Reality Check 101

There is a popular proverb among those who are of a more religious bent, both liberal and conservative: “All truth is God’s truth.” This sounds good as far as it goes but falls short in modern life.

A.W. Tozer recognized the reason for the proverb’s shortfall when he wrote: “Truth is a glorious but hard mistress. She never consults, bargains or compromises. She cries from the top of the high places, ‘Receive my instruction and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold.’ After that, every man is on his own.”

In the deepest part of his heart, modern man, religious or irreligious, does not like to be told what to think. What passes for truth he readily discovers, accepts or refuses on his own terms but rarely willingly submits to the hard or the uncompromising.

Modernists, religious or irreligious, market a more amiable “truth,” one measured by its benevolence and tolerability. They are embarrassed to be associated with pre-modern principles, defiant of change or demanding of obedience. The urge to embrace innovation and suppress old wisdom is part and parcel of human nature and is a powerful weapon against changeless principles.

But truth depends on changelessness. If for instance the definition for family is evolving according to the dictates of society, there can be no true institution called family. There may be groups which claim “familiness” at some point in time, but one group in one context would hold no more value or have any stronger claim as true family than any other in another context. If pedophiles want their families to be all minor children and society gives the go-ahead, so be it.

Reliable morality also depends on changeless truth. If good and right move along a sliding scale, there is no true moral standard. Any one person or group can claim any action as ethical. Why not Hitler’s elimination of Jews as opposed to a Jew’s claim of self-preservation? Left to societal whim, all issues become putty in the hands of a misguided majority or an inordinately powerful minority.

The same requirement for an immovable, God-revealed truth applies in all areas. Without it, the American Psychological Association deemed homosexuality a disease, women remained little more than property rather than God’s co-workers shaping the world one family and community at a time. Outside of biblical religion, the uniqueness of childhood, preserved for thousands of years, was trashed for profit and a paleontologist could make sociologically false claims against religion.

The family has been under attack since man’s rebellion against his Creator. Throughout history those societies that ignored or abandoned God’s standards for righteousness have floundered and failed. Truth beyond man’s control is the only way to counter his self-destructive wonderings.

American religion, with Christians a huge majority, has consistently produced sounder families, better general and sexually related health, more social self-control, less addiction, less sexual promiscuity, lower rates of depression and greater community cohesion. The truth has been documented by over ten years of research by genuine sociologists. Historical resources such as “The Christian Life and Character of the Civil Institutions of theUnited States” are irrefutable.

In theUnited States there have always been families that fail; philandering, abusive or irresponsible spouses and parents. There have always been women in despair who have chosen abortion. A small population has always existed who have been deceived by the lure of homosexuality. Consequences for irresponsibility have never lessened. But one thing has stayed true until recent decades; the nation as a whole and families in particular met each assault by adapting without forgetting the truths of our Judeo-Christian heritage.