Tag: Falsehood

Woman holding a glowing sphere labeled TRUTH amid digital networks and words including Integrity, Logic, Fact, and Falsehood

Truth and Deception

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“People, I call out to you; my cry is to the children of Adam. Learn to be shrewd, you who are inexperienced; develop common sense, you who are foolish. Listen, for I speak of noble things, and what my lips say is right. For my mouth tells the truth, and wickedness is detestable to my lips. All the words from my mouth are righteous; none of them are deceptive or perverse. All of them are clear to the perceptive, and right to those who discover knowledge. Accept my instruction instead of silver, and knowledge rather than pure gold. For wisdom is better than jewels, and nothing desirable can equal it.” (Proverbs‬ ‭8‬:‭4‬-‭11‬ ‭CSB – Read the chapter) ‬‬

We live today in a world in which truth—real truth—is becoming ever more important. Because of the rise of AI and the creation of phantom facts and increasingly sophisticated fake photos videos it is difficult to know if what we are seeing with our eyes on a screen is real. This unmooring of our lives and our culture from truth leads to a degradation of trust which in turn makes everything we do more difficult. We need the foundation of truth more than ever before so that our entire culture doesn’t give way to cynicism, doubt, and a host of other civilization-destroying traits. In this kind of a world, godly wisdom is vital. Let’s talk about wisdom’s self-description and why we can trust it even when we can’t trust anything else.

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Digging in Deeper: Exodus 3:13-15

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“Then Moses asked God, ‘If I go to the Israelites and say to them, “The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,” and they ask me, “What is his name?” what should I tell them?’ God replied to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you.’ God also said to Moses, ‘Say this to the Israelites: The Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is my name forever; this is how I am to be remembered in every generation.'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

This is one of those foundational passages in the Scriptures that serves as the rock on which a great deal of the rest of the ideas they contain rests. Moses asks who it is he should tell the people of Israel has sent him to lead them. In response, God reveals His name to Moses. While this was perhaps the first time Moses had heard it, that may not have been the case for the Israelites. Let’s talk about what’s going on here and what this means for us.

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Digging in Deeper: Exodus 1:17-21

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“The midwives, however, feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt had told them; they let the boys live. So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, ‘Why have you done this and let the boys live?’ The midwives said to Pharaoh, ‘The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife can get to them.’ So God was good to the midwives, and the people multiplied and became very numerous. Since the midwives feared God, he gave them families.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Everyone “knows” lying is wrong. I say it like that because in spite of that so-called knowledge, we still do it. A lot. For followers of Jesus, we know we serve the God of truth. Committing ourselves to something other than what is true, whether in word, deed, or even thought, is out of sync with His character and thus out of bounds for us morally. People generally who countenance any kind of authority to the Scriptures will quickly point to the Ten Commandments’ prohibition on bearing false witness as further proof of the sinfulness of lying. What do we do then, with a story in which some characters actively lie about something and are celebrated and rewarded for it? Let’s explore this together.

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Digging in Deeper: John 8:31-32

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“Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, ‘If you continue in my word, you really are my disciples. You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’”‬‬ (CSB – Read the chapter) 

When Jesus had been arrested and tried by the Jewish religious authorities, they handed Him over to Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea, because they wanted Him crucified and they didn’t have the authority to impose such a sentence. Pilate was an interesting guy, but one we’ll have to talk about another time. What’s of interest right now is that as Pilate questions Jesus to get a sense of who this man was that so enraged the members of the Sanhedrin, he asks a question that rings far more loudly today than it did then: What is truth? 

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Digging in Deeper: Proverbs 30:7-9

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“Two things I ask of you; deny them not to me before I die: Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’ or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.”  (ESV)

If you could ask anything of God, what would it be?  Agur here asks for two things.  He firsts asks for God to make him honest, to take all falsehood and lying away from him.  We can understand that.  Now, that may not be the first thing we would think of if we had a blank check from God, but it’s a pretty good thing if you think about it.  He’s basically asking for God to help him live a life that is consistent with reality all the time.  Most of us could probably use a little more reality in our lives.  Living with fantasy may feel nice for a while, but eventually it runs out and usually leaves you lower than you were before you sought the fantasy high in the first place.  This is a good thing.  We get this one.  The other thing…after the beginning…not so much. Read the rest…