Observation & Truth
It is a very precious commodity…
Something the world has been increasingly craving with a social media that seems to have gone mad..
With fake news flooding the internet, finding it has become increasingly harder..
TRUTH is compromised in our world, so much so, that major newspapers now regurgitate as fact so called ‘news’ found on social media without proper journalistic procedures for fact checking.. all in an effort not to be outdone in breaking a story in an ever increasingly fast news cycle
Just this past week a well respected and much awarded journalist was found wanting regarding TRUTH
Germany’s Der Spiegel magazine says it has fired an award-winning staff writer after finding he fabricated and invented facts in many articles in recent years.
“Truth and lie are muddled in his texts,” Der Spiegel said on its website on Wednesday [19th Dec 2018].
Some of the roughly 60 stories Claas Relotius had written since 2011 were accurate but others were “completely invented or embellished with manipulated quotes or other fact-fantasy,” it said. [News.com.au]
In his article ‘Without Transcendence, it’s just Tinsel’, Australian Weekend columnist, Greg Sheridan, wrote on Sat. 22nd December 2018;
“The gospels themselves, and the whole experience and proclamation of the early Christians, do not allow the interpretation that Jesus was really a moral and perhaps political teacher but did not make any supernatural claims, nor wish to bring a new religious message, nor saw himself as God”… The gospels, and the rest of the New Testament, are full of the claims of divinity and eternity”.
. Sheridan notes in his article:
“As I write in my book ‘God is Good for You’, the West, or huge parts of it, is saying goodbye to Christianity. At last the terrible crisis of unbelief is beginning to unfold. This strange abandonment of belief is only really at play in Western Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand.”
So once again this Christmas.. the question is raised as to the TRUTH
As we celebrate the birth of Christ today, we do so, not in a spirit of hopeless resignation, but drawing TRUTH from our text, we celebrate with HOPE and THANKSGIVING that God in Christ has come to us and it is this TRUTH that is central to what defines REALITY.
“… for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” (John 18:37b)
- WHAT IS TRUTH?
- THE TRUTH ABOUT THE IDENTITY OF JESUS
- THE TRUTH THAT SETS US FREE
Readings reproduced on this page:
The Holy Bible: New International Version. 1996, 1984. Grand Rapids: Zondervan
Readings
Matthew 2:1–12 (NIV84)
1After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem
2and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.”
3When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.
4When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born.
5“In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:
6“ ‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.’”
7Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared.
8He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”
9After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was.
10When they saw the star, they were overjoyed.
11On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh.
12And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.
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Text
John 18:33–37 (NIV84)
33Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?”
34“Is that your own idea,” Jesus asked, “or did others talk to you about me?”
35“Am I a Jew?” Pilate replied. “It was your people and your chief priests who handed you over to me. What is it you have done?”
36Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place.”
37“You are a king, then!” said Pilate. Jesus answered, “You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”
