Articulate Lie or Confused Truth

Which is more dangerous, an articulate lie or confused truth? For me an articulate lie is far more dangerous. This blog is needed but not an easy one to write. Some may view it as a political statement which it is not. This blog goes beyond political debates, Supreme Court rulings or the emergence of AI. It is about life and whether life will be shaped by truth or lies.

During the course of history, attention has been given to truth and to lies, but I'm not sure that much attention has been given to the two at the same time. Because neither should be the preferred choice of any individual, both may be outright rejected without any analysis or comparison.

As always, we need to be informed by the Bible and we see both articulate lies and confused truth in the Bible. In Genesis 3 Satan dispensed an articulate lie. To this very day humanity is reaping the consequences of that lie. The lie was told to Adam and Eve. Satan told them that they could disobey God without any suffering and actually become like God by disobeying Him. Satan's presentation of this lie was articulate. He didn't stutter or stammer, and he didn't appear confused or indecisive. He was articulate in a calculated, manipulative way. "...And he said to the woman, 'Has God indeed said, 'You shall not eat of every tree of the garden'"(Genesis 3:1)?

God had given Adam and Eve permission to eat of all the trees of the garden except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the midst of the garden. The devil then proceeded to tell Eve that she would not die. He told her that by partaking of the forbidden fruit, she would be like God. Eve's fateful response is given in Genesis 3:6, "So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate."

Genesis 3:1 says, "Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made..." The cunning nature of the devil should be a warning to all of us. Because he was cunning in his person and his nature, he was articulate in his lie. Expect liar to be articulate. Articulation can be a strategy to be believable, to obscure, create confusion, manipulate and deceive.

No matter how perfect the articulation may be, the character of the liar and lie does not change. Consider the words of Jesus in John 8:44, "You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it."

Can we gain any insight related to confused truth from the Bible? We can! There are times in the Bible when people were confused about the truth. It was not deliberate, contrived confusion but innocent confusion. The desire to deceive or distort was not present. Two scriptural examples come to mind.

The first example can be found in John 21. After the resurrection Jesus appeared to some of His disciples at the Sea of Galilee. Jesus engaged Peter with the question, do you love me? Without going into the details of this exchange, three times Peter assured Jesus of his love for Him. After the conversation about his love for Jesus ended, Peter asked Christ, "But Lord, What about this man" (John 21:21)? Most likely, Peter was referring to John when he asked about this man. Jesus responded to Peter's question by saying, "...If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you? You follow Me" (John 21:22). John 21:23 says some people reported that Jesus had said John would not die before He came. Jesus did not say that John would not die before he came. Rather, He told Peter that John's future should not be his concern. No one had any intention of constructing an articulate lie, but some confusion about the truth arose.

The ministry of Apollos in Acts 18:24 28 provides a second example. According to Acts 18:21 Apollos was a Jew who was born in Alexandria and came to Ephesus. In this verse he is described as an eloquent man and mighty in the scriptures. Yet his knowledge of the truth of scripture was incomplete because he only knew of the baptism of John. Acts 18:26 tells us how truth was completed and clarified. "So he began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Aquila and Priscilla heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately."

When I look at the articulate lie of Satan in the Garden of Eden and the scriptural examples of some confusion related to the truth, the question of which is the most dangerous is clearly answered. There are few things in life that pose a greater danger for us today than articulate lies. How should we respond to this imposing danger? We can and should do three things.

1. LOVE AND EMBRACE THE TRUTH.

The truth is beautiful and according to Jesus speaking in John 8:32, it sets men free.

"Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, 'If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free'" (John 8:31,32).

John later wrote in 1 John 2:21, "I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth." Truth leads people to light. Lies does the very opposite by obscuring light and promoting darkness. Evil deeds are obscured by a cover of darkness.

"For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God" (John 3:20,21).

2. CONTINUOUSLY SEEK CLARIFICATION OF THE TRUTH.

Truth can be known. When Pilate asked Jesus the question, what is truth in John 18:38, he was not seeking a sincere answer to his own question. Rather, he was a weak-willed politician trying to protect his own career and interest. After asking his question, he went out to the Jews and said, "I find no fault in Him." He declared Jesus' innocence and shortly thereafter he gave the order for him to be crucified. Pilate knew the truth but was unwilling to stand for it.

Truth can be known but because fallible human beings are the handlers of truth, it must be continuously clarified. Our treasure is in earthen vessels which are imperfect. One of the great blessings of being in the Body of Christ, the church, is to be surrounded by other believers who are on the same journey we are on. Together we can seek clarification of the truth. This is essentially what happened between Apollos and Aquila and Pricilla. The truth that Apollos had was clarified.

3. REJECT AN ARTICULATE LIE.

The progeny of a lie can be traced back to the devil. He is the father of all lies. For this reason alone, lies must be rejected. To excuse a lie with the response that everyone does it or that it is somehow the lesser of two evils, is nothing more than dangerous tolerance.

History provides a clear warning about the extreme danger of articulate liars. Did Hitler tell the truth to the German people when he amassed and wowed huge crowds? Was he an articulate liar? Hitler did not tell the truth, but he was articulate. He used his articulation skills to gain millions of followers. A world war and horrific suffering followed his articulate lies. Articulate lies today will bear the same fruit that they bore in Hitler's day. They must be outright and totally rejected.

We basically have two choices facing us today. We can love the truth and seek to clarify the truth, or we can embrace articulate lies.

The choice we make between these two alternatives may very well shape the outcome of many other life choices. I choose to love and embrace truth! What do you choose?