Testing Truth

How do you know what you know is true? I’ve often answered this huge philosophical question with subjective reasons, but realized that deception is just as convincing as truth. Whenever I’ve believed a lie, I’ve thought it was true. Otherwise, I would not have believed it.

So I dropped that, and now my way of testing for truth is twofold: consider the source, and consider how it lines up with Jesus Christ.

This test works for all of life because Jesus is the center of my life, not just my religious leader. He governs and helps me with relationships, work, making decisions of all kinds, and is even involved in my recreation. Because He is truth embodied, I trust Him totally. When I hear anything new, I am learning to ask myself how this new thing, whatever it is, compares to the life, teaching, and purposes of Jesus Christ. Does it fit with who He is and what He stands for? Will this promote Christlikeness in my life? Or will it draw me away from Him?

In the realm of spiritual truth, Jesus warned there would be false teachers. While He promises to keep His people from total deception, He tells us to be on guard.

For false christs and false prophets will rise and show signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. (Mark 13:22)

As my reading today says, false prophets have been around since the beginning of redemptive history. One of the early books in the Old Testament also warns God’s people about them.

If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods’—which you have not known — ‘and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. (Deuteronomy 13:1-3)

Obviously these false prophets are subtle and their deception finds ears. If we were not so easily led astray, the Bible would not have to warn us and Jesus would never have said, “Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name . . . and will deceive many” (Matthew 24:4-5).

They still exist today. They come by twos to my door, well-meaning and earnest, but their teaching does not match up with His teaching. Their source is human reasoning and self-centered desires, not the Word of God. They show up in other realms, some less subtle yet most often in religious garb. We see them depicted in television shows, often as the nutty ones who use their “faith” as motivation for horrid crimes.

Jesus said that we would also know false teachers by their fruit, yet sometimes that fruit is not revealed for a long time, or we are not sure what we are looking for. I’ve known Christians who measure true and false by how “nice” the bearer is, not by the content of what they say. This is dangerous and something Jesus never practiced.

I know that false teachers and prophets enjoy popularity simply because many people do not want to hear the truth. I also know that the truth can hurt. Jesus takes me to task for my sinful selfishness. If I hold tightly to my I-wants, it hurts when He pries my fingers loose.

Yet Jesus also said, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). Being wary of false teaching is part of being a free person, of knowing victory over sin, and victory over lies and deception. It takes diligent study in the written Word of God, and determination to listen to and follow the Living Word of God, but because truth and freedom walk hand in hand, I do not want false prophets or deception to hang around.