When A Lie Is Repeated

I want to begin this blog with a story about three cheaters. 

A Hindu priest is carrying a goat. One of the cheaters comes and tells him, how can you, a holy man, carry a dog? To which he responds, "Are you blind? This is not a dog! This is a goat!" A few minutes later another cheater tells him the same thing. Now the man is confused. Not sure what he is carrying. A little later the third cheater tells him the same thing, "How can you, a holy man, carry a dog?" The man throws away his prized goat and runs away. The moral of the story is: When a lie is repeated several times, it does not become truth; but it does become easily acceptable and convincing. Today we live in a pluralistic, polytheistic, agnostic or atheistic culture and have been bombarded with lies from all directions so that the very truth of God and His Word is questioned not only by people of other religions but by some of the very people who are called by the name of Christ. So often we hear the lie 'all the roads lead to the same place and all religions are just different ways to reach God.' Theology impacts life. What you believe determines how you live. Your world view, your value system, your lifestyle, and things you do and do not do; all is determined by your theology. That is why we have to make sure what we believe and what we believe is the truth or not. We are people of convictions. And our convictions are not formed by the lies we hear in the world, but the truth we learn from the Word.

However, if God is really God, a Supreme Being, transcendent, infinite, over and above every created thing, including humans, any attempt to physically reach God will leave a person frustrated and unsure of what is possible. God says, “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:9). If God were seated on a high mountain, that mountain is too high for anyone to climb! Solomon thought so. Read his words,  “When I gave my heart to know wisdom and to see the task which has been done on the earth (even though one should never sleep day or night), and I saw every work of God, I concluded that man cannot discover the work which has been done under the sun. Even though a man should seek laboriously, he will not discover; and though the wise man should say, ‘I know,’ he cannot discover” (Ecclesiastes 8:16-17). What he is saying is, a man in his own fallibility just does not know and cannot know God. And if you think you know, you do not even know that you do not know! How can the finite human being reach this God then? How can you know Him? How can you have a relationship with this inaccessible God? How can you fill the hole in your heart? How can you have a meaningful and joyful life? There is no way a puny human being can do that by his own human efforts. 

The only way a finite human being could reach God, and have access to the infinite and transcendent God, is if God Himself came down to the human level and made Himself accessible. The only way a man can know God, can have a relationship with Him, is if God revealed Himself to man. And that is exactly what God has done in Jesus Christ. The Word that existed from the eternity past, the Word that was with God and the Word that was God… all things came into being by Him; and apart from Him, nothing came into being that has come into being. This Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:1-3, 14) ... JESUS! HE and HE ALONE is our mediator. The Creator of the entire universe became flesh, incarnated Himself in the human body, and made His dwelling among people. Instead of man trying to reach God and failing miserably, God Himself reached down to man. There is no other way for man to reach Him or to have a relationship with Him, apart from Jesus Christ as God’s provision (Philippians 2:6-11, NIV). No religion, no doctrine, no theology, no sect, no creed, no divinity, no cult will ever save you or be the paths that lead to heaven. All roads DO NOT LEAD TO GOD! But if you hear that enough it becomes what you believe, but believing does not make it the truth! For instance, I can believe there is only one moon because I physically cannot see any others. But the truth is, as of October 2008, there are 213 known natural moons orbiting planets in our Solar System! THERE IS BUT ONE WAY TO GOD, regardless of what you may have heard, been told, or believe to the contrary. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. NO ONE COMES TO THE FATHER BUT BY ME" John 14:6 (emphasis mine).

History is crowded with men who would be gods but only one God who would be man! This is what makes Christianity unique among all the world religions: instead of man trying to reach God and failing miserably, God reached down to man and made Himself accessible to whoever wants to come into relationship with Him through Jesus Christ. Christianity is not a religion, but a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. God so loved people that He provided the way of salvation, the way to come into a relationship with Him, by sending Jesus Christ into the world. By first coming into a relationship with Jesus Christ anyone can attain the relationship with God and live eternally in the presence of God. It is only in Christ that we have access to God. "There is no other name under heaven by which a man can be saved" Acts 4:12 "Neither is there salvation in any other." Christianity makes sense. All other religions are man-centered. Christianity is God-centered. In all the other religions man takes the initiative and fails miserably. In Christianity God takes the initiative and fulfills the plan of salvation. Paul said, “For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 1:5). God has given us enough light in His revelation that we can trust Him and be grounded in the Truth He has revealed so that we are not beguiled by all the lies we hear around us. 

Until next time,

-Pat-