All of us lie. The truth is, we lie all the time. If you think you don’t necessarily lie as much, you’re lying to yourself. As a matter of fact, the most lying done is not to another, but to ourselves. What do we lie about? Everything. We lie about every lie we didn’t tell. Lying is so commonplace that truth becomes arbitrary, incomprehensible, and foreign to us. Basically, lying is just commonplace and accepted. Most people don’t trust that one is speaking the truth because they’re probably lying. Lying is so prevalent in all cultures that the relevance of not lying is just as odd as aliens coming to visit from a foreign land. Lying is necessary to obtain just about anything we want in life. The expectation of lying is ordinary, actually, it’s mandated. Truth has become so obtuse that there is no recognition of truth because it doesn’t appear as a lie. We are much more comfortable with lying than telling the truth because truth has lost its objectivity. Lying replaced truth by relativism. Lying is the perfection of relativism. There is no truth so it must be replaced with a lie. People trust liars because through the lies they can relate to their own lies. Some excellent examples of perpetual lying can be found anywhere where people congregate. It can be small groups or large. It doesn’t matter. We are so used to lying and convinced that lying is acceptable that if we were to speak the truth, we would be castigated, sometimes ostracized from acceptable, societal norms. “He’s a liar!” The explicit mantra of the present day. This is not news. People have been lying since the beginning. Lying became the common habitat of most, if not all humankind.
Some of the worst offenders and perpetuators of lying have been religious leaders of all kinds, governmental leaders, educators, the judiciary, the elite, the social media moguls, the media, business tycoons, health care providers, sports figures, and Hollywood dignitaries. But, let’s be “honest,” it’s not just them, it’s all of us. “They” are just more visible in the spotlight so their lies can be readily seen when their lips move. Everybody lies and with great ease. The poor are not immune. Neither are the “wicked.” In fact, one might think that the “evil” people are the ones that most lie about everything but in fact, it’s the “good” people that do the most lying. At times it can be frustrating because we think that everybody else lies and we don’t. That’s a lie. We are very poor judges when it comes to our own lying. We think we tell the truth when others correct our own lies. It’s interesting because, from a human point of view, there is no one to be the ultimate arbiter of who is lying and who isn’t when we all lie all the time and with impunity. So, who is to say, then? Some say the courts, the Supreme Court. They are the justices that would not lie. They always tell the truth. Truth be told, there hasn’t been one Supreme Court in any country who has never lied. If one needs examples of this, please refer to any history book in any country. We like to think that the United States is immune to this, but that would be simply a lie. Some reflect on religious leaders to be upstanding and incapable of lying because they represent God. But, if true, which God, and how do we know that is the true God who exists, if He exists at all? Can we rely on any human to say that he/she has the truth from God?
Jesus stood in front of Pontus Pilate. Pilate asked Him: “You are a king then! Jesus answered: ‘You say that I am a king. In fact the reason that I was born and came into this world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth testifies to me.’ ‘What is truth?’ retorted Pilate.” The irony of that question has plagued humankind for 2000 years. What is truth? Is truth simply the quality or state of being true? And what is true? That which is in accordance to reality? And what is reality? It is simply the way the world or things actually exist. So then, we come to explain truth,from a perspective of philosophy, metaphysics, epistemology, empirical knowledge and many other belief systems. So, it begs the question, can we necessarily know what is truth? And which philosopher is correct in his/her assumption of what corresponds to reality? Again, these arguments are not new. For thousands of years, humankind has been searching for truth. And the question is, who,has the answer?
If one follows the Person of Jesus, the Christ, one may have the answer of truth. It certainly cannot be found in the religion of Christianity, per se. All the sects of Christianity have been at times, pervasive in this regard. The focus must be on Jesus as a Person and not as a religion. It’s not Jesus plus something else, just Jesus. So, how are Jesus and truth related? The answer can be found in the New Testament where many of the sayings of Jesus were recorded by the four evangelists. Jesus commits to being truth. He declares that truth is a Person and not an idea. He claims this because He believes Himself to be God. Now, the truth of His claims can be disputed. Throughout the last 2000 years, many have denounced His claims as erroneous and absurd. In Mere Christianity, by C.S. Lewis, he posits that either Jesus is a liar, a lunatic, or Lord. So, if His claims are true, then He is who He says He is and He is God. If He is God, the He is the personification of truth. If He is not who He says He is, then Jesus is lying in a mass grave somewhere and billions of followers have been duped throughout the centuries and there is no convincing evidence of truth from any human being. After all, no other human has ever claimed to be God and proved it by rising from the dead and performing signs or miracles. Sure, there is much to unpack, here. Claiming to be God is fraught with problems if one is only human. Proving to be God is much more difficult. What is interesting about the claims of Jesus lie in the receivers who were with Him while He professed this claim. Before the resurrection, these historical followers generally doubted who He was. In fact, when Jesus was handed over to the guards of the Sanhedrin, His followers not only abandoned Him, but denied they were ever with Him. After His death on a cross and subsequent burial in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, the followers (apostles) believed they had seen the risen Christ. In fact many others saw Him as well for forty days after His death. What’s interesting about this is that something changed in the apostles. They became ardent supporters of Christ and were martyred (except for John, who was exiled) for what they believed in. Moreover, Paul, who was a fierce opponent of the Christian movement, in fact, had Christians killed, became an apostle and one of the leading persons to spread the gospel to the west. James, the brother of Jesus, who thought Him insane, became an ardent follower of Jesus and was subsequently martyred. There are extra biblical references which corroborate the crucifixion of Jesus and the subsequent change in behavior of his followers or those who were not followers, yet became so because they believed they had seen the risen Christ.
There are even many today who believe that Jesus is truth and have died for him, not by committing acts of violence, but acts of humility. Back to the lies. We all lie. Everyone of us. Humanity is evil and depraved. There’s not one that’s good and the truth is not in us. So, let’s stop lying to each other and face the reality of a broken world. Are we duped into this brain fog where everything is fine and the world is a great place to live in because this is all we’ve got so let’s make the best of it and who cares when we die, where we go, whatever? There are many who have come before with great knowledge and have asked these very same questions. Are we any different than all those who came before, who asked: “What is truth?” Or, are we better off just living in our quagmire of lies because, in the final analysis, it really doesn’t matter. There is no God. There is no eternity. There is no heaven. There is no hell. Just, imagine. You decide how to lead your life, in obscurity with your brain fog and your lies, or in truth.