Redefining Truth: Delusions of Replacing God and Calling Evil Good, by David Fiorazo, full introduction!
Truth has never been so assaulted, avoided, denied, downplayed, hated, ignored, minimized, reinterpreted, redefined, and suppressed to the point it is today. At the same time, in this fast-paced information age of mass communication, technological advancements, scientific discoveries, and breaking news, people seem less informed, less secure, more distracted, more agitated, and more confused about what is true than ever before. Why?
It starts with rejecting the one true God. Delusion can be defined as the act of deluding, the state of being deluded; deception; something that is falsely believed or propagated; a false belief regarding the self or persons or objects outside of self that persists despite the facts; something accepted as true that is actually false or unreal.
Jesus Christ, the living One who has the keys of death and Hades, and who was dead but is now alive forevermore (Revelation 1:18), stated:
“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” (Revelation 1:8)
Christ, who also stated, “I am . . . the truth” (John 14:6), just covered eternity: present, past, and future. According to Webster’s 1828 dictionary, the historical meaning of truth is “Conformity to fact or reality; exact accordance with that which is, or has been, or shall be. The truth of history constitutes its whole value. We rely on the truth of the scriptural prophecies; Veracity; purity from falsehood” (emphasis added).
Truth is the self-expression of God, a transcendent, fundamental reality. If truth is absolute and if God never changes, then this subject really matters and so does the Bible. Practically everything else changes: people, places, seasons, cultures, countries, the world, and even facts can change. The question is, are there fixed, established standards of right and wrong that apply to everyone in all places at all times in all circumstances? Under what authority and by whose values do you live?
These are pivotal considerations as we dive into the many cultural debates and divides in America today. Your beliefs about truth and the answers to these questions come from your worldview and affect how you live. Christians believe the Bible is the source of truth, and we view the world with all its problems and glory through the lens of Scripture. Our faith is established upon the rock of God’s infallible Word.
Throughout Scripture, we are warned about being deceived, but countless millions of people have fallen for the Enemy’s lies. We’ve seen it throughout societies in the world, but sadly, we’ve also seen it within the Christian church. Another definition of delusion is simply the act of tricking or deceiving someone; a false belief or opinion. This is Satan’s specialty, and he’s been quite effective. There has always been opposition to the truth. The apostle Paul warned the early Christians to watch out and not be deceived by those who would attack truth and the gospel by introducing subtle ideas and false teachings based on worldly philosophy and man’s wisdom.
Enemies of God have caused many casualties in the church by getting people to doubt the truth about creation, our origins and gender, and the natural wickedness of mankind which points to the need for a Savior. Some Christians have given in to culture’s lies and even deny Jesus’s definition of marriage. Once people surrender God’s laws, the permanence of marriage, the purpose of procreation, and the importance of family, we’re in trouble.
While you navigate through this book, the subject matter will involve Christ, culture, and the church. We will tackle the biggest issues where truth is being redefined. We have already allowed the Left to redefine the value of life and when it begins, which has led to the increase of abortion and assisted suicide. If we, the church, also wave the white flag of surrender on gender roles, biological sex, and the distinctions between male and female, then objective truth is gone, and we’ve failed to preserve biblical morality and protect our culture.
New research shows Christians are uncertain about truth and moral absolutes (we will discuss this in detail), so it is safe to say society is even more uncertain as well as deceived. It’s not surprising that Oxford Dictionary’s word of the year for 2016 was ‘post-truth.’ One might conclude that this generation has grown up putting stock in emotion, experience, and style over substance – but how many of them have read the Bible and evaluated its truth claims?
Oxford’s definition and explanation of post-truth is this: “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” So apparently, fabrications, fantasy, and feelings are now the driving forces of those in rebellion against their Creator.
One of the biggest lies and delusions we deal with today says gender is not binary; it is “fluid,” and people are not necessarily born male or female. Of course, this is in direct opposition to God’s Word, and yet even professing believers are falling for it. Secular progressives are advancing through society and so is the LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer [or questioning]) agenda. Things are happening so quickly and people seem to be abandoning truth, common sense, logic, moral absolutes, and reason.
The government education system is partly responsible. A concerned mother recently contacted me and shared a disturbing experience regarding her six-year-old daughter and the gender confusion being promoted in many public schools. Here is what she told me:
“I’ve been struggling. After the very first day of school, my daughter comes home from her first-grade class and says, ‘There is a girl in my class who is going to be a boy! She is going to take medicine and have a penis put on!’ The kids are forced to call the girl by her ‘boy’ name and she uses the teacher’s bathroom.
