“Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands at a distance; for truth stumbles in the public square, and uprightness cannot enter. Truth is lacking, and whoever turns from evil is despoiled.” — Isaiah 59:14-15 I said in my last post…
10 prayers for 2021 (if we survive January)
My favorite meme of the new year: “I’d like to cancel my subscription to 2021. I’ve experienced the free seven-day trial, and I’m not interested.” As post-holiday COVID-19 deaths surged the first week of January, a sitting president incited a…
Why I long for the church of my youth
In this age of alternative facts, when truth means whatever people want it to mean, I find myself longing wistfully for the Christian tradition in which I was raised — although, for the most part, it has long since passed…
Truth Decay: Truth is interpersonal and covenantal
“So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another. Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not…
Truth Decay: Walking in the truth
“I have no greater joy than this, to hear that my children are walking in the truth.” — 3 John 4 With this post, we make our first turn to truth as a moral issue. We will not begin with…
Truth Decay: The New Testament on truth
“And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know him who is true, and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true…
Truth Decay: The Old Testament on truth
“All the paths of the Lord are faithfulness and truth to those who comply with his covenant and his testimonies.” – Psalm 25:10 (NASB) In my last post, I reviewed philosophical theories of truth. I concluded that for most everyday purposes the correspondence…
Truth Decay: What is truth?
“What is truth?” — Pontius Pilate (John 18:38) Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in a famous essay called “What Is Meant by ‘Telling the Truth’” claimed that truth telling is “expressing reality in words.” Bonhoeffer’s shorthand definition reflects the commonsense, most familiar understanding…
Truth Decay: Truth as an issue in Christian ethics
“Let your yes be yes and your no be no. Anything more than comes from the evil one.” — Matthew 5:37 Six years ago, I took to the pages of Associated Baptist Press (now Baptist News Global), to puzzle over…