Why would people rather believe a lie? Even when the truth fits better, it seems many folks are so used to lies that they can’t accept the truth. This results in their own confusion and hurt. It diminishes their impact for good in the lives of others and causes an unhealthy pattern to develop in their lives. In the beginning, in the garden, God told the truth and the serpent lied. God’s two wonderful intelligent human creations believed the liar and his lie.
Before Cain killed Able in a fit of jealous rage he must have believed that if Able was gone God would love him more. Yet the truth was that God did not love him any less. Noah preached truth for one hundred and twenty years without anyone else believing the truth. The lies were more comforting and desirable to them.
Throughout the Scriptures the story is the same. Israel believed a king would make their lives better; not so much. David believed God would look the other way; not for long. The people believed God would never judge them; not even close. They believed the Messiah would overthrow their oppressors and restore His earthly kingdom; not on the same timetable. The disciples believed Jesus was dead, not without remedy. They did not believed He had just died to rise again; not listening to Him.
And when they finally did believe, even Thomas demanded further evidence before giving up his lie; not even troublesome to Jesus. Why do we seem to have this continual attitude that the truth is only right until the next conspiracy theory comes along?
Jesus’ father was a Roman soldier. He used magician tricks to fake His miracles. He only fainted on the cross. He married Mary Magdalene and a secret society protects the knowledge of His descendants to this day. Men never landed on the moon. It was all faked like Kennedy’s assassination, nine eleven, alien bases on the moon and the mass shootings. Where ever you want to go, whatever you want to see, however you need to believe, there is a lie to cover that and plenty of stories and videos to prove it. Sure there are things around us that we do not understand. Yes, many people honestly believe they saw exactly what they say they saw. Yes there are some events which appear to be other than what they are reported to be. The Bible has a thought which might be applied. “If you can believe, all things are possible to him that believes.
Unfortunately that means a lie as well. If you are willing to reject the clear evidence of truth or hang your hope on a doubt and own the lie as the only reality you will accept, then in your mind, that is all there is. Nothing will dissuade you. No other possibility can exist.
Remember Jesus said “I am the way, the truth and the life”. So your choices are simple. You either believe Jesus (the truth) or you believe the lie. And I think we can agree where that comes from. And by extrapolation, not believing Jesus, IS believing the lie, or at least somebody’s lie. When it comes to truth there is one true version.
When it comes to lies, there is no limit to the number of versions and twists and possibilities you can render. The sky is the limit. If you are sixty three years old, you can color your hair, tuck your tummy, lift your eyes and tone your cheeks. But you cannot be any other age. Oh, you might look 20 years younger but truth is not always what it appears as.
We desire the lies because we do not want to be responsible for our bad choices. We don’t want to die in misery or alone or in great pain so we seek out a lie to grab hold of. We blame others, find fault, claim conspiracy and even pretend it is not our hand in the cookie jar. There are extremely few guilty criminals in prison and they are all being honest with you. Again, our choices, our actions, our consequences. If you don’t like the results of your choices just lie your way out of it. It is possible that you may die before it catches up with you.
Then what? Jesus said there is no other way to get to the Father (and heaven) but through Him. If you choose another way to follow, you will know if it was a good choice or not when you die. One is truth, the rest are a lie. A multitude of lies told myriad ways is still the same, a lie. Jesus is truth or a lie. Not your interpretation but what He really said. Your choice.
Again, “Why would people rather believe a lie?” All of the examples, scenarios, reasonable explanations and lies we can come up with cannot change the fact that we choose. For whatever reason, we choose. If we want to walk closer to Jesus we choose His truth. If we feel constrained by His truth we make excuses and choose the lie. Any perversion of truth is still a lie. If you have a pure and clean sixteen ounce glass of water, how much arsenic do you need to add to make it impure? What concentration would you be willing to drink? It has been said that very often it is our own vanity that deceives us most often.
SO one more choice; Jesus is God the Son who paid the price for your sins against the Holy sovereign God of creation and offers you forgiveness and eternal life if you will believe and confess Him as Lord. True or False?