. A smart eight year old could see that leaders are lying their heads off everywhere you look and feeling as if they’re doing God and the people a favor by doing it.

The book The day America told the truth says that 91 percent of those surveyed lie routinely about matters they consider trivial, 36 percent lie about important matters, 73 percent lie to siblings, 86 percent lie regularly to parents, 75 percent to friends and 69 percent to spouses.

A national survey by Rutgers’ management Education Center of 4,500 high school students found that 75 percent of them engage in serious cheating. More than half have plagiarized work they found on the internet and most disturbing many of them see nothing wrong with cheating.

Liar, Liar

I’ve tried to track down the origins of “liar, liar, pants on fire, hang them on a telephone wire.” This derisive phrase was probably uttered by a parent to a child caught lying & later the child began to use the phrase, mostly because kids like things that rhyme. Someone obviously made it a poem, children started using it on other kids &, well -it entered the lexicon.

Harris poll did a survey that dealt with trust. It was based on a survey of the first graduating class of the new millennium—the class of 2001. In the study students said they trusted the honesty & integrity of their grandparents’ generation more than their peers. They are more likely to trust their grandparents’ generation (79%) followed by their parents’ generation (68 %.) Apparently our children are seeing their world-where lies are so prevalent – as a treacherous place.They seem to relate to the words of Psalms 12:1-2 where it says—

Help O Lord! For the godly are no more. The faithful have vanished from among men. Everyone lies to his neighbor; their flattering lips speak with deception.

We have historians re-shaping history to conform to the morals of our day. We even have a whole new type of newspaper today known as SCANDAL SHEETS or TABLOIDS. They are sold, of all places, at grocery stores & usually have “true” headline stories on the front page. Stories like, - “Hundred year old woman gives birth to two-headed baby after being kidnapped by a UFO.” People buy these things because they are tantalized at the thought of hearing the latest smut on some person…even if it’s almost certain to be untrue. It’s horrendous, especially in ministries, to indict or be indicted as a liar & it’s equally as terrible to engage in the kind of secrecy that keeps others in the dark. It’s enlightening to read the words of 1 Timothy in 4:1-6,-

- Now the spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits & doctrines of devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron….

Pilate asked Jesus, “What is truth?” Indeed what is it?

When I read that incident, the human side of me would have loved to hear Jesus answer Pilate like Jack Nicholson answered Tom Cruise in the movie, “A few good men,” -“Truth? You want the truth? You can’t handle the truth.”What appears to be the truth isn’t always the truth & if you think you know all the truth maybe you’d better ask some more questions.

To say that the truth was/is important to Jesus is like saying the Atlantic Ocean is a little damp.
In the Gospel of John alone the word truth occurs 25 times & it’s usually coming from the mouth of Jesus Himself. He said—you will know the truth & the truth will set you free. To Jesus, to live in ignorance & error is to live in bondage. The ninth commandment in Exodus 20:16 says;

--You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
This commandment has never been timelier. God takes lying seriously—very seriously, and for good reason. Jesus told us in John 8:44—the devil is the father of lies.

Proverbs 6:16-19 lists seven things that will drive a wedge between us & God. Listen to what it says,--There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to Him; haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies & a man who stirs up dissension among brothers.

This certainly isn’t a perfect analogy but with God it’s somewhat like a person with allergies. I have known people who are allergic to things like ragweed or cat hair. Their immune system is overly sensitive to those things. Their eyes will water & itch. They cough & sneeze until you think their head is going to fly off. It’s sad to watch them suffer. All because they can’t tolerate something in the air that they can’t even see. God is “allergic”to all sin but he especially hates lies. Jesus was truth incarnate. God is called “The God of truth.” The Holy Spirit is called “The spirit of truth.” Paul says of the people in Romans 1,--

They exchange the truth of God for a lie.

By lying we separate ourselves from God, so there are several negative consequences that come with disobeying the 9th commandment. Matthew 5:37 says,

--Let your communication be yea, yea & nay, nay for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.

SAINT TELEMACHUS

St. Telemachus was a fourth century monk who lived in a monastery in Europe. Under the Spirit’s leading one day he set out on a journey to Rome. When he arrived he followed a crowd into the Coliseum. As he watched, in the arena, gladiators came out & began to fight to their deaths. Telemachus thought, “Here we are four centuries after Christ in a civilized nation & people are killing each for the entertainment of the crowd. This isn’t Christian.”So he got up from his seat ran down the stairs, climbed over the wall, walked into the arena & stood between two large gladiators. Putting his hands to his mouth he meekly shouted, “In the name of Christ stop.”

The crowd jeered him but he continued to say the same thing until finally one of the gladiators took his sword & stabbed Telemachus in the stomach. Before he died he uttered the words again, “In the name of Christ stop,” then he expired on the arena floor.

The crowd grew silent & within minutes they all got up & left the coliseum. History records that thanks to Telemachus, this was the last gladiatorial contest in the history of the Roman Empire.

The same Holy Spirit who led Telemachus to stand for the truth will lead you & me to do the same thing whether it’s to speak out against racism, abortion, homosexuality, or even against our nation’s tolerance of lying.


It’s not enough to NOT LIE! We must speak up for the TRUTH!

Blessings,


John