Much is made in our day about “truth” or at least “truthiness”. There are conspiracy theories, discernment blogs, fake news, censorship, and a host of other things centered around this fundamental question, “What is true?”
It’s shocking, really, because about 10 years ago the church wrestled with how to minister in a “post-truth” world where postmodernism threatened us with a narrative of “what’s true for you is true for you, and what’s true for me is true for me.” But the emptiness of this philosophy was unsustainable and now we’ve moved into this strange place where truth matters but long ago we abandoned our anchor.
One would think, then, that the evangelicalism which was preparing itself for a post-truth world would be in a great position to lead the charge into all truth. But sadly, it seems evangelicalism is just as at home with conspiracy theories as those who were supposed to have abandoned truth all together. Why is this?
I would argue that the issue here is two-fold. One, we long ago abandoned the reason for truth. Secondly, we were drawn away by the glint of a sword from another kingdom.
“Why does truth matter”?
I’m a child of the Southern Baptist conservative resurgence. I know that I owe a great deal to that battle for the truth. I’ve also become somewhat of a student of that generation and that battle. I’ve poured over books on this battle for the Bible—this Truth in Crisis. Over and over again I read statements about the importance of standing upon truth. But something is often missing….why?
I’ve asked that question in my reading through that period of our history. Some rightly argue that a society built on an untruth will crumble. We need truth to thrive as a culture. That’s not only self-preservation but it’s neighbor love. Others argue from statistics that liberalism kills churches if you want your church to grow then make it conservative.
Many will argue that truth is the means for us to know God. God is a God of truth and to rightly know him, you need to relate to Him in truthfulness. It is the truth of the gospel which helps us grow as well as the foundation from which we combat evil.
I do not necessarily disagree with any of these as motivations for holding fast to the truth. But there is something which I often see missing in these discussions; namely, that we pursue truth because God delights in truth. Delights. He rejoices in the truth. Walking in truth makes the heart of the father glad.
Here is why that matters. Our battle for truth can easily devolve into a utilitarian means to an end, rather than as a labor of love. Our adherence to the truth can be a way to seek to control God—to make God indebted to us because of our faithfulness. I find this sentence from Tim Keller to be quite searching:
“If, like the elder brother, you seek to control God through your obedience, then all your morality is just a way to use God to make him give you the things in life you really want.” –Keller, 39
What happens in our hearts when a church around the corner that isn’t nearly as dedicated to the truth as you begins to grow in baptisms, discipleship groups, missions, etc. whilst your truth-loving church seems to shrink? Do we just assume that this is another mark of our culture turning away from wanting to hear truth? Do we chalk it up to ear-tickling? Do we tunnel back into a dreary ‘faithfulness’ and somehow find ways to divert the anger we feel towards God for not growing our churches similarly?
Let’s be honest here. The anger we so often feel towards God—and others—is because we followed the plan and it didn’t work out. And when we come to this spot we’ve only got a few options. We can blame God for his unfaithfulness to us—but that never works out. We can dig in deeper and preach the truth even louder—somehow that seems to only create angrier congregations. Or we can assume that the problem must be some Achan among us and we expend our energies on rooting out these remaining “liberals” so we can proceed into the Promised Land.
And it’s often in these moments of discouragement where we are most prone to be enamored by the glint of another sword.
Soldiers in a war
Achan’s don’t come out of the woodwork easily. Nor are godless kingdoms who flaunt untruth going to easily give up their cultural stranglehold. But if the blessing of God is contingent upon our adherence to the truth of God then if we want God’s blessings we better become warriors for truth. We must drive out the Achan’s. We must have our culture bow a knee to biblical truth. Our national joy is dependent upon it.
That’s a shiny sword. And it even sounds biblical. Most godless cults do upon first glance. But do you see what has happened? We’ve exchanged the truth of God for a lie and called it a battle for truth. But at it’s foundation our utilitarian fight for truth is really no different than the great exchange of Romans 1, because it’s built upon creaturely self-delight and not Godward-delight.
This is why you’ll see those passionate about truth engaging in vitriolic campaigns to drive out an Achan. And this is why you’ll see conservative evangelicals reject consist pro-life principles in order to ensure a perceived cultural victory. The “battle for truth” is all that matters…and it doesn’t matter if it’s actually true. Grabbing hold of the sword of a culture war gave us permission to slay all rivals and gave us confidence that we’d always be on the right side—even if we aren’t. After all, can you really go wrong if you’re “fighting for God?”
I would argue that what we’ve really slain is truth itself. Many fundamentalist have actually become quite liberal, because they are no longer measuring claims by the truth of the Bible but rather orthodoxy is now defined by adherence to the movement itself.
And this is why evangelicals are leading the charge in embracing conspiracy theories, angry discernment blogs, and even its own brand of cancel culture. In our efforts to fight for the truth we never learned how to delight in truth. Truth is fundamentally relational. We missed that. And because of this, we didn’t notice that it’s not actually the truth we’re fighting for anymore. We’ve picked up the sword from another kingdom.
Truth still doesn’t matter.
Unless of course you want to join me in delighting in truth as we learn again how to tell a better story.
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