Monday, February 18, 2019
Truth Makes Free
Suppose
a private shuttle pilot was flying a single engine plane over the ocean and was
struck by an unidentified object. While attempting to radio for help he
realizes that his radio has been damaged. Soon, he notices a small stream of gas
spraying out the side of the engine housing. Being far from the mainland he
frantically redirects his small craft toward the nearest land mass. Luckily, twenty minutes later, just as he
approaches a sandy beach, his engine sputters to a stop and he glides safely onto
the remote, uninhabited island.
After
safely exiting the plane they discover an abandoned farm with a few crops that look
as though they had been growing wild for few years. They take shelter in the
house, eat some sandwiches from their cooler and become better acquainted. The older
passenger is an uneducated farmer and the other a young man who had just earned
a master’s degree, in physics. Both men begin offering solutions to their
dilemma.
The
young scholar says he thinks he might be able to alter the plane engine’s to
run on modified, potato juice. He read an article in which someone had
hypothesized that such a fuel might be made. But he had never done it before. The
farmer tells about how he used to make ethanol from corn. He had spotted corn on
the farm. If they could fix the gas leak and make a few gallons of ethanol they
could fly to their destination.
The
pilot is left with a simple choice; He has to decide which idea is most likely
to set them free. It is not just about being right for argument’s sake. It is
not about winning an intellectual debate. It is not about being politically
correct. It is about deciding whose solution would really work. The right
answer will be a matter of life and death. He chose the farmer’s tried and proven solution.
Life
puts us in situations similar to the pilot’s. We often need more than an easy
answer or a popular ideal. We need truth. Truth is not relative philosophy that
is concocted in the academia. Truth is not determined by polls. Truth is what
is real and right. It is something that wise men seek. Jesus said, “ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
(John 8:32)
Some
people seek truth like they shop – they look for the Madison avenue ads or
watch to see what everyone else is buying.
To make matters worse, people are often made to feel ashamed of beliefs that
don’t fit the trends, the norms or the opinions of the noisy people in a
culture. The results are not good.
Other
people search for truth as if their eternal life depends on it. They do not
seek truth so can feel superior to others. They are not trying to find it so
others will approve them. They are not just trying to prove themselves right
about their values and opinions. They
are seeking the truths of life that have been long proven to make people free.
Just
as scientists have discovered the acceleration of gravity, the boiling points
of liquids and how the water cycle
really works, believers have discovered inalienable truths that make people
free. Perhaps that is why the core truths of Christianity have outlived so many
world empires, so much anti-Christian bigotry, and so much persecution. For
centuries people have been warned that the truths taught by Jesus are mythology.
Some are shocked that they keep resurfacing. Truth resurfaces because it is
true, not because it is politically, culturally or socially embraced.
Throughout history some cultures have discovered incontrovertible truths such
as the 10 commandments and prosperity and freedom ensued to whatever extent
they lived by those truths. Most of those same cultures have also experienced a
decline when the people convince themselves to try cheap substitutes and
counterfeits. My prayer is that our culture will choose to seek truth rather
than arbitrarily deciding what they think is best, because truth makes free.
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