Be a Truth-Teller

It is not our business to make the message acceptable, but to make it available. We are not to see that they like it, but that they get it.
—Vance Havner—

Key point: The world needs to hear God’s truth, unvarnished. As Christians, we have a responsibility and the authority to share it, both to honor God and to rescue men.

In the article I released immediately prior to this one at Word Foundations, I wrote,

[D]o you understand what a privilege it is to contend for the truth in a world full of lies? Nothing is as liberating as this! Nothing! Yes, there are risks, and yes, there are costs; but there also are rewards. Jesus said, “[Y]ou shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Pointing people to the way of truth means pointing them to the way of authentic freedom.

In that same article I also highlighted the quote from Francis Schaeffer showcased at the top: “The “little man,” the private citizen, can at any time stand up and, on the basis of biblical teaching, say that the majority [or the elite] is wrong.”

The “little man,” the private citizen, can at any time stand up and, on the basis of biblical teaching, say that the majority [or the elite] is wrong.
—Francis Schaeffer—

This, obviously, is no easy task. It isn’t a formula for winning a popularity contest. Why, then, would I say it is liberating? And why would I ever indicate that doing this is superlatively liberating? Aside from the reasons I immediately cited — that rewards are involved, including the rewards inherent in pointing people in bondage to the way of freedom — here’s why: In addition to being liberating, the truth is powerful, good, right, and eternal. Difficult though it may be to stand up and, on the basis of biblical teaching, declare that the majority is wrong, the truth matters! Reality matters! They matter as does nothing else!

Truth and reality matter!

It’s important to understand that Francis Schaeffer did not believe anyone should arrogantly or gleefully accuse the majority of being wrong. He was heartbroken over the breakdown he had witnessed in Western culture due to the erosion of the Christian consensus that had prevailed at America’s founding. This consensus was rooted in Reformation thinking. In North America, it was the belief system, the worldview, that gave birth to a nation that recognized and upheld freedoms, liberties, and rights within the boundaries of God’s law — “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God.”

This, in turn, paved the way for American prosperity and strength. The Christian consensus was, and has been, the foundation for all that has been good in and about America. Having seen it unravel and understanding what this meant, Schaeffer warned Americans in general, and American Christians in particular, about the danger and peril to which this departure from truth ultimately would lead. In his last book, The Great Evangelical Disaster, which he wrote shortly his death in 1984, Dr. Schaeffer declared,

Something has happened during the last sixty years — something which cut the moral foundation out from under our culture. Devastating things have come in every area of culture, whether it be law or government, whether it is in the schools, our local communities, or in the family. And these have happened within the lifetime of many who are reading this book. Our culture has been squandered and lost, and largely thrown away. Indeed, to call it a moral breakdown puts it mildly. Morality itself has been turned on its head with every form of moral perversion being praised and glorified in the media and the world of entertainment.¹

Scaheffer saw something else, as well. What did he believe was “the great evangelical disaster”? Accommodation to the world and it’s false beliefs:

And now we must ask where we as evangelicals have been in the battle for truth and morality in our culture. Have we as evangelicals been on the front lines contending for the faith and confronting the moral breakdown over the last forty to sixty years? Have we even been aware that there is a battle going on — not just a heavenly battle, but a life-and-death struggle over what will happen to men and women and children in both this life and the next? If the truth of the Christian faith is in fact truth, then it stands in antithesis to the ideas and the immorality of our age, and it must be practiced both in teaching and practical action. Truth demands confrontation. It must be loving confrontation, but there must be confrontation nonetheless.

Truth demands confrontation. It must be loving confrontation, but there must be confrontation nonetheless.
—Francis Schaeffer—

Sadly we must say that this has seldom happened. Most of the evangelical world has not been active in the battle, or even able to see that we are in a battle. And when it comes to the issues of the day the evangelical world most often has said nothing; or worse has said nothing different from what the world would say.

Here is the great evangelical disaster — the failure of the evangelical world to stand for truth as truth. There is only one word for this — namely accommodation: the evangelical church has accommodated to the world spirt of the age. First, there has been accommodation on Scripture, so that many who call themselves evangelicals hold a weakened view of the Bible and no longer affirm the truth of all the Bible teaches — truth not only in religious matters but in the areas of science and history and morality.…And second, there has been accommodation on the issues, with no clear stand being taken even on matters of life and death.²

The Babylon Bee Nails It

I believe Dr. Schaeffer would appreciate the Babylon Bee article titled “Local Christian Would Do Anything For Jesus Except Believe Things That Are Unpopular.” It features a local Christian man, “Ethan Werner,” who says he would “do anything” for his faith, “just as long as I don’t have to come out in support of things the culture disagrees with.” Would Ethan be willing to die for Jesus? He thinks he would, but when someone approached him and him asked if he supported marriage as a lifelong commitment between one man and one woman, our courageous “hero”

spit out his coffee. “What? No, of course not! The Bible is all wrong about that kind of stuff!” He then apologized profusely for his fellow Christians who are “cowards” and stand up for the Bible even when it becomes socially unpopular. “I am so sorry for my fellow Christians who are not as brave as I am.” He then handed the man [who’d asked him what he believed about marriage] a $20 as his “reparations” for other Christians’ oppressive beliefs.

Unfortunately, stories like this in the Bee vividly underscore realities in the evangelical world — realities of which Christians ought to be ashamed.

Now Is the Time

Now is the time for Christians to examine their commitments to Christ and to decide if they really believe that

- - - Jesus is Lord, and that since
    - He has been given “all authority…in heaven and on earth,” they, as His followers, are to
    - “go therefore and make disciples of all nations,” baptizing them and
    - “teaching them to observe all that I have commanded.”

Further, now is the time for Christians to decide if they really believe that

- - - Jesus, the one given “all authority,” is with them “always, even to the end of the age,” and that
    - whoever listens to Jesus and heeds His words is like the one who built his house on a rock, and that house, because of its strong foundation, will withstand life’s storms, and that
    - whoever hears Jesus and His words and does not obey them is like the one who built his house on sand, and the weak foundation caused that house to crash when storms came.

The Great Commission, stained glass window, Cathedral Parish of Saint Patrick in El Paso, Texas / Wikipedia Commons / Lyricmac

Jesus saves us by grace through faith in Him; not because of our works, but His. At the same time, He affirmed the Old Testament’s moral and ethical teachings. In light of these realities and a culture that hates God’s law, Christians also need to decide whether they really believe in the absolute nature of God’s moral and ethical standards, and if they, like the Psalmist, can say, “Streams of tears flow from my eyes, for your law is not obeyed” (NIV).

The Bottom Line

Let’s return once more to the reassuring and confidence-building truth that Jesus, our Lord, has been given “all authority…in heaven and on earth.” This is why we, regardless of our social standing but as Christ’s representatives, can confidently, “at any time stand up and, on the basis of biblical teaching, say that the majority [or the elite] is wrong.”

This is why we can speak up and declare the truth, even though the task is difficult and the message unpopular.

Some will hate us, but we will be hated for the right reasons. Following Jesus isn’t about winning a popularity contest; it’s about aligning our lives with the truth of who God is. While many will reject or ignore what we have to say, certain others will listen and heed what we say, and they will step back from the precipice because of the warnings we’ve sounded.

Let us remember also that Mordecai’s words to Esther can have application for us: “Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”

Notes:

¹Francis Schaeffer, The Great Evangelical Disaster (Westchester, IL: Crossway Books, 1984), 19-20.

²Schaeffer, 36-37.

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The Babylon Bee Nails It

Now Is the Time

The Bottom Line

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