Rejected Truth

Dear Huldah:

I find that the thing that bugs me the most is people who call themselves "Christians" who think the LORD and truth are 2 separate and unrelated things.

I've come to believe in my 30 years of believing that all truth is God's truth.

Is there any truth so small that we can ignore it? Lie about it?

I can't see how that could be the case, but I'm having a hard time getting through on this point.

It's not even that I insist on my own truth. My argument is that we have a duty to do all within our power to determine what the truth is and then honor it.

We must not make lies, and if we found we made a lie we must not love it.

Or maybe I'm wrong?

The best example of this argument in real life is my disagreement with my late stepbrother who believed in minimum wage laws to help poor people.

I told him the question must be whether the policy actually works to do the job he intended of helping the poor. Not whether he thought is was more fair or less fair. I told him that if he did not care about economic reality he was insane and dangerous and evil no matter how much he imagined he was driven by a loving desire to help. Just as insane and dangerous as if he proposed to help the poor in ways that defied the laws of physics, mechanics, thermodynamics, chemistry, etc.

The sense I got from his gibberish was it did not seem to matter what the truth was, all that mattered was fairness in theory. He just couldn't grasp the idea of economics beyond his sentimental notions.

I tried to explain to him that proposing to help the poor with a stupid destructive policy was exactly like helping the poor by building them an airplane to fly around in built out of rice paper and bubble gum. Everyone's excited about flying until the thing falls out of the sky, if it even makes it into the sky.

So anyway, I see a very unrealistic way of thinking going on with people that really scares me. No way can a productive society survive when people are this stupid. They have the stupidity and the political power to enforce that stupidity to the point that it will kill us all unless God cuts the days short.

Er, well, maybe that's my answer. Thanks.

Maybe some of the people I cc'd on this will be willing to contact you themselves. I'm certain they are all pretty sick of me and my insistence on actual truth and the rejection of fantasies.

Very truly yours,

James Edward Solbakken
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My dear Brother James,

I had to smile upon reading your letter, because I do very much understand your passion and your frustration. There is nothing more disheartening to a Truth lover than to have it staring us all in the faces, yet even the Christians around us don’t appear to be getting it, sometimes willfully.

With proper leading, there are some who will see Truth now. Others will not, until life has dealt some pretty hard blows. Still others will never see it. All of which are completely out of our control. So where does that leave you and me with so much Truth to share, and so few listeners?

What I have learned is this:

We should be ready to share Truth at every opportunity.

2Ti 4:2 Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.

Notice the text says “preach the word.” Meaning, we are to be schooled in the scriptures enough to use them to argue our cases.

Why the scriptures?

1) It makes us sound more credible, and not like we are making arguments up in our own minds.

2) It forces people to have to face God and argue with Him, not with you.

3) It builds our own confidence when we know that we are dead on in using God’s Word accurately and effectively.

Couple the scriptures with some knowledgeable lessons from history, and you stand an excellent chance of getting the upper hand in a disagreement.

Again however, we aren’t going to convince everyone. Concerning your stepbrother, remember the words of Jesus, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household." Matthew 13:57

Family is often the hardest to convince.

The scriptures tell us that we are to show some the Truth by example:

In all things show yourself to be an example of good deeds, with purity in doctrine, dignified, sound in speech which is beyond reproach, so that the opponent will be put to shame, having nothing bad to say about us. 2Timothy 2:7-8

When we are rejected :

"Whoever does not receive you, nor heed your words, as you go out of that house or that city, shake the dust off your feet. Matthew 10:14

When it is not worth opening our mouths to argue:

"Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces." Matthew 7:6

Even though the Bible doesn’t seem to specifically talk about minimum wage laws, the Parable of the Workers Paid Equally in Matthew 20:1-16 gives insight on the freedoms the employer has to pay what he and his workers have agreed upon. Even the Roman government allowed landowners that much freedom.

As 1 Timothy 4:2 above states, I would pray for patience with those around you and that you may deliver God’s Word clearly. People tend to respect and listen to us more when we are ready, armed, and calm.

God bless James, and know that you are not alone.

Maidservant Huldah