Long title; short blog.
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To many people the knowledge of God can lead to pride: that they know Him, how much they know about or of Him. Scripture paints a very different picture. The knowledge of God is humbling:

1. Without Him stepping in to reveal Himself to us we could know very little about Him. Ro 1: 20 limits such knowledge as being of His divine nature and eternal power. Surely we couldn’t know such an infinite God as finite creatures in any meaningful sense if He didn’t take the initiative to reveal Himself further.
2. God must reveal Himself then to us so that we might know Him. He did so through His written Word (2 Ti 3:16) and by sending His Son (Jn 1:4, 14:7–8).
3. A correct knowledge of God is only possible by His help. When Peter acknowledged that Jesus was the Christ, Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.” (Mt 16:17)
4. Coming to a saving knowledge of God through belief in Jesus itself, because of the blindness caused by our sin, is only possible because of God’s actions. Throughout the Gospel of John this is made clear, “no one can come to me [Jesus] unless the Father who sent me draws him.” (Jn 6:44).
5. Once we’ve believed in Jesus our sanctification and increasing relational knowledge of God remains dependent upon Him too. We need His grace to help us grow in faith (2 Pet 3:18a).
6. Even doctrinal knowledge of God is based upon God’s grace. His common grace to give us minds to think, and His Spirit who helps us to spiritually discern the spiritual truths of Scripture (1 Cor 2:14).
7. The more you know about God the more you realize how little you know. The finite learning of the infinite.
8. Knowing God as we are known by Him (1 Cor 13:12), produces a certain mystery, “What is man that you are mindful of him.” (Ps 8:4)

The Christian knowledge of God, from start to finish, is of grace. There is no room for pride in the knowledge of God, only humility, for such knowledge is not worked up but shone down. This radically changes our outlook as we are graced with humility. Though we are still bold in proclaiming our knowledge of Him, no longer is there any room for pride. When we speak of the reason for the hope that is in us we will do so in gentleness and respect. It has been my experience that this greatly alters, in an advantageous way, how we go about evangelism, apologetics and debates.

May we know Christ and make Him known, in humility. Surely, the Lord will use this for His glory.

Though contemporary society can shy away from such a question as “too judgemental,” to do so is actually spiritually injurious; Jesus and the Apostles commanded us to be alert (Mt 7:15).

Often we can tell a false teacher by measuring their truth/teaching by the standard of the Gospel or the “faith once for all delivered to the saints” (Gal 1:8; Jude 3).

Another way is to watch out for polluted behaviour because bad beliefs produce bad behaviour (or faith produces the fruit of faith and visa versa).

Scripture lays down some other methods to be sure, however, in reading John 7:18 I was struck by another, which taken with the others, provides a helpful test:

The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood.

This is in the context of Jesus telling the truth and seeking His Father’s glory in contrast with the religious leaders, but it sheds light on the false teachers we may face too. False teachers are: 1) proud (even if mildly concealed), 2) which works out in a promotion of their own thoughts (vs. God’s truth) and 3) for their own glory, or so that others would think well of them (think cult) rather than praise God. This can be true of preachers or people; but regardless of the context are three things we all need to be on the lookout for.

…you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.
—Jesus (John 8:32)

Someone recently sent me a quote attributed to George Orwell,[1] “The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those that speak it.”[2] This got me thinking.

If you were like me you had to read one of two books (or both) in high school, George Orwell’s Animal Farm (1945) or 1984 (1949). In these books Orwell showed both insight into wartime totalitarian regimes (Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia) and also great prescience, forward thinking, as he warned of many dangers to personal freedom that such regimes, and their way of thinking, were liable to cause in the future. Evidently, Orwell didn't believe society had seen the end of such tyranny.

Animal Farm is about the animals of a farm that revolt against their farmer and establish a commune. In the end this communist experiment goes awry as power is centralized with the pigs. The slogan that had begun, “All animals are equal,” degenerated into the most famous line in the book, “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.”

1984 is a story of a distant time (in the past now!) in which a utopian society had been produced through centralized control under the guise of offering “freedom.” Newspeak, Doublethink, Big Brother and the Thought Police are all key words that give a window into the control that existed within this "utopian" totalitarian society. As the main characters begin to think for themselves they yearn for true freedom.

Classic liberalism championed the freedom of the individual as created in the image of God (Gen 1:27, and thus was a predominantly influenced by Christianity). This was the basis of modern Western society—a secular freedom as close to real freedom that one can arrive at apart from Christ—but which is now under attack by a creeping new influence: neo-liberalism (or neo-Marxism), that privileges the group against the individual and seeks to exert coercive influence against any that would oppose its worldview.

Let’s think about the wisdom of Orwell and apply it to today (i.e. where can we see seeds of his critique in society at large? [btw- this is no attempt at a conspiracy theory!]).

