Can We Handle the Truth?

Many moons ago there was a movie where Tom Cruise confronted an obstinate Jack Nicholson in a military court. I don’t recall the name (Editor’s Note, the movie is “A Few Good Men”) or the plot just an outburst when Jack barks at the young hot-shot attorney, “You can’t handle the truth.”

What if we can’t handle the truth? Does that change it? Of course not. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father but by him. If you don’t believe this, that is your prerogative, but it doesn’t change the truth or make me or anyone who believes we are condemned in trespass and sin haters any more than it makes an oncologist fighting to save lives from the ravages of cancer a hater.

The truth is the truth

I will never forget the day my father’s oncologist met with me (and I presume my family, I was in a tunnel of focus at the moment) and informed me that there was nothing more they could do for my father. I went in, sat down with my Dad and the doctor as he broke the news. My dad looked up before the doctor could get a word out of his mouth, probably reading the conversation we had in the hall on my face, and said, “am I ate up?” My father already knew the truth and just needed the doctor to confirm it. It was a hard moment, but eased by my father’s resignation to the truth and the doctor’s willingness to tell us the truth. That conversation allowed us to prepare for what ensued.

My father’s oncologist would not have been helpful if he would have not spoken he truth. If he would have said, “You know, I think things are bad but they will be ok, just keep doing what you’re doing and have a positive attitude.”

The truth today

Israel had a cancer called idolatry and God had judged them for it. It had taken their lives, their children and their homeland, and yet many still were smoking the meth of idolatry and indulgence. They were addicted to sin, and oblivious to its consequences. They could not or would not acknowledge the truth. Like the old saying goes, you cannot deal with a problem if you don’t acknowledge you have one.

Our nation is sick of sin right now and we need a Biblical revival that draws men to Christ Jesus. That is the truth. We are every bit as idolatrous as Israel if not worse. We are equally oblivious both in and out of the church. Unbelievers are oblivious because their minds are blinded from the gospel. Believers are blinded because we love stuff more than God (see Revelation 3:17-21).

We need to fall before Jesus and ask him to anoint our eyes with eye-salve that we might see. A touch of truth combined with humility will give the grace and help we have in a time of need.

Unlike a terminal cancer diagnosis, the situation is not hopeless. I love the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, but not as much as I love Jesus. This is a hard truth, who can hear it? If you don’t love Jesus more than anything else, it isn’t going to matter if you have a Constitution and a Bill of Rights, because men will continue to wax wicked and rebel against God. We live in an age of “rights”. Human rights, LGBTQXYZ rights, constitutional rights, this right and that right and the right to remain silent. The hard truth is none of us are right without Jesus Christ, who is the righteousness of God. If we refuse that reality, we continue in depravity with or without “our rights.”

So what must be done is the Bible believing Christian must get right. Put aside the social media frenzy that manipulates the mind and grieves the soul, and invest in the word of God above all else. Show charity, as many have, are and are continuing to do, and love our enemies as well as our brethren for charity never fails.

To those Christian “leaders” who call on the church and pastors to “do something” and “speak up,” I forgive you and your ignorance. I know that I’ve been saying something for at least 17 years, along with many others across our great nation. What we are saying however is marginalized, maligned and trivialized. “filtered out” because it isn’t a message that can be politicized or manipulated.

Jesus is the solution

Jesus is the way, the truth and the life, the problems we face in American society are symptoms of a people who are oblivious when the judgment of God has already begun to fall upon them. What must change first is not the law, not the president, not the economy, but men’s hearts. Only Jesus can make that change, which is why I will continue to preach Christ Jesus and Him crucified. What would bring a change to our nation is genuine repentance and revival, starting in the church and working into the families and communities and the nation. If that occurs, don’t expect news coverage, support or even encouragement, but know you are part of the solution no matter what “Christian leaders” say when your fidelity is to Christ, His word and the God ordained solution of the local New Testament church.