The Big Lie

by Steve Bastin

Someone has said that the secret in getting people to believe a lie is to tell a really big lie.  Perhaps another suggestion will work equally well.  Tell the lie over and over again until people are convinced that it must be the truth.  Combine the two ideas and one has a really powerful tool of persuasion.

Everyone knows about the politicians who promise everything in order to get elected and then deliver nothing, or next to nothing, after taking office.  But perhaps the biggest lies are in the realm of the moral and the religious.

Some years ago the lie made the rounds of teenage marijuana users that smoking the weed would reduce the risk of cancer.  Just the opposite was true as smoking, in any form, is corrosive and increases the risk of cancer.

Today, it is being trumpeted that people are homosexual because, “God made me this way.”  Homosexuality is a behavior just as stealing, murder, rape and lying are behaviors.  God is not the source of behavior unless one is a Calvinist and believes that every act is predestined by God.

People are not born murderers.  They choose to kill.  People are not born thieves.  They choose to steal.  People are not born rapists.  They choose to rape.  People are not born liars.  They choose to lie.  In the same way, people are not born homosexual.  They choose to have a sexual relationship with a person of the same sex in the same way that a heterosexual person chooses to have a sexual relationship with a person of the opposite sex.

Just as God expects those who choose heterosexual relationships to restrain from acting on those impulses except in marriage, He expects those with an attraction to someone of the same sex to exercise restraint.

If we must restrain ourselves from taking what does not belong to us, if we must restrain our anger and refrain from killing, if we must restrain ourselves and tell the truth, why should it be thought unusual that we ought to restrain ourselves in the matter of sexual relationships?

Much of the problem lies in the nature of the society we have created.  We have brought up children with the idea that they can have anything that they want.  Parents have been told not to punish their children because it will injure their “little psyches!”

We have doted on our children and bought endlessly to satisfy their whimpering and crying, why should we be surprised that those same children, grown to adulthood, should demand the “right” to do what their grandparents considered an abomination?  Then the claim is made that God is responsible for what they have done because, “He made me this way!?”

Meanwhile the Christian community sits by and wrings their hands while crying, “They really can’t help what they are doing?”  We refuse to believe that lie.

Before one can blame God for such conduct, one must first believe the lie that the Bible is not His book.  It would not be possible (by every rule of logic that we know) to believe that God made someone to be homosexual and then in very plain terms condemned that very act. Yet, such the Bible does!

So then we move on to the lies that people tell about the Bible.  “It is full of contradictions.”  Beware when someone uses the expression, “It is full of.”  Generally those who tell this lie have no idea about where they might find even one of these contradictions of which the Bible is supposedly full.  The lie has been repeated so often that it must be true!?

Another lie is that the Bible cannot be trusted because, “Books have been lost or deliberately omitted by those in authority.”  Again, the claim is made without evidence and simply illustrates one more lie that has been repeated so often that people now believe it to be true without any evidence to support the assertion.

Whole religions have been established on the basis of lies.  While one may never be quite sure of motives, those who have promoted such religions may have simply been deluded, but the result remains the same.  The religion that they established is based on lies.

While we may not be responsible for the lies, we are responsible for whether we believe the lie or not.  Jesus told the crowds, “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.”  Truth is worth the effort to obtain.  To be satisfied with what we are told without checking is to leave ourselves open to the “big lie.”  And, even though the lie may be repeated often it is still not the truth.

Truth may sometimes seem elusive and difficult to determine.  Yet it is worth the effort.  When it comes to matters of right and wrong, we need to determine what position God occupies.  When it comes to the matter of life after death, we need to consult the only one who has returned from the dead, Jesus Christ.

When we want to know the way to forgiveness, we need to be sure that it is God’s way, because it is His forgiveness that we need.  Though many claim that you need no forgiveness, because there is no sin, be careful for that is also a lie.

Paul wrote about certain persons who were lost, “because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved.  For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so they will believe what is false, in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness.”

There is pleasure in wickedness.  The right way is sometimes fraught with pain and difficulties.  Facing one’s problems may be painful and getting drunk may seem like a good choice, but when the alcoholic stupor is gone, the problems remain.

Having a sexual relationship on the first meeting with someone may give some momentary pleasure, but it cannot compare with the satisfaction of a long-term committed relationship of two people whose love for the Lord deepens their relationship with one another.  The big lie that everyone is doing it so it must be okay, simply will not produce a good result in the long term.

Jesus advised his listeners to “search the Scriptures.”  We give the same advice.  The Bible is God’s truth and will never mislead the one who is careful to discern the meaning that God has placed there.

While the casual reader may on a superficial reading find justification for his error, the careful reader will find God’s way.  The truth is not complicated, but simple.  The truth is not found in one perverted passage of the Bible, but is stressed over and over again so that we might not miss the truth.

With the Psalmist, we say, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”