What similarities do we find in our present culture?

• All equal; some more equal than others: in our age of identity politics, isn’t it unnerving how some groups have preference over others (vs. the classic position of individuals being equally free).
• Newspeak (a new language): Notice how, to fit a particular ideology, our language is being overhauled to weed out things that don’t fit or may be offensive to some (e.g. gender).
• Doublethink (To teach people not to question two logically inconsistent views): postmodernism, people don’t think rationally all the time! It is nothing to hold mutually contradictory views.
• Big Brother (a guardian so benevolent and yet so malevolent): big government, seen by many to be a “saviour like figure” is certainly heading this way, perhaps even being accelerated by the pandemic (financial assistance, growing powers, etc).
• Thought Police: Freedom to offend is certainly under threat, but political correctness and the fear it instils has long been a threat to society.

The unsettling thing about our present predicament is that whereas with regimes of the past there was often a sudden and overt revolution that shifted a society in this direction; we seem to be witnessing it so gradually (and from traditionally trusted sources) that it is gaining popular support as we forget the lessons of the past and ultimately what civic freedom looks like. Orwell helps us to think outside of the box and remember a valuable lesson from history. 

As post-Christian society becomes further unmoored from its foundation in Christ, Christians will be called to speak the truth in love, and will often bear the brunt of hatred as a result.

But individual freedom and the pursuit of truth aside (as important as those are), is not what Jesus is getting at in Jn 8:32. He is saying we are actually all spiritually enslaved to sin but that He came to offer the greatest liberty, freedom from it and the ability to follow Christ and live the good life we were created to live. Jesus is the truth, not only the ultimate reality but true and good. We are false and sinful. He came not only to live out a true life, but to die for our falseness so we might live truly. He calls us to believe in His truthfulness, so we might be restored and walk in the truth ourselves.
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Thanks George, but thank you most of all Jesus.


[1] I couldn’t find the original source but this certainly sounds like Orwell, and even if it isn’t is still a helpful quote.

[2] Orwell was a nominal Anglican (at best). Yet, it is striking how this quote bears a Gospel semblance. Jesus spoke a similar truth concerning what He was hated and why His followers would be likewise hated in Jn 15:18.

Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. Acts 17:11

The Bible means “The Book.” It is a book unlike any other for in it we have the very words of God. When it speaks, God speaks; authoritatively and truthfully on all matters upon which it positively touches. For those convinced of this from the Bible itself, the testimony of the Spirit, reason and logic, experience, etc, there is no other place to look for truth for in Scripture alone are found the words of life.

A friend of mine has a common saying, “if you’re not reading the Bible, you shouldn’t be reading anything else, for you’ll have no standard by which to evaluate its truthfulness.” This is not mindlessness or uncritical detachment; for the one who has placed their faith in revelation over reason it is recognition that God’s word is truth, spoken by the author of truth, to inform how we ought to understand reality as He’s created it. He’s given us minds, so we should use them, but the greatest wisdom is in trusting the mind of God revealed in Scripture.

There is the old adage, you are what you eat. Ps 115 says the same thing, “Those who make them [idols] become like them; so do all who trust in them.” If we indiscriminately take on board whatever we hear, read, listen to or watch, we are like waves tossed to and fro, we’re undiscerning fools that will be led away into great sorrow. We’ll become just like what we absorb. We must be anchored to the truth of God’s word and try every thought, word, deed, idea or attitude by it.

Here God’s Word is like a filter. It helps us sort between what is helpful and unhelpful, true and false. Many years ago it was said that the RCMP didn’t teach constables about every single counterfeit bill but rather taught them to know an authentic bill and so be able to try every bill by that standard. If we’re not spending time in the truth (and with the Truth) how are we to discern truth or goodness:

• In the World: Not everything in the world is bad, but we must be discerning about what we accept. Phil 4:8 says, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” If something is not true or not good or unhelpful, reject it. If something is good then embrace it.
• In “Christian” culture (preaching, writings, books, conversations, etc): The sum of God’s word is truth, the rest is commentary. We need to try everything we hear by the Word of God (this doesn’t mean we become paranoid sceptics either). Jesus warned us, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” (Mt 7:15). Satan is the great deceiver; we can be one step ahead of him by knowing the truth in the first place. We can also show great wisdom by not naively embracing any conversation, book or sermon we hear just because it is “Christian.”  Even if it is, generally, it may be more or less truthful, more or less pure. Again, we need to try all things by the Word of God.

So be like those noble Bereans: be in the Word, know the Word and weigh all things by the Word. If we’re not reading the Bible we really shouldn’t be reading anything else for how will we be able to filter what is true and what is false. 

