Truth Matters
- Published Jul 31, 2004
In Friday's Breakpoint commentary, Chuck Colson discusses the three greatest issues in the world today. This is his list:
1) Radical Islam, because it threatens the very existence of the West.
2) Truth, because without truth there can be no morality, and without morality there can be no civilization.
3) Humanity, because without a clear definition of life, we are free to discard the unborn, to experiment on aborted fetuses, and to kill the elderly, the infirm, and others judged unfit or unworthy or simply too expensive to keep alive. Colson mentions his 13-year-old autistic grandson and wonders how long before society decides it can do without "useless eaters."
This last category helps us understand the controversy or same-sex marriage. Today we separate sex and marriage and childbearing, when traditionally those three things have gone together.
In my mind, # 1 & 3 get most of the headlines, but # 2 is more important. In a postmodern world, it's easy for someone to dismiss moral objections by saying, "That's just your opinion" or "That's true for you and not for me." Over two thousand years ago, Archimedes declared, "Give me a lever long enough and a place to stand, and I will move the world." The challenge in our day is finding a "place to stand." Outside of objective moral truth -- what we once called natural law -- grounded in God's revelation, there is no "place to stand" so we are left in a quicksand of social confusion.
During the recent Christian Booksellers convention in Atlanta, I attended the 30th Anniversary Banquet of Crossway Books. Part of the evening featured a film clip from the late Francis Schaeffer talking about the importance of standing for the truth in an age of personal peace and affluence. I was reminded again how great a prophet he really was. He predicted in the mid ’70s that a time would come when the unthinkable would become thinkable and even acceptable in our society. His words have come true in our day. Then there was a brief clip of Edith Schaeffer who is now 90 years old. In a slow, clear voice she said, "The only thing that matters is truth." She’s right about that.
In an anti-intellectual age, Christians must stand on the truth. Truth towers over our personal experience and stands in judgment over our personal opinions. If we don’t know the truth, then we will fall prey to all the false ideologies of our day. If we do not teach our children the truth, there are people out there who will gladly teach them error.
The moral and spiritual confusion of these days offers an incredible opportunity to the church of Jesus Christ. The very fact that we live in such spiritual darkness means that when the light shines, it really shines. Don’t be discouraged by the difficulty of the task. Let us instead be encouraged by the opportunities of this hour.
Truth matters. Make sure you know it so you can share it with those who don't know it yet.
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