Truth, Deception, Life and Death – What You Need to Know
Truth
What is truth? Nearly everyone has asked this question at some point, even Pilate asked Jesus (John 18:38). Many answers have been proposed, debated, rejected, and re-proposed – all without conclusion. God has now chosen to resolve this problem by giving His definition of truth: “Truth is spiritual reality”. Note that “Your word is truth” in John 17:17 is a statement not a definition.
Truth is not what we want it to be, believe it to be, or proclaim it to be. It is what is, and is not ours to define. Truth is entirely a spiritual matter. There is no physical truth – only physical fact. This distinction between spiritual and physical is more significant than it may appear. Human beings are both a physical and spiritual creation. Unfortunately, we don’t understand the spiritual part as well as we do the physical, even though we interact with both all the time. In this mix there are two extremes – truth which is 100% spiritual, and time which is 100% physical. In the spirit there is no time and in the physical there is no truth.
Truth, then, is a spiritual matter not a factual one. Facts are for science; truth is for our spirit. For more on the physical/spiritual creation see our article “God Created – YOU!”
Deception
God defines deception as any combination of truth and error. The relative amounts do not matter – it is still deception even if 99% truth. Attempting to separate truth from error is playing Satan’s game – a game you cannot win. Do not play that game. Seek truth and truth alone unpolluted by error. When you find pure truth you cannot be deceived.
Unfortunately, the world does not know pure truth. They have never seen it and do not recognize their lack. Everything is a mixture, thus everything is deception. This is a very elaborate and complex construction of Satan with multiple layers and fall back provisions. There are many pieces of truth within a false framework and much truth mixed with the false. Every attempt to separate truth from error, or to expose deception, takes place from another point of deception. The only way out of this dilemma is to turn around and seek truth alone rather than truth among the mixture.
The inner most ring of Satan’s defense against the core truth is religion – all religion – and that most definitely includes Christianity. The religious wall built around this core truth keeps us focused outward trying to discern truth from error while ignoring both fundamental truth and the foundational lie recorded in Genesis 3:4 ‘”You will not surely die”. Every religion, including the majority of Christians, has accepted this lie and, having done so, commit themselves to playing on Satan’s terms instead of God’s.
Life and death
God says the wages (what you earn) of sin is death (Romans 6:23). Theologians have redefined death as ‘separation from God’, but there is no justification for doing this. It is in reality just accepting that first great lie. Death means dead – not alive. Death means the end of life. There can be some confusion because there is more than one death mentioned in scripture. All men die once (Hebrews 9:27), this is a physical death. The second is spiritual death (Revelation 2:11, 20:6, 21:8), it is permanent. You cease to exist; you are destroyed. After that death itself is destroyed (Revelation 20:14).
If you are a Christian you already have permanent or eternal life (John 3:16). When your physical life ends that is the only death you will experience. At that point you have won the race (1Corinthians 9:24-25, Hebrews 12:1-2). For other humans who have not accepted, or in many cases not even been offered, salvation there is a resurrection of the dead (numerous scriptures) when they too will be offered life without a second or permanent death. Just as there is more than one death there is also more than one resurrection. Don’t be confused by this.
God wishes for all men to be saved (1Timothy 2:4) and the vast majority probably will be. But there are some who simply will not reject evil, rebellion, or their own will and accept God’s. If they will not repent they will be destroyed, which is far more merciful than the eternal torture envisioned by most of Christianity.
There is much truth available, but it is wrapped in lies and distortions and ultimately cannot be made pure – it is polluted. All of this vast system of deception is based on the fundamental lie – “you will not surely die”. Contrast that with the fundamental truth upon which you can build truth and truth alone without deception. That truth is simply this – you cannot understand life if you do not understand death; you cannot understand and appreciate God’s gift of eternal life with out understanding there is also eternal death.
The false concept of death distorts everything. Nothing can be properly understood when it is based on this lie. Yes, there is truth in the mixture of deception, it is just impossible to entirely separate and purify ‘truth’ as long as it is founded on the wrong premise.
God sets before us life and death – choose life (Deuteronomy 30:19). Choose truth without the entanglement of the fundamental lie. Choose truth without deception. Build a relationship with God based on truth. This is what He seeks.