“Shocked, I needed to take a breath. I told her, ‘No matter how much medicine that little girl takes or if she has surgery, she will still be a girl. God does not make mistakes and we are exactly who we are supposed to be.’ I’m upset that my child has to be subjected to this. We are moving both our girls to private school next year, and it’s going to be worth every red penny! I never thought this could have
happened in a small Wisconsin town. What six-year-old wants to be the opposite sex?”
Good question. We need to wake up fast because the language and perverse ideas young children are hearing every day are getting much worse than many of us realize or are willing to admit. And therein lies part of our problem. This mother is right. Some, not all, parents and teachers − under the umbrella of the agenda-driven National Education Association (NEA) − have no fixed moral underpinnings and will go along with what many of us consider insanity and absurdity.
They will encourage their children to be “fluid” and let them decide what gender they want to become, or worse − force them to change into something the parents prefer. In other words, preferences trump truth, health, and reality. We now see a culture in which practically anything goes morally because the idea being promoted is that we can each make up our own truth.
This is the growing wisdom as lawlessness has increased and biblical morality is mocked, while Christians are being targeted and branded as hateful. More corporations jumped on the LGBT bandwagon by not only funding gay causes, but also by abandoning traditional families and producing ads featuring same-sex couples.
The liberal media and technology giants such as Facebook, Google, Twitter, Vimeo, and YouTube ratcheted up their progressive agenda in part by censoring or limiting some conservative and Christian content. Hollywood, academia, and the entire education system constantly prove how far gone they are by despising the biblical Christian worldview while generally supporting liberalism, atheism, evolution, humanism, and Islam, just to name a few.
Violence, crime rates, and drug and gang activity are on the rise in too many inner cities of America, with no apparent solutions. Funded by George Soros and radicals on the left, the Black Lives Matter movement also took off thanks in part to perhaps the most divisive U.S. administration in history which helped set the stage for chaos and civil unrest, including violent protests. We see a dramatic increase in Islamic terrorism, ISIS mayhem, persecution of Christians and Jews worldwide, and in late December 2016, President Barack Obama initiated and supported the anti-Israel UN Security Council’s vote against Israel, demanding they return to 1967 borders and allow Jerusalem to become occupied territory.
Obama left a much-divided nation, an anemic economy, and a more corrupt government. But on April 26 of 2016, President Obama actually said, “We are fortunate to be living in the most peaceful, most prosperous, most progressive era in human history.”1
One month after he said this, on Memorial Day weekend, sixty-three people were shot in Chicago, five of them killed, including a fifteen-year old girl. In Chicago alone, the murder rate soared in 2016. (Through June of 2017, there have been 1,714 shootings in Chicago!) Why would Obama say something so grandiose? He knew most media fact-checkers would look the other way and people wouldn’t care. Believers, watch out that you are not deceived.
For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. While they are saying, “Peace and safety!” then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief. (1 Thessalonians 5:2-4)
America witnessed what was perhaps the most heated and vitriolic presidential campaign and election cycle in our history in 2016. People on both sides lost their cool and sometimes their minds, indicating the political divide has never been greater. Democrats may have lost an election, but they are committed to fighting harder than ever against the Trump administration.
A study conducted by the Media Research Center prior to the 2016 presidential election found 91 percent of the campaign coverage on Donald Trump was negative. Nonpartisan firm Media Tenor analyzed the first month of his presidency and found just 3 percent of the reports on the new president were positive. Three percent. The Washington Times noted a study by Newsbusters on media coverage of Trump’s first 100 days in office: 89 percent negative. (After President Obama’s first 100 days, the cheerleading media gave him 82 percent positive coverage.)
Most media elites endorse just about any policy or trend that goes against the Bible. For example, did you ever think you’d see a day when people would fight to change laws in order to accommodate a microscopic minority wanting to be referred to by a specific pronoun, and demanding to use any public restroom regardless of their sex at birth?
National Geographic uncharacteristically and irresponsibly came out in favor of child abuse by placing a nine-year-old transgender model on its January 2017 cover. “Child abuse”? you ask. Not my words, but those of a Johns Hopkins University psychiatrist who, along with the American College of Pediatricians have spoken out defending children, science, and biological facts, and they’ve taken plenty of heat in the process.
Even though many in today’s society want to believe they live in a post-truth world, how can they claim “there is no truth” when that in itself is an absolute statement that cannot be proven? I would ask them, why is your starting point “there is no God” or “‘there is no ultimate authority”?
Why not begin with the evidence, facts, and history in the Bible as the foundation for truth and work from there? Seriously, try to prove Scripture wrong or even inaccurate. If you have never closely examined the foundations of both worldviews, one with God and the other without God, how do you defend your claims?
