No Wiggle Room
“If there’s anything I can’t stand, it’s a liar!” I know I was younger than 9 years old when my dad made that declaration, because we moved from the house where I heard it when I was 9. But his statement made an impression on me. I didn’t want to be in the category of people my dad couldn’t stand. So, for that and other reasons, not being a liar became essential to me.
There’s a phenomenon common today I don’t remember seeing in my previous nearly six decades since that unforgettable comment by my dad. I’m hearing unfamiliar terms as part of the popular vernacular like “gaslighting,” where lying is so pervasive and repetitive one questions their reality. There is no doubt that people today not only question reality but openly deny it. They have been gaslit.
The comfort with which prominent people publicly state untruths today seems unprecedented and unbelievably brazen. They tell falsehoods, then repeat them, and they do it despite known facts. These people unflinchingly deny saying and doing what they said and did despite these things being recorded for all to see. We’re asked not to believe what we can see and hear. Nonetheless, some still suspend critical thought and defend the misrepresentations of the deceitful. Thus, I find myself spending far too much time and emotional energy yelling at the TV. Why? Because if there’s anything I can’t stand, it’s a liar!
All this blatant misleading may seem new, but it’s not. It is easy to identify the moment in history where it began: the beginning. In the Garden, the liar of liars taught the first people how to lie, simply deny that God meant what He said. An innumerable series of generations since have been perfecting the art of dishonesty. When we lie, we know the source. Jesus said of the devil, “Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44).
The bloodline of deception is unmistakably demonstrated today across a variety of human endeavors. For example, there is political dishonesty they euphemistically call “talking points.” In the classroom, government-sanctioned and enforced misinformation consists of “theories,” “the latest data,” and “current research.” But perhaps the most pernicious dishonesty has been in the realm of religion.
Religious deceit affects all other areas. We’ve seen that lying goes back to the beginning, but so does truth. All truth comes from God. Lying denies what God said. Many laughable conclusions in non-religious areas result from the rejection of biblical truth.
One of the most misleading ideas we find related to religion is the false notion that belief in Christ is one of many ways to heaven. This is an extremely popular view while also being a classic example of gaslighting. In other words, it is a complete denial of reality; it can’t be true. Those who have this opinion happily stipulate that a belief in Christ offers one way to heaven while knowing Jesus removed Himself as one of many options. The problem with holding this view is that they are either inadvertently calling Jesus a liar or purposely lying to themselves in the process.
There are those who might say that it is a matter of interpretation. But Jesus couldn’t have been clearer. He said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me” (John 14:6). You don’t have to interpret that statement at all. It doesn’t require any misleading technical talking points, it’s clearly stated.
The Lord never says He’s one of many or a good option if you’re searching. No amount of reinterpretation can make Him say that He is one of many ways to heaven. He clearly says, “I am the…” and “no one …”. No wiggle room in those statements. To see something else there, one must believe that God didn’t say what He plainly said. Sound familiar? Not much has changed since the Garden.
“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!” —Isaiah 5:20