The Safety of Truth
Robert J. Pruitt: Former General Overseer of The Church of God
"He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler" (Psalms 91:4).
The last clause of the above verse of Scripture means more to the present generation of mankind in the whole world than to any other previous generation in the history of man. The main reason is that we receive salvation and eternal life only by the truth and without it "The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God" (Ps. 9:17) who is infinite and ultimate truth. Not everything that comes out in the name of religion is truth. There is as much or more deceit or untruth coming from this source [religion] than from any other in the world. Hell is full of religious people who were led to believe that it takes less to avoid that terrible place than it really does. A profession of Christ as Saviour and Lord is necessary for salvation, but so also is a forgiven, holy, sinless life (cf. Hebrews 12:14).
In a Reader's Digest article (January 1996, "The Truth is Never Out of Date," by Lynn V. Chaney) the author stated, "The attack on truth has been accompanied by an assault on standards." This includes both the secular and religious world. It is harder to get the truth out of people now than it has ever been. There seems to be an uncanny aversion and resistance of telling the straight, whole truth. When some people are confronted with the truth, they immediately begin to qualify it, distort it, deny it, revise it, or in some other way reject to tell it. It is a plague and bane to our society because it has so adversely affected moral and spiritual values. In some ways it has become so universally accepted by society that even Christians are tempted to avoid it or embellish it until it is no longer recognizable. What a shame! What a disaster! Especially when the world of lost humanity is depending upon the veracity of truth in Christians to show them the way to salvation. If The Church of God fails in this regard, whom can they look to in this world?
The truth is our "shield and buckler," according to our opening verse. It contains precious promises for all times and circumstances and these are fulfilled to those who trust God in truth. It is a defense to the soul as the literal shield is to the body. It is the "shield" to protect from the fiery darts of heresy and untruth.
Jesus said, "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32). Free from what? First of all, from the condemnation and damning deceit of untruth- a subtle bondage that holds many in it's grasp and they at the same time feel safe and secure because they have been deceived. How, then, can anyone be sure that they have not been deceived? Look at the verse just above the one that was quoted: Jesus said, "...If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed" (v.31). If one is a true disciple of the Lord, then that person is not deceived. To continue in the word-all of it-rightly divided and applied is the only way to be sure of not being deceived.
There are so many religious charlatans and "celebrity preachers," including many of the popular televangelists, today, who distort the truth by taking certain appealing passages out of context and build them into a theme which is attractive to those who want to be religious but continue in their sins. Often true Christians are are led astray by the allure of these temptations. The apostle Peter warns us of them: "BUT there were false prophets also among the people, even as these shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of" (2 Peter 2:1-2). The last statement is going to be an obstacle and source of persecution to The Church of God in these last days. Simply because we believe, embrace, and uphold the holy standards of the "old paths" and the ultimate truth we will be despised and persecuted-not as much from the secular world as we will be from the religious world. The time has come when a truly godly person will not be respected and loved for his holiness, but rather despised and the object of persecution. "...The way of truth shall be evil spoken of."
What the apostle Peter describes above was the source and reason of the failure of the early Church-false prophets, false teachers. There have been some in the Church of the last days, but there will not be any as the Church is perfected and made ready for the rapture. It is the ministry of The Church of God today who is to see to it that this doesn't happen, because the ministry is responsible for the perfecting of the saints. It will be done by living, teaching and preaching the truth.
Not everyone loves the truth; they are more comfortable with deception. Some are like the one who said, "Tell me it isn't so!" That is sometimes spoken as a hopeful plea, but it can also be taken as a request for the distortion of the truth. Rather than to face up to the truth, some would rather hear more comforting words, but that doesn't change or destroy the truth. After all, when deception has done it's work, truth and reality still remain. Thank God, there is still safety in the truth!
There are some who are curious about what the truth is, but they have no mind or heart to follow it when they know what it really is. They are like Pilate was at the trial of Jesus. His question was "What is truth?", but he did not give Jesus a chance to answer his question. He immediately went to other matters rather than listen to the response of the Living Truth Himself. Curiosity about the truth often reveals the fact that the person with such a mind may want to know what it really is, but reserve an option as to whether or not to accept it. It appears this might have been Pilate's problem. he didn't wait for the answer, but neither do we have any record that he ever found and embraced it. How tragic!
Being made free in the truth does not mean that one is free to do all that the mind can imagine, but to be free from the bondage and entanglements of sin. Truth does not free people to become estranged from God; rather, it brings them into a close relationship with Him. Horace Mann once said, "Keep one thing forever in view-the truth; and if you do this, though it may seem to lead you away from the opinions of men, it will assuredly lead you to the throne of God." There is much truth in his statement. If one truly seeks to know the truth it will eventually lead him to God.
There are those today who are having trouble in their hearts and minds about the truth of the Church. Where is it? What is it? Which is it? Does it really matter which church you are in if you know God? These are vastly important questions and the answers will have eternal consequences.
As we understand the Scriptures, all the dead in Christ will arise and go up with the living saints at the rapture, but all those "...[who] are alive and remain..." (1 Thes. 4:17) will be in one body, which is the Church that is the scriptural sheep fold and the espoused Bride of Christ, and made up of members who are members one of another, under the same covenant, and under the same government (theocracy). The Church of God is unique and exclusive. It is unique because of it's origin and it's very existence. It is exclusive not because it tries to keep people out, but because it requires the candidate for membership to meet Bible standards as far as we know. Even John the Baptist would not baptize candidates if they did not "Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance..." (Luke 3:8).
The truth about the Church must be preached and taught by the Church. The divine revelation of this truth was given to the Church (cf. Matthew 13:10) and the Church owes it to the whole world to make it known. Many of our own people, especially our youth, have a very scant scriptural knowledge about the Church. Some of our youth leaders, pastors and others are deeply concerned about this matter and are taking direct and positive actions to do something about it. God bless them!
Since these truths have been divinely revealed to the Church and to no other, they will not be known unless we pass them on. We would be remiss in fulfilling our commission by failing to do so. Let us go back to proclaiming it forthrightly and unashamedly with all the power and anointing the Holy Ghost will give. There is so much that has been left untouched about the Church for so long that we desperately need to proclaim it from the highest hills and on every street until the whole world knows the truth about the wonderful Church of God. We need to return to whatever we we doing right in the 1930's, 1940's and 1950's that worked so well in reaching people for Christ and His Church. O how we must hurry and get them ready for the rapture! They must be gathered, nurtured, and perfected so that they will be ready to go up at the rapture. Do you believe this? Do you feel the urgency? Will you do something about it?
We have the truth. There is safety only in the truth. let us tell it with love and with power. People who want the truth-the sheep- will accept nothing less. They must be gathered, and we as the Church must do it. Lord, help us!
(This article was originally published in the February 1996 issue of The Evening Light.)
