Monday, January 21, 2019

The Love of the Truth



By Donna Diorio
This morning I was wondering if we lived in a time where the truth was more threatened than any other time in history. I know there were dark times in the dark ages, when people where grossly ignorant  but that because of ignorance — they were kept in darkness. The Word of God was kept away from the common people, so how could they dwell in anything but darkness? They couldn't.

In the beginning God created Light. It was a Light that was different from the light of the sun, moon and stars. I believe it was the Light that is also the Truth, that brings the ability of mankind to see and choose the truth. In darkness men cannot make informed decisions because they are locked in the ignorance of darkness. John 1:1 tells us, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." So we see Yeshua, who is the Truth, the Light and the Word intertwined and inseparable.

In this day and age the Word of God is everywhere, yet there is a real battle for the truth around the world. Truth-believers appear to be in the minority. I am not just talking about the Gospel-truth —the capital T— but all truth is battling to be believed in the face of lying deceptions and false narratives. Truth is being overwhelmed in everyday life by those dedicated to propagandizing with lies. There is a battle for the truth on every level of life.

Why are so many people sucked into false narratives? I'm talking about Bible-believers. Why is deception having its way with people who should be able to discern the truth?

We live in a time that even the elect are being deceived, unable to tell the difference between facts and false narratives. They are getting swept up in the abundance of false narratives and are choosing that because they don't want to be bothered with the facts. They like the ground they've already staked out too much to let facts get in the way.

We live in a time spoken of by the prophet Daniel (12:4) "But you, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased." Our knowledge is through the roof! It is everywhere, but ironically there are much fewer who love the truth.

In 2 Thessalonians 2:9-10 the apostle Paul wrote, "The coming of the lawless one will be accompanied by the working of Satan, with every kind of power, sign, and false wonder, and with every wicked deception directed against those who are perishing, because they refused the love of the truth that would have saved them." So "every wicked deception" is "directed against those who are perishing". Why? Because they refused the love of the truth that would have saved them.

I have pondered this for many years now as I have been so disturbed over how many believers are so attached to conspiracy theories. It is vexing because lying deceptions are much more than just a difference of opinion. Facts do not care about opinions. We must be dedicated to a love of the truth - to the facts - not in placing our stake in the ground of opinions, of which many opinions are just false narratives.

I have followed news about Israel for near three decades. There is no greater victim of false narratives threatening the facts, the truth than Israel. No amount of countering the false narratives which are endless and relentless, has ever moved anyone who has chosen to believe the deception instead of searching for the facts and the truth. If they don't have a love of the truth, if God does not break through with a revelation of His thoughts about Israel, then they remain addicted to the lies they have been told about Israel.

In those three decades, I have seen this deep spiritual sickness spill out of the realm of Israel's existential battle, into the whole world. Truth is being battled on the streets and in the headlines on every continent at this point.

Even though we represent a minority of the people, we must choose a love of the truth and pursue it at every turn. This means not just in the big choices ('Do I believe in Jesus?') but also the little choices, do I believe prevailing narratives, or do I love the truth enough to search beyond the talking heads to learn the truth? Am I a fact-seeker?

Revive Israel's Asher Intrater, spoke a few years ago about a vision he had in 2009 about a cloud of deception that covered the earth which Yeshua was battling to get through. When he said this was the basis for Yeshua's question in Luke 18:8 ("... when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?”) it was the first time that question made real sense to me.

As Asher explained it the cloud cover was formed by the demonic strongholds in the thinking of the people in that location. Where there was a heavenly mindset, there was an opening in the heavens (an "open heavens"); but where there was a demonic mindset in the people in that location, the clouds of deception were so thick it was as a deep spiritual smog.

This is what Daniel was praying through in Daniel 10 as he was trying to understand the spiritual warfare of the last days. Asher also pointed to Isaiah 25:7 "And He will destroy on this mountain the surface of the covering cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations."

We are battling through a spiritual smog to reach people with the Truth. I have seen how it is a worthy thing to be a fact and truth teller in battles where false narratives have been promulgated. Those who love the truth will come to the facts, but those who are "in danger of perishing" are those who will not come. Not without something more. The only way to reach them is in the same way Daniel approached it: praying for the Light to break through the heavy smog of deception creating a veil over all the nations. This is our charge.

John 8:31-32 Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
 




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