Impact

Every principle, in every life on this planet, is guided by one statement spoken thousands of years ago. Every book, every recorded thought, even every law of man is a reflection of the response to this one statement spoken thousands of years ago. Even the ability to read this very insignificant treatment of that word is directly and profoundly the result of the influence of that statement. It has everything to do with light and truth and life. It has everything to do with darkness and deception and separation. Hundreds of millions of lives have been directly lengthened or shortened by the effect of these simple words. Roaring tides of humanity have plunged into the abyss or soared into the heavens due to their response of the representation of these words.

It is not possible to look upon the tenets of any religion, any principles of peace, any mandates for the control of man over his neighbors which does not spring directly from the response to this singular question. For it is as much a question of choice as it is a statement for consideration. There are few things in our human experience which we measure as pinnacles of importance. Yet the ones which matters the most often seems to be considered least. What power would you give another over your events, circumstances and choices in your life? What would you be willing to give up in exchange for the pleasantness and prosperity you desire? What mercy would you seek to assuage the guilt and devastating impact of having made the wrong choice?

At the onset of humanity the language of the heart was set in unalterable definitive terms. You, as a member of the human family are given the cognitive ability to secure blessings and curses for your existence and for those whom you impact. It is upon the weight of this realization that we are able to examine the guiding principle we have elevated to such magnitude. “Yeah, has God said?”

Even the mere reading of these four English words drives to the deepest place of the human psyche and produces physical responses beyond understanding for many. So how is it that this phrase means so much? How does saying it, or hearing it, or even just reading it cause such earth shattering changes in the course of humanity.

I suspect that ninety percent of folks asked would understand that this is one of the first questions recorded in the Holy Scriptures, the Bible. Every question has just two answers. One is the truth. All the other answers which may be given regardless of their creativeness are simply a lie. The Bible explains very clearly that God is truth and there is no lie in Him. So when God asks Adam and Eve about their answer to this question, He was expecting only truth. The truth He already knows. In the Biblical record we are given only one side of the picture. We do not read Eve’s account from the perspective of her defense lawyers. Although we seem to see that in Adam’s answer as He finds a way to blame God instead of accepting his own guilt. God receives the answer He already knows is coming. He is not compatible with it.

The impact of the question and their answer is far greater than a surface reading of the account provides. This is not a case of a child failing to eat their peas. It is perfectly created and endowed beings being imperfect. They chose to doubt their creator. The issue is not that they lied to God by hiding. It is not that they refused to accept responsibility for their poor decisions. It is that they held truth in their hearts and doubted that it was so. They called reality unreal. They chose to judge God as unfit to be God. They had pure intimate communion with absolute truth. They had a future void of hardship or evil. You can say they were naive, vulnerable, even blind to the possibilities and consequences, but you cannot say they did not know they truth.

Just as darkness is merely the absence of light, and evil is the absence of good, so a lie is the absence of truth. Every single time I have told a lie in my life, I have know it was a lie before it left my lips. There existed a tremendous void where truth had been moments before. It was purposeful, calculated and selfish. It was me centered and a choice made by someone desiring to be God and change the circumstances of my universe into what would benefit me the most. The truth that there already exists one true living eternal God did not matter. The truth that I am not Him did not matter. I wanted my circumstances to be different than they were and so I lied.

That is the impact of that question. That is why every principle, in every life on this planet, is guided by one statement spoken thousands of years ago. But the opposite of truth is not a lie. For a lie can be nuanced at a thousand levels to render truth non-absolute. Doubt is not the opposite of confidence. For confidence has a thousand pillars of support which can be whittled one by one. Doubt is the opposite of truth. For truth is absolute. “Yeah, has God said?” It does not say God is a liar. It does not pretend to ask the soldier to completely lower his shield. It merely suggests that the enemy is not that good of a shot and maybe, just maybe, if you lower your shield one inch to see over the top of it, the enemy will not take the shot. Despite that your commander has said he will.

God could easily have asked why they would doubt Him. He could have easily restarted His creation without Lucifer’s choice. He chose to continue knowing that in the end, those who would choose to believe absolute truth would adore Him and fellowship with Him forever. We are influenced by doubt. We trust in it. We disdain any attempt to be shaped or molded by absolute truth. Until the day we meet Him. At that moment we either receive the gift or continue to doubt.

Regardless of our choice, we are still continually hounded and influence by those four words. Did He really have my best interest in His heart? Is the future of my life really, without any conscious or unconscious reservations on my part, best by His plan? Am I accepting Him as my God or eating the fruit of doubt and fear so I might be my own God?

We doubt because we do not know the future. We doubt because we accept contradiction as plausible. We doubt that we can safely and successfully navigate the days of our lives without doubt. The truth of God’s Word, the Bible, is that He is God and in Him is no lie. He does not doubt His plan, His power or His people. We are not His by His cherry picking of the best and the brightest of the batch. We are His by the presence which allows us to believe and accept the absolute unchangeable truth. We are His at the moment when all of our doubt is washed aside and we can glimpse the reality that He is truth. Then there is no place for doubt. Then doubt is rendered secondary to truth. Then we are overwhelmed by the way the truth and the light.

It is not my purpose to plant a thought which might give place to doubt. That was done by one statement spoken thousands of years ago. That one question pales in the light of what should have been their answer. There answer might have been “Of course that is exactly what He said for He is truth and He can do no other”. Yet, you and I are living in a world so impacted by one divisive, doubtful insinuation from the very one who originated doubt within himself. We read the command to choose life and know it is the only way to live. To really live for now and eternity we must defy the impact of doubt and sink every fiber of our existence firmly into the Rock of our Salvation. For if you doubt the truth, you are impacted by the lie.

This entry was posted in Just a Thought, Life and tagged , . Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.