Clash of Swords (6)

“These who have turned the world upside down have come here too.”  Acts 17.6

“Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.” John 17.17

Pragmatic again
In the world of the Roman Empire, “truth” was a highly pragmatic notion.

Whatever sufficed, or whatever one had to do in order to survive and prosper within the Roman system was considered “true.” But most people knew this was only a façade. When Pilate chided Jesus with his “What is truth?” retort, he was not so much asking a question as declaring a conviction, that truth, as desirable as it may be, is not something the average Roman could ever expect to know.

For Pilate and people all over the Roman world, “truth” was whatever the Emperor decreed and the Senate confirmed. To stand against Rome and her view of truth was as foolish as defying the law of gravity. You could end up getting seriously hurt.

What goes around comes around. Today, once again, we have entered an age in which pragmatism is the standard of truth: Whatever works to get us what we want, and, if necessary, to leave room for others to get what they want, must be true. The only fixed norm of truth in ancient Rome was the capricious brain of the Emperor. Whatever fixed norm of truth exists today is similarly to be found within the desires and decisions of individual men and women, institutionally embodied in civil government. To suggest otherwise – to suggest that people are not finally and fully autonomous – is to open oneself to ridicule, or worse.

Pragmatism, while perhaps not the “official” worldview of our secular age, is certainly that which is promoted by Western governments. And for this reason, we who hold to a Christian view of truth can expect that, from time to time, we’re going to encounter conflict with the pragmatic agenda of our secular age.

Challenging “truth”
Those who believe that “truth is what you make it” have little patience with those who insist that “Truth is what God declares.” Jesus Christ claims to be the Truth; He tells us that His Word is Truth, and that, as we live our lives trusting in Him and abiding by His Word, we will know the Truth that sets us free from the death-grip of sin, doubt, fear, hopelessness, and death (Jn. 8.32).

Paul and his friends got in trouble in Thessalonica – as in many other places – because they challenged existing standards of truth and insisted that Christ and His Word alone are Truth. A good many people, and many of them people of influence and power, were heavily invested in the pragmatic view of truth practiced throughout the Roman Empire, and they were not going to accept being told they had been wrong all their lives.

Truth in the public square
The Christian claim to know the Truth sounds arrogant, unrealistic, and condemnatory to the pragmatists of our day, just as it did in ancient Rome. The Christian practice of resorting to Scripture for solutions to whatever seems wrong with life is greeted with scorn and denunciation by those who will not yield their presumed autonomy to an ancient Book and its defenders. They will have none of such nonsense in their public schools or square.

In our day, as in ancient Rome, the powers-that-be and their cultural elite sidekicks have captured the bully pulpits of the land, and they are using them to propagandize a view of truth that could not sustain the Roman Empire against internal corruption and external threat, and that will not sustain ours. At the risk of scorn, opposition, and conflicts of various kinds, Christians, who know the Truth as it is in Jesus, must stand up and declare their allegiance, expose the folly of pragmatic unbelief, and call the world to its senses, before it is too late.

And, at the same time, we must make certain that, increasingly, every aspect of our lives is grounded in and expressive of the Truth that is in Jesus.

Many Christians may find it easier and less threatening to sit silently by while proponents of the Lie poison every nook and cranny of life with the myth of pragmatism. Our increasingly secular, materialist, and hopeless age is the consequence of this, as Francis Schaeffer argued in his book, The Great Evangelical Disaster. Though Christians may turn a deaf ear to truth claims of a pragmatic age, God will not. Even now His wrath is beginning to be revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men (Rom. 1.18ff).

Let’s make sure that we don’t, by our reluctance to live and proclaim God’s truth, find ourselves on the wrong side of the Lord.

For reflection
1.  How would you counsel a new believer to begin grounding his life in the Truth of God?

2.  The truth claims of our pragmatic age leach into our minds and hearts, very often when we’re not even aware. How do you maintain vigilance against the “winds of doctrine” that blow all around you each day?

3.  How well prepared are you to explain the Truth of the Gospel to an unbelieving neighbor, friend, or co-worker?

Next steps: Suggest some ways Christians can help one another hold firm to the truth of God’s Word. Talk with some Christian friends about this matter.

T. M. Moore

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This week’s study, Clash of Swords, is a bonus part 6 of a 6-part series on a Biblical view of government and politics, and is available as a free download by clicking here. We cannot understand God’s view of government, or how to function in a political environment apart from faith in King Jesus and His rule. Order T. M.’s books The Kingship of Jesus  and The Ground for Christian Ethics to supplement our studies of God and government.

Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.