"You Can't Handle the Truth!"

09-14-2021

“For this is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies says: I was determined to punish you when your ancestors angered me, and I did not change my mind, says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies. But now I am determined to bless Jerusalem and the people of Judah. So don’t be afraid. But this is what you must do: Tell the truth to each other. Render verdicts in your courts that are just and that lead to peace. Don’t scheme against each other. Stop your love of telling lies that you swear are the truth. I hate all these things, says the LORD,” Zechariah 8:14-17

“Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free” - Jesus, in John 8:32

99% of the time - I (Steve) will not engage in social media arguments/quarrells/debates. But, I may have done that last night…

There are “preachers” who have great notoriety, huge followings, multiple campuses, and books galore. Yet, an issue Missy and I have with some is that they twist scripture, pull it out of context, or state a half-truth to rile up their fanbase. (See, I am still in a tizzy. Can you tell?)

A self-proclaimed (and who am I to argue?) “evangelist” wrote the following words on Facebook: “God has a mighty plan for your life, but the enemy wants to snatch it away…”

Now, I am going to be cool about my response but also maybe just a tad sarcastic...as I was on the Facebook thread for his post. Let me be clear - nowhere in the Bible does it say, “God has a mighty plan for your life.” Nor, does it say, “The enemy wants to snatch it away.” Both statements ring a bit of truth (which is always a treacherous and dangerous thing) but are profoundly false when held up against the judgment of God’s word.

My response - here expanded and in technicolor - was simply this: “God does not have a mighty plan for your life. If we continue to say that, what will it mean to the child who has been abused and neglected only to find themselves in a children’s home? What about the child who is aborted? What about the mother who has buried her child due to an overdose? What about the father who learns that his child has committed suicide due to bullying? Do you get the picture?

One person reacted to my response by reminding me of Jeremiah 29:11. (If you need to take a sec, look it up.) Not being sarcastic - at least right now - I actually wondered aloud to myself how long it would be till someone quoted/misquoted that verse to support the evangelist’s statement. Less than five minutes for those of you who are counting...

And, of course, the individual pulled that verse out of context, trying to apply it in order that her belief system and theology would not be upbraided. She never mentioned one time about Israel being in captivity when God made that promise. On a side-note - she did scope out my Facebook page and said,“And, he’s a preacher! I pray he repents and gets saved!” Someone else stated I was going to hell. Oh well, you can’t have everybody love you I guess.

Back to our main point today - Missy and I nearly always do an eye-roll and grunt “Ugh” when someone misuses scripture to fit a situation or to make their self-appointed theology acceptable to others. Why? It is one of the greatest tools the enemy has in disrupting, dividing and disappointing potential followers of Jesus.

Seriously, if you were reading that evangelist’s statement or heard a preacher say it and it was immediately after you had been beaten up by your alcoholic partner the night before what would you really think? It might be along the lines of, “Well, if that is God’s mighty plan for me, I don’t think I want to be any part of that.” And who would blame you?

Which is why we chose Zechariah for the opening scripture. Here, God speaks through his prophet Zechariah about truth. The passage is solely for the children of Judah and the house of Israel. How do we know this? It says so couple of verses before! The verses which come later speak to us (non-Jews/Gentiles). There God says, “This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies says: People from nations and cities around the world will travel to Jerusalem. The people of one city will say to the people of another, ‘Come with us to Jerusalem to ask the LORD to bless us. Let’s worship the LORD of Heaven’s Armies. I’m determined to go.’ Many peoples and powerful nations will come to Jerusalem to seek the LORD of Heaven’s Armies and to ask for his blessing,” Zechariah 8:20-22.

See how important knowing and understanding truth is? After all, it is the primary focus of Jesus’ words in John 8, where, of course, he is speaking of himself. We read later on in 14:6 of John’s gospel Jesus’ statement: “I the way, the truth and the life.” In other words, to know Jesus is to know the truth and it is precisely that Truth which sets us free.

And that, our friends, is God's plan for the world - not just you, not just us. The world. Remember Jesus’ late night visit with Nicodemus? During that recorded conversation the ultimate truth was revealed: “For this is the way God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world should be saved through him. The one who believes in him is not condemned. The one who does not believe has been condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God,” John 3:16-18. That is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. So help us, God.

Fans of the show “The X-Files” will remember the opening scenes of the show where the taglines, “I want to believe” and “The truth is out there,” scrolled across our screens each week. Yes, the truth is out there. You can believe it. And Truth’s Name is Jesus.

Steve and Missy