Where in the world is God? When there is no truth?

Dear Friends in Christ Jesus,

            Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? Hearing those words should take you right into a courtroom.   As we enter the court room of Pontius Pilate tonight, we are brought face to face with the issue of truth. Now people expect truth in court. . If you are brought into court, don’t you want the witnesses to tell the truth, not lies?   When you go to the doctor, you might say, tell me the truth, what is happening? When you go to a pharmacy don’t you expect them to tell you the truth of the side effects of the medicine and what you can expect?   Parents, don’t you want to be told the truth from children? Tell me the truth, where were you last night? Don’t you want the truth, the whole truth?            

In the movie “A Few Good Men,” Tom Cruise is a Navy lawyer who is questioning a Marine colonel played by Jack Nicholson. A murder has taken place. In the dramatic scene, Cruise says: “Colonel, did you order the Code Red!” The Judge answers, “You don’t have to answer that question!” Nicholson responds “I’ll answer the question…you want answers?” Cruise says, “I think I’m entitled to them.” Nicholson responds, “you want answers!” Cruise exclaims, “I want the truth.” Nicholson answers, “you can’t handle the truth!” We want the truth in so many areas of life, yet society today doesn’t want to handle the truth of religion.  In a society where the thought is that every religion is right or true, we end up with a society where there truth and falsehood are same. We live in a world that does not want absolute truths.   

            With Jesus before him, Pontius Pilate weighed the evidence and said, I can find no fault in him. That was the truth; the evidence presented showed that Jesus was innocent.   The challenge today is that people struggle with such a thing as an absolute truth. Most people today in regards to religion want a relative truth. Another way of wording it, is there an objective truth, or is it just a subjective truth. What difference does it make?

            People like to talk about religion if it works for you, then that is fine, but it might not work for me. If it is true for you that is good for you, but it may not be true for me. I love the story about the pastor who was preaching a sermon that all religions are true. It doesn’t matter what you believe, because they are all true. A young seminary student visited the church that Sunday. When the pastor finished his sermon which had been titled, “all religious beliefs are true”, the student wanted to just get out of the service unnoticed. But the pastor cornered him and found out he was a seminary student. “Good, so what religious beliefs do you have son? “I’d rather not say sir.” “Why not, Son?” “Because I don’t want to offend you sir.” “Oh, Son, you can’t offend me. Besides, it doesn’t matter what your beliefs are—they are true. So what do you believe?” “Okay,” the student relented. He leaned toward the pastor, cupped his hand around his mouth and whispered, “Sir, I believe that you are going to hell!” The pastor’s face turned bright red as he struggled to respond, “I ah, guess I, ah, made a mistake! All religious belief cannot be true, because yours certainly isn’t true.”  If something is true, then the opposite is false. Here is our problem; people do not want to tell somebody, “you are wrong.” Two plus two is four, if you say two plus two is 850, you are wrong. 

            When it comes to our soul’s salvation, we need to know the truth. In getting to know the truth will mean that something else will be false. When dealing with religion, there will be some common areas in all religions, that is moral law. See, God wrote his law into man’s heart. That is common to all people. So you will find a common thread of don’t kill, don’t steal, and don’t commit adultery. But when it comes to who is God, what is he like, what is the way of salvation, there is no common ground. 

            If every God is ok, then why did the God of the Bible state: (Isa 42:8 NIV)  "I am the LORD; that is my name! I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols. If Allah is God, then the God of the Bible is not Allah. If Jupiter, Zeus, Baal are gods, then the Triune God is not the true God. If the Lord who say, (Deu 6:4 NIV) Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. (Mat 28:19 NIV) Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, is God then Allah, the gods of the Hindu, the Buddhists, the Tao, the Romans, Greeks, the Egyptian and Persians are all false gods. Both cannot exist as God, one is the truth, the other is false. 

            How are you to appease the Supreme Being? If you kill an infidel or unbeliever of another religion, that gets you right to heaven. Is this the truth? Is that the way to get to heaven? When you study all the religions of the world, you will find all of them, except one; have the person trying to do something to reach up to a god. All of them have something you have to do. Except in Christianity! It is the only one that knows pure grace. It is the only religion with a Savior. All the others, you have to do something to save yourself. 

Yes, Christianity is exclusive.   It is Jesus who says, (John 14:6 NIV) Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If Jesus is right and this is the truth, then all the other ways man tries to get to heaven are wrong. Jesus’ disciples knew that, (Acts 4:12 NIV) Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved." Where was the truth?…but standing right in front of Pontius Pilate. Here was his salvation. Look at all the other religions, here is the one with a Savior, here is the one who make the sacrifice, here is the one who died and rose again, here is the one and only who teaches the real meaning of love and being loved, here is the one with a sure hope…the way, the truth and the life. If we know Jesus is the Savior, then the truth is he saved us from something. If there is a heaven the truth is then there is also an eternal hell. He came to save us from hell to be with him in heaven. He is the only one who accomplished this. 

Here is the problem:  all the other religions are false. In our day we are being taught toleration.   That means, we are not to be trying to change someone else’s faith. Toleration means if it works for them, let them live that way. But Jesus knew the other religions were false. If all of them are ok, and it doesn’t matter what one believes, then why is it necessary to do mission work. That is why he told his followers to go and make disciples of all nations. He sent his people out into the world to preach the message of salvation through faith alone in Jesus. It may be tempting to follow the way of toleration…for that means I don’t have to try to talk to my family member, my neighbor, or my co-worker about Jesus. It means I don’t have to try to get involved in their spiritual lives. But followers of Jesus know that if they do not have faith in Jesus, they are going to hell. We know we have the message that can save them for eternal punishment. Our love of Christ compels us to look for the right opportunity, the right time to speak and share the love of Christ. 

            Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth about Jesus, so help you God? Amen.