As a young man, I saw a powerful movie entitled “A Few Good Men.” The movie started with Jack Nicholson and Tom Cruise.
Both delivered very powerful performances. One scene in particular is quite famous for the statement Jack Nicholson makes when he tells Tom Cruz, “You can’t handle the truth.”
The entire premise of the movie was that Jack Nicholson’s character was given the responsibility of protecting the United States from foreign enemies.
Nicholson’s character had clearly developed a type of God complex that allowed him to decide what truth would be shared and what would not, as well as who would live or die, regardless of what the law allowed or what was moral.
That same mindset has become very prevalent today. The arrogance and hubris that Jack Nicholson used to shock an 80’s audience is more easily accepted today.
Two stories I saw this week displayed how the truth is understood as the great falling away continues, as more people on planet Earth are allowed to believe the lie.
The first was the resignation of Uri Berliner, a 25-year NPR veteran and Senior Business Editor who was suspended after exposing NPR’s obvious viewpoint bias.
Berliner was suspended by Katherine Maher, the new NPR CEO and President, who did not appreciate Uri Berliner saying the quiet part out loud.
Maher holds the same view of the truth as postmodernist thinkers like Machiavelli, Nietzsche, and Rousseau. She also holds the silly notion of relativism that is taught to unthinking people in universities today.
Postmodernists rarely, if ever, admit to the incoherence of the argument that “there are many different truths.” That is because having many different truths allows filtering “good truth” and “bad truth.”
Katherine Maher wants to control the story and the truth, which is why she finds it unfortunate that the United States has such a “robust” First Amendment.
But it is the truth that has given us so many of the blessings we enjoy today.
It took time for paganism to be driven out of much of human society, particularly Western society. Paganism and idol worship promote superstition and fairy tales that lead us away from truth, liberty, and prosperity.
As the gospel spread and biblical truths were embraced, thinkers such as Isaac Newton and Gallello discovered the truth of the created order. Thus bringing us the age of true enlightenment and understanding.
The recognition of this order allowed these discoveries to be expressed in math equations and principles so that anyone, regardless of language and ethnicity, could benefit from them.
This brings us to the second story of the week, which follows these lines.
Pittsburgh Public Schools would like to make mathematics more “equitable” or less racist and not about getting the right answer but to make math about “the journey.”
Interestingly, the world is trying to undermine science and math in the name of equity and race when the truth holding up these disciplines is what raised people out of poverty and caused people to see the evil of slavery and fight for liberty so many enjoy today.
Understand that math as well as truth was given to all mankind by the Lord. No one particular race discovered math or developed math.
According to John Armstrong, who teaches at King’s College London and previously taught at Oxford the idea of “decolonizing” math or making it more equitable is ridiculous:
“The fact is that colonialism is irrelevant to the validity of mathematics. The Mayan civilization was doing sophisticated mathematics in the Americas long before Christopher Colombus arrived on the continent. … The digits 0123456789 we use today were first written in India and inspired by Chinese mathematics. They were popularised by Persian and Arab mathematicians and then made their way to Europe via the Moors’ conquest of Southern Spain. Admittedly the Moors’ conquest of Spain was a form of colonialism, but apparently not the type of colonialism we are meant to be interested in.”
So why is truth continually under assault? Why are children being taught nonsense instead of truth, reason, and math? Simply put, rejecting truth allows us to accept the lie.
“6 And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. 7 For the [d]mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only [e]He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. 9 The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, 10 and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, 12 that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” -2 Thessalonians 2:6-12
The stage is being set for the lawless one, but remember, we know the truth, and the truth has set us free. We are to share that freedom and salvation with others. Be sure to share this with others, and don’t forsake the gathering together in church this weekend as others are in the habit of doing.
