When truth is revealed, men have an obligation to hear it. The Lord will judge those who claim to speak it, and he will also judge the hearers for the way they receive it, which is to say that we need to accept and respond to the things we hear that are true, and reject the things we hear that are not.
What scripture doesn’t talk about all the time is how difficult that process can be for the onlooker.
Old Testament Truth-Tellers
Let’s use the Old Testament prophets as illustrative. When Moses and Aaron went before Pharaoh, it was two truth-tellers against a room full of wise men, sorcerers and magicians, who performed convincing miracles by their secret arts. On Mount Carmel, Elijah told the truth, while 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah told lies. When Ahab wanted to go to war against Syria, 400 false prophets claimed to speak for God. All were lying. Only Micaiah told the truth, and it had to be wrestled out of him. When Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego entered the fiery furnace for telling the truth, the whole world was falling on their faces before an image.
Always, the truth-tellers were wildly outnumbered. Often, the truth was not instantly evident. Men took sides in the absence of unequivocal proof.
A Nation of Laws
Let’s take a more modern example. A few years ago, when governments insisted we all get vaccinated and have Q-tips shoved up our noses by non-medical personnel in airports, a few people quietly protested. “Hey,” they said. “Aren’t we a nation ruled by laws, and aren’t the authorities also supposed to be subject to those laws? These new practices violate our legal rights.” Almost everyone, including many Christians, told them, “Shhh, the powers that be are ordained of God” or the secular equivalent, which is something like, “They’re the government, they can do whatever they want.” Those who continued to object to the trampling of the law were fired, fined or ignored.
Time passed, judges examined the laws of the land, and lo and behold, it turns out the “powers that be” were actually exceeding their legal authority. The protesters getting fired and fined were acting more lawfully than the people firing and fining them.
Different Times …
These examples are admittedly very different. Elijah got confirming evidence from heaven that he was a prophet of God in fairly short order, but when the truth-tellers are ordinary people rather than prophets of God, getting to the bottom of the big lie sometimes takes a lot longer. Many of the COVID protesters weren’t even Christians, while many of the restriction and mandate promoters were. Sorting out the truth has taken years, and those responsible for disseminating lies will probably never be called to account. Even now, other judges may rule differently, under pressure from governments who would prefer the issue just go away.
At least we know the prophets of Baal killed by Elijah will not be coming back from the dead to restate their case for a false god.
… Same Story
That said, there are a few things most big public truth/lie situations have in common, and a few ways you may be able to discern truth from lies when sides are being taken without waiting for the big reveal down the road:
- Liars act in their perceived best interests. Truth-tellers often act against their own best interests, because the truth is worth whatever it costs them.
- Liars always want you to act on their lies right now, before they get caught fibbing. Truth-tellers let you consider the evidence for yourself, because their story is never going to change. It is what it is.
- Liars always outnumber honest men. If the legitimacy of a position has any relationship to the numbers holding it, it is probably an inverse relationship.
- Standing for the truth may be costly in the short term, but you will be proven right in the end. Believing lies everyone else believes is easy in the short term, but you may regret it later.
The worst the world can do to you for telling the truth is kill you. In the context of eternity, that’s not so bad. The worst that can happen to chronic liars? Well …
Maybe that last one’s easier to write the older you get.
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