Introduction
Truth is more than a choice, one of several beliefs, concepts, or options which we might select as a path forward. Truth is a life essential if one is to survive in a world that cares little for the individual, the group, or the society that takes in the belief, embraces the concepts, or selects from the resulting options the paths to follow toward our life goals. What we believe to be truth causes us to embrace the moment-by-moment processes and informs our choices of the options presented. We know we live in a cause-and-effect world and what we believe to be true shapes our lives into the causes we choose expecting the promised effects. The Bible speaks to this cause-and-effect reality as a life of sowing and reaping.
Galatians 6:7-10 NLT
Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up. Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith.
One of the philosophical points of modernity and its malignant offspring, post-modernity, is relativism, the iron-clad, indisputable belief that nothing is absolutely true. Truth can only be relative, springing from temporary concepts and momentary platitudes gathered by the limited and bendable mind of man. This means that human life has no more value than that of an ant in the weeds or a fly feasting on a pile of waste. Morality is something of the season, shifting forever from the perceived needs of the moment. This belief leads inevitably to the ruling sentiment of a godless existence, “the survival of the fittest.” Any course is justified by the necessity of survival, “For the ends justify the means.” The greatest, and most murderous villains in history are only that because their villainy could not be sustained.
These monstrous ideas lurk behind the florid garden of deception in which our media and culture grows its harvest of colorful, fragrant, and poisonous lies, so appealing to the eye blinded by Satan’s tricks and to the serenaded heart numbed by his desensitizing siren song.
The Prophet Isaiah, writing some 700 years before Christ, warned of a time when truth would lose its footing in the world. Instead of standing strong and eternal, Truth would stumble and lose its balance and finally collapse, helpless in the streets. How could something as strong as God’s truth come to such a sorry circumstance? Truth stands strong when it is declared from individual to individual and especially from generation to generation. Truth must be told. It cannot be a secret. It must be declared in the home, in the streets, and in the hearts of God’s people. When truth falls in the streets it is because people have failed to believe it, to live it, and to pass it on to those they love. The terrible irony of this is that those who resist this apostasy become the first victims of its destruction. As the prophet warns, “He who shuns evil becomes a prey.”
In five essays I will deal with terrible results of the loss of truth:
- Part One: Irrational Hatred
- Part Two: Deceiving Words
- Part Three: Feelings over Facts
- Part Four: A Lion in the Streets
- Part Five: In the Last-Days—the Choice
Part One: Irrational Hatred
“Truth has fallen in the streets.” The ancient words of the Prophet Isaiah ring tragically true today. We see this in the streets of our cities where the most privileged students of our finest universities call for the destruction of a people who have survived the hate of every civilization where what is called The Diaspora, has them taken for 3000 years. This shift in prejudice has taken place in my lifetime. I am a Baby Boomer raised by what is call the “Greatest Generation” of American history. My parents’ generation, as with all of my peers, literally saved the world as well as our nation from despots who shaped their own version of “truth” and sought power at any cost. How can young, educated students today and their supposedly informed teachers embrace the hate and deceit of Adolph Hitler?
The truth is this: Jews have blessed every nation where they have lived. As a people, they are creative, industrious, transgenerational, merciful, peaceful, and law abiding. Without their influence America would still be bound in the 19th century. Do we realize their impact on our culture? film? theatre? science? industry? commerce? literature? and so much more. We would not have the culture we have today without the influence of the Jewish people. They are not, nor have they ever been villains. They build strong individual lives of productivity and strong families because the basis of their culture is the eternal Word of God, truth for the ages and for this day as well.
My Rivertown, Helena, Arkansas
My hometown Helena, Arkansas, was a port city on the west bank of America’s greatest river, the Mississippi. River towns are by nature more culturally diverse than towns even just a few miles inland. People from all races and cultures tend to settle and construct their own little villages within the boundaries of the river town. This multicultural environment has enabled me, a small-town kid, to live and function in cities all these years.
One of the most important and influential communities in Helena-West Helena was our thriving group of Jewish Arkansans. We had our own Rabbi, Rabbi Shillman, and even our own synagogue, Temple Beth El, one of the most beautiful of all the classic beautiful buildings in Helena.
The Jewish community in Helena was a vital part of the life and culture of the town. Rabbi Shillman spoke at our High School graduation ceremony in June of 1967. Mrs. Vera Miller, a prominent member of the Jewish community, was my senior English teacher. She took me seriously as a young writer and taught me how to write. Her brother, Ira Mundt, worked in the parts department at West Hornor Motor Company where my Dad was one of the mechanics. I played football with Mrs. Miller’s son, Herbert and was in the band with her younger son, Fred. Jews were a vital and productive part of our lives. I was raised in the local Assemblies of God church where we were taught that Jews were God’s Chosen People and were to be loved and supported in all things. Hatred of Jews made no sense to me and it still doesn’t. Yet this racial rage is the engine behind the destructive forces in our streets today where truth, indeed, has stumbled. To finish the prophet’s lament, Isa 59:15 “So truth fails, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey.” NKJV
There is no reason to fear the Jews! They were created by the Lord to bless the earth and for 3000 years they have done that only to be hated by so many of those who have been blessed by them. Is this not proof of the reality of evil and the mind-numbing power of words used to deceive? Consider these facts. The Jewish people are a blessing to every nation wise enough to offer them shelter.
Do not be deceived.
Stephen Phifer
Semper Reformanda!
Stephen Phifer, October 22, 2023
Amen! Thank you for sharing this! We are living in the last days.