Seeking the Living Among the Dead.

---

I have to ask two very important questions:

First, what is Truth?

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines truth as: a) Conformity to fact or actuality, b) Reality; actuality and c) The reality of a situation. Further, the dictionary adds ‘accuracy’, ‘verity’ and ‘credibility’ as synonyms for the word ‘truth’.

Many ‘seemingly intelligent’ people throughout history have made comments indicating that “the truth is elusive”. This is likely due to their own ignorance of what truth is. However those statements could not be further from actually being true.

The dictionary definition of ‘elusive’ is:

• Difficult to define, comprehend or identify
• Tending to evade grasp or pursuit; fallacious
• Tending to elude capture, perception, comprehension, or memory

In John 14:6, Jesus told His disciples, “I am the way, the truth and the life”. God sent His own Son into the world in order to reveal TRUTH to them, not to make it elusive. The Son of God stood among men openly declaring TRUTH and made Himself available to any and all who had need of TRUTH. Those who accepted that TRUTH were saved, healed, delivered and made whole of the effects of Satan’s lies that had imprisoned them for generations while all who rejected TRUTH went away sad, depressed and still bound in a world of lies.

But truth, being extremely valuable to people tired of lies is not something that just falls out of the sky onto a person; rather it is more like wisdom, which is mostly hidden, but NOT elusive; however, it MUST be sought after with much diligence AND it must be sought from the proper source. Looking for or even diligently searching for truth among ‘dead sources’ is an exercise in futility. If a fake version of truth is accepted and made a part of a belief system, it is nothing more than a clever lie cloaked in a counterfeit of truth.

When a person is seeking something he really needs, he uses all his knowledge to determine where he might most easily find what is being sought. If the internet is being accessed to search for ‘rain gear’ for example, the seeker would never put ‘suntan lotion’ in a search engine, would he? Of course not, that would make no sense. That analogy applies to non-material things such as wisdom and truth as much as to material objects that pertain to life and sustenance.

Truthfulness is a characteristic of people who have established a sound moral system that guides their lives. From the moment a child is born, it is the responsibility of parents to help them form a characteristic of truthfulness by teaching that child about truth and its importance in living a successful life and where it can be found.

The Source of Truth

Growing up in a small textile town in North Carolina, a town located in the “Bible Belt” in the southeastern US, I learned about truth and how important it is from my parents and their siblings, my aunts and uncles and my paternal grandmother. These were all men and women who believed in God, though not all were what I would call ‘strong Christians’. However, they were all raised in homes where at least one parent WAS a strong believer and taught sound biblical principles to their offspring.

I also learned about the opposite of truth, the lie, and how engaging in it can be dangerous to one’s health; both my father and my mother had no problem making sure I understood that. As a young child, I had no real understanding of why lying was bad, other than when caught doing so I would receive painful punishment. But as I grew up and matured intellectually, I began to realize how knowing the difference between telling the truth and telling a lie can be critically important to one’s life. Living a truthful life provides a spiritual comfort level whereas living the lie makes one apprehensive since the lie must always be embellished in order to remain relative.

If one is to truly seek for, and find truth, he or she MUST first know the source and diligently move in that direction.

Seeking Truth

In Luke 24, we are told that certain disciples of Jesus, women who had followed Him from Galilee, on the third day after His burial, went to the sepulchre where Jesus body had been placed, hoping to anoint His body with spices and ointments, but when they arrived, the stone covering the entrance had been rolled away. After entering in to the sepulchre, they did not find His body, but two ‘men’ (angels) were suddenly standing by them and asked the disciples, “Why seek ye the living among the dead?

The disciples were seeking the One Who, throughout His ministry on earth had presented them with TRUTH and they were desiring to show their love for Christ (The Truth) enough to enter the cemetery and anoint the body of TRUTH with preservative oils and spices. However, that body had been made alive again and was no longer in the tomb. My take on this incident: You will NOT find truth among the dead, the TRUTH is always alive!

When man was created, he stood in the very presence of TRUTH. The entire universe is founded upon truth. I know many men and scientists are continuously trying to prove how the universe came to be and they seem to believe it began with a “big bang” caused by….what? They surmise that their ‘big bang’ just sort of made the universe appear and set the stars and the planets and their moons into perfectly designed orbits and positions.

