THE ONLY THING WE HAVE TO FEAR IS NOT ONLY FEAR ITSELF

THE ONLY THING WE HAVE TO FEAR IS NOT ONLY FEAR ITSELF

A character on a fictional ABC Network television series said it, and when she did, she hit a nail right smack on its head. Whoever wrote the line has wisdom not often heard on television. 

One of the characteristics of wisdom is that, when we hear it, it makes us think. Another aspect of wisdom is that it's short and to the point, like the book of Proverbs, like the discourses of Jesus and the Epistles, most of which you can read in twenty minutes or less. Wisdom gets inside you and places a burr in your brain. Wisdom is a stealth bomber which approaches unseen, delivers its payload, and vanishes into the night. Wisdom is a lightning strike. This wasn't a "Christian" program, but I've already told you that since I said it was on ABC.

The character said, "Our greatest fear is the fear of absolute truth."

Wow! And double wow! She said into the teeth of a society which believes that there is no such thing as truth which is true for all people everywhere at all times and in all locations. She said this into the teeth of a society that has been soaked in relativism, the dogma that holds that  truth is changeable, depending on time, place, and culture; your truth isn't my truth; what's true for you may not be true for me. Relativism says that what I do one day may be right for me and then the next day, wrong for me.

For example, "In Eskimo culture, and in Holland, killing old people is right. In America, east of Oregon, it's wrong. In contemporary culture, sexual anarchy is right; in Christian cultures, it's wrong." (Peter Kreeft) Relativism means, "Truth, then, is utterly dependent on the way the individual sees his circumstances. The individual can, with supposed impunity, act one way at one time, and entirely a different way at another, and who is to judge him?" (Fay Voshell) The ultimate aphorism of moral relativism is Judges 21:25. Read it. Israel became infected with it.

This statement on ABC was a punch in the solar plexus of a society which fears the very idea of absolute truth.

A college professor stands before his class at the beginning of the semester and says, "My goal this semester is to convince you that there is no such thing as absolute truth." This would prompt one to ask, "Why isn't your purpose to teach whatever subject you're hired to teach and whatever course the students paid (or their parents paid) tuition (your salary) for you to teach?" 

No, he's a man on a mission, a mission to destroy the last vestige of what they learned at the knee of their parents and grandparents, as well as what they learned in their Bible teaching church.

I remember in my American history class at Texas Tech University hearing a professor say, in the middle of a lecture on the War Between the States, "The Jews didn't have a Flood story until they came out of the Babylonian Captivity." He meant by this that the Jews borrowed the Genesis account of the Flood from the Babylonians, late in Israel's history, a long time after Moses' day. 

At the time, I didn't know the false presupposition into which he had bought in order to make that statement (the Documentary Hypothesis of the Pentateuch, also called the JEPD Theory), but I wondered, "What in the world does that have to do with the American Civil War of 1861-1865?" He too was an academic on a mission.

Such an unlofty goal isn't isolated to the university; it's everywhere. The world system is on a rampage against the concept of absolute truth from kindergarten on up. (Go to: http://www.districtadministration.com/article/senate-bill-48-california-sets-new-curriculum-standard) 

Our movies deliver an all-is-relative-message; there's no right and wrong in an absolute sense and the arts seek to ridicule into silence those who believe that truth exists. The sophomoric television comedies delight to stereotype  such the Christian by portraying him as a backwater bumpkin with missing teeth, standing in front of a Nazi or Confederate flag, quoting the Bible. Or the script makes him into someone so unbelievably rude, boorish, holier than thou, devious, blunt, and cruel that the viewer can't stand him. All of this is by conspiratorial design (II Cor. 4:4). In contrast, the everything-is-relative-character is likable, funny, friendly, erudite, polished, and is always, without fail, given the last word.

But back to ABC. The character said, "Our greatest fear is the fear of absolute truth." Why?

One reason: once a person admits that absolute truth exists, then what comes with that is that there is Someone behind that truth and that Someone is higher than we are. Man cannot conceive and deliver absolute truth because he is finite and limited, a being who cannot know all the facts on which to formulate truth for all people at all times everywhere. 

Fallen man comes with a boatload of hubris. Someone higher than he is? Fallen man fears the thought. 

Another reason: once a person admits that absolute truth exists, then, not only is there Someone out there, but also man is accountable to that Someone. Embedded in absolute truth is the loss of our autonomy, a loss fallen man fears. With the loss of independence, man finds that he can't make up the rules. He can't make up the rules about when life begins or what marriage is or what, to get right down to it, truth is. 

With the loss of autonomy, men in government, science, and education lose the authority to determine what's right and what's wrong. In essence, they lose control and they fear the loss. If absolute truth exists, then man is not free to make up his own definitions, categories, morals or ethics by which he lives.

This would explain why Communist officials hunted down and beat an old man holding a Bible in a home church meeting in Russia in the dead of night, confiscating the Bible and some handwritten Christian literature reported to be on the premises. (The Communist official who led the mission describes it in his book, "The Persecutor.") The might of the Russian government coming against one man with one Book? Such is the fear of absolute truth.

This explains why officials shred Bibles at airports in some nations. Danny Nalliah, a Sri Lankan-born evangelical pastor now based in Australia said in an interview, "It's a very well-known fact that if you have a Bible at customs when you enter the airport [in Saudi Arabia], and if they find the Bible, the Bible is taken and put in the shredder. If you have more than one Bible you will be taken into custody, and if you have a quantity of Bibles you will be given 70 lashes for sure - you could even be executed."

This shredding, confiscation, and control of the Bible would indicate, at the very least, that  governments recognize there is something powerful in that Book, something dangerous. Their actions are an example of what the Bible says about itself: "The Word of God is living and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. . ."

In regard to a Book so powerful, what are you to do with it? Turn it loose all over people and watch it work!

On the cover of every Bible should be the words, "WARNING: READING THIS BOOK MAY BE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR WORLDVIEW."

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Dr. Mike Halsey is the chancellor of Grace Biblical Seminary, a Bible teacher at the Hangar Bible Fellowship, and the author of Truthspeak. If you would like to a receive a copy of his weekly Bible studies and articles of biblical teaching and application, you can do so by writing sue.bove@gmail.com and requesting "The Hangar Bible Fellowship Journal."

Other recommended grace-oriented websites are:

notbyworks.org
literaltruth.org
gracebiblicalseminary.org
duluthbible.org