In the early Church there was a man by the name of Marcion (c. AD 85–160), who stands for us not as an exemplar but as a warning. Marcion held to a number of grave errors. He held a dualistic view of matter and spirit and saw all physically things as evil (vs. Genesis that says God created all things as “very good”). He also dismissed the Old Testament and any Jewish portions of the New Testament as irrelevant, unnecessary, and again, evil. These two errors stemmed from the third, his view of God. Marcion believed that the god of the OT and the god of the NT were in fact two different gods. One was filled with wrath and anger (the OT god) and the other with love (the NT god). Marcion was a gnostic, a complicated religious view that essentially believed a secret knowledge [gnosis= knowledge] was necessary for the spirit to find salvation and escape the body. Though originally a part of the church in Rome, he was condemned as a heretic for these pernicious lies. However, parallel gnostic churches arose and co-existed with orthodox ones for many years.
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The older I get and the more I study history the more—on the whole—I am convinced that there is “nothing new under the sun.” Like Marcion, there are many today who believe—if not explicitly at least implicitly—that the god of the OT is a different god than the NT (and if they were following C2C would rejoice to have left the drab and dreary OT behind them and be in the bright and cheery NT).
Not only does this view fail to comprehend the grand story of salvation history, seeing, instead of continuity, discontinuity; it also fails to see God’s character as more than merely loving. It fails to see the characteristics of God so hated in the OT in the NT and the characteristics of God so cherished in the NT present in the OT. The same God is in fact God of and in the OT and the NT.

For example: in the OT God shows grace and not wrath (full wrath) when Adam sinned; He began a rescue plan to save mankind through Abraham’s descendant. When the Israelites made a Golden Calf, He did not destroy them all but only judged the perpetrators. In the face of spirals and circles of evil in Judges and Kings He showed patience. All of this is why the resounding chorus of the OT, and you’d be deaf not to hear it, is expressed in Ps 103:8: The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. (c.f. Ex 34:6).

Turning to the NT when God, expressed in gentle Jesus meek and mild, is supposed to be woolly love (a love Biblically unrecognizable), while finding great displays and teachings on love, forgiveness, mercy, etc, we also find words such as:

• “His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” (Mt 3:12)
• “In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Lk 13:28)
• “And the winepress was trodden outside the city, and blood flowed from the winepress, as high as a horse's bridle, for 1,600 stadia.” (Rev 14:20)

That is one bloody judgement!

Do you see the point, why Marcion was dead wrong on a fundamental point and why so many progressives and liberals are today? The God of the OT is the same as the God of the NT, one and the same Father, Son and Holy Spirit: full of justice and grace, truth and love, wrath and mercy.

As we continue in C2C and go about our lives may we never forget the perniciousness of this ancient heresy, often expressed today, but unveil it for what it is: gravely mistaken. 

There are many things I, as a pastor, would rather write about, but it often behoves me, for the sake of my sheep and those who would be gathered in, to defend the faith, to protect and guard from error, so that the saints may be edified and sinners saved. This is where Jude found himself:

Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. (Jude 3)

Liberalism (and I daren’t even give it the satisfaction of enjoining it to that blessed title, Christianity), is a new religion that was birthed in the nineteenth century (1800s). Like Satan posing as an angel of light or a wolf dressing in sheep’s clothing, Liberalism (lateral deists as a friend of mine calls them), guises itself as Christian, though in peering into the [initially] subtle differences, one finds an entirely different religion. We’d do well to know what Liberalism is, so in spotting it, we might turn from error fix our eyes upon the truth of Jesus.
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A newspaper from the 1920s, an era where Liberalism and orthodox Christianity were in conflict, contrasted the chasm like differences between the two.

One author who wrote on the subject was J.G. Machen in Liberalism and Christianity (1923). In his classic work he argued that Liberalism was indeed a new religion. ​

​To further illustrate the differences, consider the Fellowship’s Statement of Faith (1953) (and still today) contrasted with the much more orthodox United Church Statement of Faith (1925) and their most recent statement, Songs of Faith (2006), on the subjects of the Bible, Jesus and Mankind (these three are chosen because of their centrality in the faith):

Doctrinal error and moral misguidedness—accommodating to the world, syncretism—has meant that the once largest Canadian Christian denomination is now one of the fastest dying religions in Canada (the old statistic was that one church building closed each week; now the figure is that, with the Anglican Church and some others, 10,000 buildings will close in 2020 alone). While a dead orthodoxy can certainly lead to closed churches, a vibrant orthodoxy normally to lead to spiritual flourishing and healthy churches (as seen in the independent and non-religious study from Ontario in 2015).
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Like Jude, may we cling to the “faith once for all delivered to the saints,” which along is true, which alone can save; and having come near the end of our Old Testament journey in Cover to Cover, may we take heed of the danger that will come to God’s people when we compromise with the world in belief and practice (i.e. Judges).