Even though more and more true scientists are beginning to realize there is no conflict between science and God’s word, the majority will still not accept that a perfect, omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent being actually used TRUTH to create all the eye can see. In denying His involvement in creation, they seem to believe they can do a better job of creating something; yet they have all failed miserably in ALL their efforts.

When man sinned, the true life, the life of the Spirit of God IN him, was taken from him, his human spirit was made dark and separated from God and he was sentenced to live a physical life only, a life that always ended in physical death with no hope for life beyond the grave. Man’s only hope of escaping that sentence was through the promised redeemer, the Messiah (Genesis 3:14-15 KJV). Man in general, and the Jewish people in particular, had waited many centuries for His arrival but when He was standing in their midst, they failed to recognize Him or acknowledge Him. Truth was right before them, but they clung to their love for Satan’s lies and rejected TRUTH.

The grave that once held the body of Jesus, the tomb into which the disciples entered, represents the lie and just as the grave could not contain the risen Jesus, the lie cannot contain, or hold back, the truth. Truth WAS, Truth IS and Truth always will BE. It is NOT subject to change of any kind, ever.

The Source of Lies

My second question: what is a lie? The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines a lie as “an assertion of something known or believed by the speaker or writer to be untrue with intent to deceive; an untruth, ‘a fabrication’ ‘to deceive’, ‘to trick’, ‘to perjure’. From this definition, it becomes apparent that the word ‘lie’ is the direct opposite of ‘truth’.

Satan is the source of all lies; Jesus called him a liar and the father of it (lying). His lies and deception (all based on lies) to Adam and Eve brought a separation between mankind and God and only through Jesus Christ (the TRUTH) can that separation be erased and an honest relationship be established in its place.  Anything, any institution, any government, any business or corporation under Satan’s control or influence will have built its foundation on lies and anyone looking there for truth will not, indeed CANNOT, find it there.

Throughout the ages, man has tried with all his might and power to change the truth (not necessarily the facts, because the ‘facts’ and the truth are NOT always the same) into a message that, instead of enriching his spirit and soul with true knowledge, will make him feel good about himself, regardless of his actions. After all, the world is now totally ‘in touch with their feelings’ and nothing else matters to them. The foolish notion that through some action of their own, men can be made better than what they actually are, becomes the lie that will damn them to hell.

In the book of Romans, chapter one, Paul describes in detail these foolish people and the errors they make by denying the God Who created all things; they deny His majesty and His power and even try to deny His existence, leading them into a life dominated by a reprobate mind.

The dictionary definition of ‘reprobate’ is:

• morally corrupt: depraved
• foreordained to damnation
• rejected as worthless or not standing a test : condemned

What they (deliberately) refuse to understand is that, no matter how intense their efforts to design and build their own “truth” system, based on lies instead of real truth, they are dealing with a supernatural, eternal and unchanging Being who, having created the universe and everything in it using TRUTH, will NOT ever allow His truth to be changed. If they cling to their foolish delusions and refuse to accept HIS truth, all their efforts are doomed to failure and, unless they change, THEY are doomed as well.

Conclusion

If you are a person who desires to know the truth, and NOT just the facts, about any situation, you must learn, first what truth is, and second, where it can be found.

As stated earlier, the truth is NOT elusive, it can easily be found by anyone who truly has had enough of the lies that have almost destroyed our nation and the world. If you still believe you can find truth in any mainstream media, any social media, any government agency, any educational institution, any entertainment venue, or even from your closest friends and family, you will NOT unless these have based their belief system on the only real TRUTH, Jesus Christ, the saviour of the world.

You will NOT find truth in, or from, any organization that has based its very existence on lies. Listening to lies allows the liars to trap you in a mental prison from which escape will become increasingly difficult. The liars who work in and for such institutions have no interest in providing the truth, in fact, they will mostly work overtime to hide or deny the truth. They know that a lie cannot long survive in an atmosphere of truth. The truth will always stand on its own without having anything added to it while the lie MUST be embellished continuously in order to stand; and eventually the lie will fall when facing truth.

So, if you are still expecting such institutions or organizations to provide the truth you seek, I guarantee you will be disappointed at the very least, and potentially damaged or worse unless unless you reverse course and begin looking where truth resides.

And make no mistake about it, looking for truth among a passel of liars is equivalent to looking for a living Christ in a death chamber tomb. Just as the risen Christ was NOT found in the tomb of death, truth is not found where the lie resides.

Blessings to all and…..

Maranatha

©2023 Bud Hancock. All rights reserved.