God’s is doing a work of apocalypse and judgment in his church all throughout the country.  Apocalypse and judgment are positive categories in scripture, though we may feel otherwise.  Biblical apocalypse simply means revelation, something is revealed, especially the truth of things.  Judgment follows apocalypse in order to separate the true from the false.  Having the truth revealed and having it sorted are both good things.

Yesterday was, in a manner of speaking, a day of apocalypse and judgment, on two fronts.  First, the Buffalo Bills revealed that the Pittsburgh Steelers are not a championship team as they lost to Buffalo 17-31.  Secondly, the Iowa caucus revealed that Donald Trump is the favored republican candidate for the 2024 Presidential election.  Mr. Trump won 51% of the vote, clearly separating him from the other candidates.  

But what was revealed yesterday was more than just winners and losers, both events revealed something about how we as a culture engage with the truth and truth-telling.  With only 1% of the vote tallied, major news organizations began calling the race for Donald Trump.  Critics of the media responded by saying that declaring a winner on the day of the vote before many voters could even cast their ballot was simply irresponsible journalism.  

Today, all major media outlets seem to want to shape the future as much if not more so than report the facts, and both political parties seem less concerned with evidence and arguments and more focused on controlling a narrative and influencing our feelings.  Narratives are legitimate, and our feelings count for something, but when they displace and subordinate the truth, then we have a real problem on our hands.

After yesterday’s loss, Coach Mike Tomlin faced the press.  One reporter asked, “Mike, you have a year left on your contract…”  but Tomlin walked out before the question could be finished.  The internet erupted into a meme factory, as social media had much to say about the moment.  Everyone in the room knew what the reporter was getting at, “Mike do you think you have a future with the Steelers?”  

The question is a legitimate one, but clearly, it was one that Mr. Tomlin was not going to entertain.  Maybe he is waiting for a more appropriate moment to address the question, but the way he walked out looked like he was simply avoiding hard truth.  It’s a response we see far too often these days, in society and in the church.     

Christians, however, are not permitted to walk out on the truth or to promote a narritive over the truth because we are called to love the truth.  The truth is a person.  Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life,” (John 14:6 ESV), so when we love the truth we are loving Jesus.  When we walk out on the truth, we walk out on Jesus. When we believe the narrative over the truth, we fail to listen to Jesus.  Our relationship with the truth is not casual, it is a Christian’s whole way of life, and it is a joyful life.  The Apostle John said,

“For I rejoiced greatly when the brothers came and testified to your truth, as indeed you are walking in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth”

3 John 1:3–4 ESV

In 2013, Alistair Begg gave a talk at The Gospel Coalition national conference entitled, The Dangers and Delights of a Long Ministry in One Place.  I have listened to the talk several times and I keep going back to it because of the many insights Begg shares, especially about truth.  Begg affirms that God’s good future requires truth.  One of the great delights of staying in the ministry in one place long-term, according to Begg, is watching the church learn to walk in the truth.  He said,

The only way that we can see them walking in the truth, growing in the truth, is if we stay there long enough to see the truth take hold of them, to see them caught up in the wonder of the Gospel, to see them beginning to grasp the storyline of the Bible, to see their eyes opening up and their lives being touched and changed by the very truth that we proclaim. 

Alistair Begg, The Dangers and Delights of a Long Ministry in One Place.

Part of God’s good future and the responsibility laid upon the pastor is to help people love the truth and walk in the truth.  But there are real impediments to the truth today, obstacles that we must overcome if we want to be the kind of church that can occupy that good future.   Pastor Begg identifies two such obstacles and I want to identify two as well.

Telling Lies While Telling the Truth. 

First, Pastor Begg warns against the danger of telling lies while telling the truth.  He says it’s a temptation that even he must resist when,

Those like myself whose imagination far exceeds their experience are guilty as charged…If we describe to people in our preaching and teaching a level of change in our preaching and teaching, a level that we have never actually experienced ourselves, then we harm both ourselves and our hearers.

Alistair Begg, The Dangers and Delights of a Long Ministry in One Place.

What Begg is saying is that there is always a temptation to allow our discourse to exceed the bounds of reality.  Begg identifies a principle of truth-telling that has to do with integrity.  Truth, in order to be truth, must be in accord with reality.  And so we must ask, “Is what I am saying in accord with reality or the reality of my life?  Is what I am hearing someone else say in accord with reality?”  

In addition, it is actually possible to say things that are true but to say them in such a way as to lead to a false conclusion.  A Christian might confess that they believe in truth, justice, and righteousness and then behave in such a way as to repudiate all three of them.  Someone can confess that Jesus is Lord and then live with little distinction from the unbelieving world.  

Shading the Truth.

Pastor Begg identifies the difference between being a leader and being well-liked.  In doing so, he shares his admiration for the leadership qualities of Margaret Thatcher,

There’s a reason why [Thatcher] was called the Iron Lady. She wasn’t called the plastic lady or the plasticine lady, she was the Iron Lady. She said, “If you just set out to be liked, you would be prepared to compromise on anything at any time and you would achieve nothing.”

Alistair Begg, The Dangers and Delights of a Long Ministry in One Place.

The truth cannot be served by compromise.  Christians, Christian leaders, and especially pastors, must love the truth more than they love their popularity, their reputations, or even their careers.  God’s good future requires a commitment to the truth, and if we compromise on the truth we cannot achieve the good future God has in store for his church.  