I recently watched the powerful movie based on the best-selling book The Case for Christ. Author Lee Strobel was a former atheist and professional journalist working for the Chicago Tribune. Having set out to disprove Christianity, after an exhaustive, two-year investigation, he trusted in Jesus Christ as his savior. In his book The Case for Christ, Strobel wrote:
If you were selected for a jury in a real trial, you would be asked to affirm up front that you haven’t formed any preconceptions about the case. You would be required to vow that you would be open-minded and fair, drawing your conclusions based on the weight of the facts and not on your whims and prejudices. You would be urged to thoughtfully consider the credibility of the witnesses, carefully sift the testimony, and rigorously subject the evidence to your common sense and logic.
Ultimately, it’s the responsibility of jurors to reach a verdict. That doesn’t mean they have one-hundred-percent certainty, because we can’t have absolute proof about virtually anything in life. In a trial, jurors are asked to weigh the evidence and come to the best possible conclusion.2
How about you? Is your conclusion about truth, the Bible, and Christianity based on evidence or on your preconceived ideas? Please take this quest seriously and pursue the truth with all your heart and an open mind. No decision in this life has such dire future consequences than rejecting Jesus Christ − a decision which will determine where you will spend eternity after you die.
You may remember from history in Scripture when Jesus stood before the Roman prefect Pontius Pilate and said, “My kingdom is not of this realm.” Wow! What a proclamation.
Therefore Pilate said to Him, “So You are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the [on the side of] truth hears My voice.” Pilate said to Him, “What is truth?” John 18:37-38
This is both fascinating and ironic. Here is a governor − a mere human being − in the position of judging God, the One who is truth itself. As Jesus told Pilate, You would have no authority over Me, unless it had been given you from above (John 19:11).
There are seven major areas of society in which truth is being redefined right before our eyes: business/marketplace, education, media, arts and entertainment, culture, government, and even Christian churches. New Barna research shows 23 percent of Christians strongly agree that “what is right or wrong depends on what an individual believes.”
How is truth being redefined? Society’s opinion of what is right and wrong is shifting to the point of calling evil good. The Lord spoke through Isaiah with this warning:
Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight! And take away the rights of the ones who are in the right! Therefore, as a tongue of fire consumes stubble and dry grass collapses into the flame, so their root will become like rot and their blossom blow away as dust; for they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. Isaiah 5:20-24
By rejecting the living God, His Word and commandments, man can then determine his own truth and decide for himself what is right and what is wrong. Severe consequences and repercussions will result from doing this. Another question to ask is, have you ever been wrong and if so, how do you know you are not wrong about there being no absolute truth?
In this book, we will reinforce the fact that truth not only exists, but it is also unchanging and eternal. Truth can be known, and it not only liberates; truth also endures beyond you, beyond me, and beyond this temporary earth. In order to do this in a way that will confirm our biblical foundation and answer skeptics at the same time, it’s important that we do a thorough investigation of the facts.
We will also address specific cultural issues as well as what some other religions teach. Since the Christian worldview is based on truth, then every subject in this book is important. Alexander Hamilton stated,
“I have carefully examined the evidences of the Christian religion, and if I were sitting as a juror upon its authenticity I would unhesitatingly give my verdict in its favor.”
That’s all I am asking as we proceed through each chapter and address some of the most pressing issues of our day. Would you please assess the evidence in the Bible as well as the commentary in these pages? And if you are not a Christian, please do so prior to offering your verdict. I believe with all my heart that Scripture is strongly supported by archaeology, which shows its amazing accuracy. Secular historians confirm many details in God’s Word and offer extrabiblical testimony, and the overwhelming amount of fulfilled prophecy also proves its reliability, demanding consideration at the very least. Let’s not forget the hundreds of eyewitnesses of Jesus after His resurrection.
An honest evaluation and pursuit of the truth is absolutely necessary for us to begin this journey together. And if the Christian worldview is the most reasonable, fact-based, captivating, and intriguing, shouldn’t we strive to speak and live according to the morality the Bible teaches? We should not only take God at His word but should take our faith seriously as well. But in America and worldwide, the roots of deception go deep and the rebellion continues at breakneck speed.
Absolutes are questioned, history is either forgotten or rewritten, media cannot be trusted, and good people have fallen for lies, broken promises, and identity politics.
This is war! Truth is being redefined, evil is being called good, and God is being replaced by counterfeits. English author and writer of many hymns Elizabeth Rundle Charles stated:
“It is the truth which is assailed in any age which tests our fidelity. . . . If I profess, with the loudest voice and clearest exposition, every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christianity. Where the battle rages the loyalty of the soldier is proved; and to be steady on all the battle-field besides is mere flight and disgrace to him if he flinches at that one point.”3
As soldiers of Christ, are you and I willing to defend His truth about creation, life, marriage, family, and biblical morality, and call out those who attack the very foundation of our faith? For the glory of God and for people to be saved and sanctified, eternal truth is worth the fight.
End of book excerpt, Introduction
