People are band-wagon jumpers, all of us are suckers for trends. If we weren’t, baggy pants, halter tops, bell bottom jeans and the mullet never would have been a fad. And now the new cool trendy thing is to accuse everyone of spreading fake news. If people were honest, it is their own fault fake news even has a hearing in the public square. If the majority of people were not so gullible or challenged the ridiculous statements made by those who tickle their ears, fake news coming from both sides of the philosophical landscape wouldn’t spread.
The truth is, all of us enjoy being lied to. We really do. The Bible states it simply, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9)
Part of my job as a pastor is to at least try to understand this sickness so I have some idea of how to wean people back to the truth. So far in my observations, I have noticed some regular patterns of thought when deceit has its way. On this post, I am going to suggest just two paths the typhlotic mind tends to choose on its way to full-blown deception.
Path One: Buying Into the False Power of Imagination
Human beings have an amazing propensity to imagine things to be true because they “want them to be true.” Even if all observable evidence points to the fact that those desired things are imaginary, people will still spend much of their life trying to convince themselves and others that that is how things actually are. Humans love arguing and debating about imaginary things for the purpose of trying to make them come true simply because they want them to be true. This is what is at the core of propaganda.
Ironically, right before I began writing this post I was reading online and a friend of mine posted a hilarious statement by some weird looking philosopher named Slavoj Zizek on Facebook. It captures my point about this first path to deceit beautifully. He says, “I secretly think reality exists so we can speculate about it.” Believe it or not, that is a tremendous statement.
He is capturing the idea that the human mind has an amazing ability to disbelieve the obvious while convincing themselves the illusionary is true. Last week I was reading an article about a woman who wanted to be a man so she started the process of hormone therapy. Because she didn’t have the money to continue the therapy her body reverted back to a biological female, which included the natural process of menstruation – – it is a physical reality that young adult women have periods. As a result of still wanting to be male, this person stated, “See, men can have periods too!”
No, they can’t.
Deceit is convincing this woman she is a man. And as a result, she has to take the next logical step of saying men can menstruate. One person caught in this same false reality writes, “Menstruation can be a particularly difficult time for some trans men because it is a reminder that their bodies don’t match their true gender identity.” Only human beings can conceive of and believe in this utter nonsense.
I was talking to a farmer last month and he said it is vitally important to growing a good crop of corn to know which rows are male and which are female. You know we are deceived when we care more about getting the gender right for growing corn than we are for the health and prosperity of the human race.
Path Two: The Naive Assumption that the Macro operates differently than the Micro.
I have found that deceit has us mocking and disbelieving those things on a Macro level that we all take for granted on a Micro level. This usually happens in the two areas of life that really do matter most – – Politics and Religion. This is why they cause the most conflict.
In Politics: the axiom of truth I think every politician needs to remember is that the way you run your home should be the way you run a government. The Micro should give us insight into the Macro. But in our national politics, just the opposite happens.
For instance, in my home, if my son, who is an adult, wants money to buy a large item, he can earn that money by getting a job. If I simply give my son money and don’t expect him to earn it, he won’t, nor will he ever. In fact, if I don’t lay down some limits or threaten to kick him out he will keep expecting money for nothing. So if I was a good parent, I should stop continuing that practice of simply giving him things with nothing required. Simple, right?
Let’s say my sister comes over and complains she can’t pay her bills because she has maxed out all her credit cards and she needs to open new credit cards to borrow more money to pay off her cards — something is messed up with this logic. Right?
If a man in a strange middle eastern outfit knocks on my door wanting to live in my home indefinitely and he gets offended if I ask him questions about himself and his character, I would be a foolish home-owner to let him move in without having him answer those questions or proving his character. Right?
Now, apply these same scenarios to our government policies. For some reason when we talk about a nation these home-grown solutions are often considered cruel and unusual. Politicians love to say the issues on a large scale are too nuanced, they are much trickier, we have to be compassionate. When in truth they are simply acting one way at home and acting another way in public office, usually because they get to spend other people’s money. No sweat off their backs.