In many ways, it probably would be far easier for leaders to think about their reputations or careers and compromise a little.  Some leaders honestly believe that the peace, unity, and purity of the church depend on it.  Perhaps some sort of peace could be won, but I believe it would be a false peace, a compromised peace, easily lost at the moment of testing. 

 Jeremiah knew this situation all too well when the “wise men” of Judah spoke in order to smooth things over.  They compromised on truth to maintain the status quo.  But God said to such men, “They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace” (Jeremiah 8:11 ESV).  I’m certainly not comparing myself to Jeremiah here, but I do hope that by the end of my career, I am at least half the man Margret Thatcher was when she died.  

Bearing False Witness 

God’s good future requires us to bear witness to the truth.  Bearing witness to the truth is not as simple as we might think.  It actually takes a fair amount of work and discipline to be a truth-teller.  Thankfully we have some wonderful resources to help us understand what it means to bear the truth and avoid false witness.  The Westminster Larger Catechism takes the necessary time to explain to us how we can keep faith with God’s command to be truthful.  I won’t go into an explanation of the catechism in this post, but I’ll include it below for your edification.  I believe it is worth your time to read but feel free to skip to my final thoughts below if you’d like.    

  • Q. 143. What is the ninth commandment?
  • A. The ninth commandment is: You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
  • Q. 144. What does the ninth commandment require?
  • A. The ninth commandment requires that we maintain and promote truthfulness in our dealings with each other and the good reputation of others as well as ourselves. We must come forward and stand up for the truth, speaking the truth and nothing but the truth from our hearts, sincerely, freely, clearly, and without equivocation, not only in all matters relating to the law and justice but in any and every circumstance whatsoever. We must have a charitable regard for others, loving, desiring, and rejoicing in their good reputation as well as regretting and putting the best light on their failings. We must freely acknowledge their talents and gifts, defending their innocence, readily receiving a good report about them and reluctantly admitting a bad one. We should discourage gossips, flatterers, and slanderers; we should love and protect our own good reputation and defend it when necessary; we should keep every lawful promise we make no matter what; and finally we should do the best we can to focus our lives and thoughts on things that are true, noble, lovely, and admirable.
  • ​​Q. 145. What particular sins does the ninth commandment forbid?
  • A. The ninth commandment forbids everything detrimental to the truth and the good reputation of others as well as our own, with special reference to legal matters in the courts. We must not give untrue evidence, suborn perjury, knowingly appear and plead on behalf of an evil cause, or engage in overbearing and boastful exaggeration. We should never participate in passing an unjust sentence, call evil good or good evil, or reward the wicked in a way appropriate to the righteous or the righteous in a way appropriate to the wicked. Forgery is forbidden, as is concealing the truth, remaining silent in a just cause, and not taking it on ourselves to reprove or complain to others about some wrong. We must not speak the truth at an inappropriate time, or maliciously to promote a wrong purpose, nor pervert it into a wrong meaning, into ambiguous equivocations, or in such ways as to undermine truth and justice. Also forbidden are: saying anything untrue, as well as lying, slandering, backbiting, belittling, gossiping, whispering, ridiculing, reviling, and expressing any kind of judgmental opinion that is rash, harsh, or prejudiced; misconstruing intentions, words, and actions; flattery and ostentatious boasting; thinking or speaking too highly or too poorly of ourselves or others; denying the gifts of God or the effects of his grace on us; exaggerating the significance of trivial faults; concealing, excusing, or rationalizing our sinful behavior when we are called to confess it voluntarily; gratuitously revealing the problems and failings of others; spreading false rumors, receiving and approving evil reports, and refusing to listen to a just defense; harboring evil suspicions; being envious of or grieved by the deserved honors others receive, trying to discredit those honors, and rejoicing at someone else’s disgrace or evil reputation; scornful contempt and foolish admiration; breaking our lawful promises; and, finally, failing to promote everyone’s good name, and doing, not avoiding, or not hindering in others, as we can, those things that give people a bad name.

Failure to Stand on the Truth

God’s good future requires that we stand on truth.  We must not get out in front of the truth like the media did in Iowa, nor can we walk out on facing the truth like Tomlin did.  We must stand firmly on truth.  But standing on the truth is hard work, especially in our culture, which is dominated by feelings.  I appreciate this quote I recently came across by Rachel Jankovic, who said,

“We Christians need to stop thinking of our feelings as insights.”  

Rachel Jankovic

Feelings are readily available and they come to us quickly, but they are far less reliable than knowledge or wisdom in establishing the truth.  Often we must search for the truth, and dig for it.  Truth-telling can be hard work because making arguments is hard work and establishing evidence is hard work.  And we must love the truth if we’re ever going to extend the requisite energy to find it, the way a wife might search for a lost engagement ring.    

But the good news is that once we have done the hard work to find the truth, then it makes an exceedingly stable refuge for those who wish to stand upon it.  The world we live in today is devoid of truth-telling, but the church is sent into such a world to proclaim the word of truth.  And in that way, the church offers real hope and real stability.  I believe there is a market for truth-telling, and I believe the hour has come for godly parrhesia, bold truth-telling that suffers for the truth but offers real hope.  That is the good future of the churches. 

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash