Post date: Jun 15, 2014 4:52:42 PM
“Your Honor, a courtroom is a crucible. In it we burn away irrelevancies
until we are left with a pure product: The Truth—for all time.”
Captain Jean-Luc Picard
Star-Trek: The Next Generation
Episode: The Measure of a Man
Well disguised deceptions are the most difficult—and the most damning—products of the mind of Satan. They are well crafted. They sound good. They sound heroic. They sound true. They might even be well intentioned. Hidden within them, though, are false implications that lead to false assumptions that lead to false directions that lead us away from the Truth and to a lie. We must be very careful and wary of and vigilant for such things, because they are of the mind of Satan and, should we fall for them, we will go, merrily and proudly strutting victoriously, to our own destruction and damnation—indeed to our own fall. And when this time comes, we will have no one to blame for it but ourselves, for we will be the ones who have ignored the Truth in favor of a lie.
Most of us have, at one time or another, seen the image of a smelter or a forge at work, with molten metal being poured, from a crucible, into a form of some kind. It is the image of men at work. It is the image of mankind creating something—something intended to last. The heat of it seems to very nearly come out of the image and into our own lives as it is heated to such a degree that those parts of it that are not the final pure product that we want are progressively burned away into nothing, leaving us, in the end, with the pure metal that we desire.
It is the image of creation. It is a fine image. It is a good image—when we are dealing with things that we really do create. But when it is dealing with things that are beyond our ken to create, that are beyond our power to create, things that are, in fact, eternal, as though we are the ones creating them—then it becomes a lie, and not the truth—not the truth at all.
“What is Truth?” What is it? Really. Can Truth change? Can it really be one thing now and its antithesis at another time? Can it? If Truth can change, then what was it before it was Truth? What is it after, but the same subtle, well crafted lie that it has really been the entire time? If someone, craftily and authoritatively and caringly, goes around announcing that the natural sky on earth is sky blue pink with polka-dots, is that true? What is that but a lie? No matter the care and the craftiness used and the heroism injected and the intentions brought to bear, what is it but a lie?
Look at the quote above. Look hard at it. Take it apart and parse the words and look hard at it.
What is it really saying? Is it not saying that we create Truth? Is it not saying that we are the crafters of Truth, that we decide what is Truth and what is irrelevant?
What is it, though, that the Scriptures say? εγω ειμι η οδος και η αληθεια και η ζωη “I AM the way and the Truth and the life”. God says, “I AM the Truth!” So, when we go about claiming to be the creators and arbiters of Truth, are we not actually going about creating our own little tin-plated god with delusions of reality affixed?
Are we not, in fact, creating a lie and simply calling it Truth—and therefore deceiving ourselves?
God says, “I AM the Truth”, so, like God, the Truth is eternal and uncreated and unchanging. It is forever the same and unchanging, no matter our own little, puny desires and machinations to the contrary.
No matter our campaigns against it; no matter the care, no matter the craftiness, no matter the diligence, no matter the Napoleonic pride we bring to bear, the Truth is forever the Truth. And we cannot change it.
No matter the course of public opinion, no matter its admittedly daunting sway, if you are not walking with and indeed, in, the Truth, then you are marching against it and—however proudly, or merrily, or victoriously—you are marching to your own destruction and damnation—indeed to your own fall. For the Truth is forever the Truth and does not do our bidding.
No matter how much care and strength and power you think you bring, when you march against the Truth the Truth wins. In the end, you will be destroyed, and the Truth will still be the Truth. No matter who comes against it, or how, in the end the Truth will win. So, if you do not wish to be eternally crushed in an unending torture of an eternity, walk with the Truth and not against it, for in the end, the Truth will win.