Ask any female politician who is pregnant and wants to be pregnant if she is having an actual baby? Ask any female politician who had an abortion if she feels guilty about it? Studies say 9 out of 10 ladies who have an abortion have years of regret and depression as a result. But when they make policies that are pro-abortion why do they lie and make it seem like it is the best decision for so many other women? One reason, deceit says the Micro (personal truths) don’t apply on the Macro level (national policy).
In Religion: in people’s private lives they are incredibly opinionated, particular and judgmental about things they really care about. Like buying a new car, looking for a spouse, getting second opinions on a doctor concerning their failing health. These Micro, small personal matters, really matter to them in the immediate. But when it comes to talking about the Macro: theology, heaven, hell and God the same people who are particular and specific about small things all of a sudden become tolerant and open-minded about these large end of life issues. They insist we must not debate, fret over, and be worried about eternal matters. But the interest rate on a new car loan can be life or death to them. I have seen men argue to blows concerning which NFL quarterback was the greatest of all time, but when they are discussing Jesus vs. Muhammad or Buddha they act so sophisticated when they say, “We need to be more tolerant to other positions.” Why, we are talking about eternal torment or eternal bliss?
Take the issue of drawing a straight line. A very Micro level task. To have a straight line there is only one option, straight. I have never had anyone argue it. But when the Bible says God describes himself as both Infinite and Perfect, there is no other deity that logically compares, and boy do people hate that. Think about it: When something is infinite in capacity that means there is no end, an infinite being is inexhaustible. You will never reach the end of his person and powers, as a result, he cannot be compared because you cannot have two infinite beings existing together at the same time — there can only be one. And he is perfect, that means he is flawless, infinitely flawless. How then can any other being stack up to his perfection? Logically speaking, like a straight line, there can only be one God, and he does not morph and change for different people, he is the same for all (immutable). And he says Jesus is the one way he has revealed himself to mankind for all time (John 14:6, Hebrews 13:8).
To accept one line is easy because it is on a Micro level, but to accept one perfect infinite God in the person of Jesus Christ will not be tolerated because this is on a Macro level. Deceit is once again at work.
A Final Word on Deceit
Two days ago, another article on Rob Bell came out again. He is the Christian pastor who wrote the book “Love Wins” — its premise is that all people will get to heaven because God always gets what he wants. The only people who go to hell are the people who want to go to hell, and eventually, they will more than likely be brought back to a right mind by God. This book challenges, in a very snarky way, thousands of years of evangelical doctrine. So naturally most Bible-honoring evangelicals took Rob to task on his faulty biblical hermeneutics and they harshly challenged and criticized his conclusions, even saying they were heretical. Boy, people don’t like it when you call someone a heretic, and you know why? Listen to a quote out of the article:
“The moment that anyone, however prayerful or thoughtful or earnest they may be, comes to a conclusion other than what has been defined as acceptable, they get kicked to the curb. As some Christian leaders cling tighter and tighter to one, narrow narrow faith tradition, they expel anyone who doesn’t check all the right boxes, who doesn’t say all the right words in all the right ways using all the right Bible verse.
He’s simply reached conclusions that he isn’t supposed to reach, and that really sets off some members of his community.”
See, the writer thinks it is O.K. to imagine a different understanding and reality than what God has clearly revealed (Path One). And he also thinks it is harmful and dangerous to question the person questioning God – – we must allow people to freely question the Macro. But I know this same author would have no problem when people might question a doctor who comes to a completely different conclusion than most every doctor has about how the heart functions or the brain works (Micro). A differing doctor is known as a “quack” and to be avoided at all costs. But when you have a differing theologian living in California hanging out with Oprah somehow that is to be considered cool?
A “quack” is a “quack”, God will always be God, and the truth will always be the truth — and don’t let deceit tell you otherwise. Stop being so gullible!
