Let God Be True

"The law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ" (John 1:17, ESV).

"Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth"  (1 John 3:18, ESV).

This is the name of the primary Watchtower Bible & Tract Society book which denies the Trinity as being the doctrine invented by Satan himself.  Actually, the church father Tertullian coined the word, and even though it isn't a biblical word, it is taught throughout Scripture from creation, where God is in the plural (Elohim--"Let us create ...") to the Great Commission where we are to baptize in the name (singular) of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  All members of the Godhead are equally God and equally divine, sharing all attributes of deity alike.  

The reason Charles Taze Russell denied the Trinity was because he thought it was irrational--what made him presume God is able to be comprehended by man (The philosophers of antiquity said, "The finite cannot grasp the infinite") or in Latin: "finitum non capax infinitum").   The more one contemplates this truth, the more one realizes it is from the revelation of God, and not man's invention. Truth is that way, it is not something we would've guessed!  Christianity is a revealed religion and we know it by special revelation, personal visitation, and encounter by God Himself in the person of His only Son, our Lord.

There is one God, though manifested in three personas as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  All of one essence, but having different self-distinctions or consciousnesses.  What trait, characteristic, or attribute of one can be said of the others.  They always act in harmony and concurrence of will (there is no conflict of interest, disharmony, ill-will, or disagreement). If the members of the Trinity disagreed they would be lying by definition of the law of noncontradiction.  They work according to the role and domain they have, such as the Father purposing or proposing salvation, the Son accomplished it, and the Holy Spirit executing and making it known and real in the believer.  

The Father also authored and planned it, the Son did the work of redemption, and the Holy Spirit applied it.  They also worked in concert in creating heaven and earth.  Jesus is known as the logos or logic of God and is called the Word (expression or icon) of God (cf. John 1:14).  Jesus was the incarnation and manifestation of truth itself, proving we can know and grasp it (cf. John 14:6). He pronounced: "You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free" (cf. John 8:32).

One thing that is impossible for God to do is lie; while man is a liar and lies from the womb according to the Psalms.  Lying isn't just saying something that is contrary to fact on purpose: not saying the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth; misspeaking; giving someone a line; making up something as you go along for impression's sake; saying something to gain the upper edge or advantage; false compliments; insincere flattery; any half-truth; misleading statements; exaggeration for effect; saying something to gain advantage; deceptive practices; giving off a false impression; jumping to the conclusion; misrepresentations; saying something that hurts; bearing false witness against your neighbor; disinformation; contradicting yourself; propaganda; not being honest in niceties or pleasantries, such as in greetings and saying you're feeling fine, when you're not; not telling the whole story; leading astray; acting the con man; flirting; buttering up someone; creating a false impression or going along with one; fooling someone; putting spin on something; saying something with bias or subjectivity; pre-judging someone or something; gossip; slander; judging; false portrayal of situations or events, etc.


Face it: We all stand guilty as charged when we realize all this encompasses and more to boot, including omitting the truth as a sin of omission, and anything God wouldn't say. Remember, telling one lie makes you a liar!  But God cannot lie according to Titus 1:2. If God could lie, what kind of God would he be?  President George Washington claimed that he couldn't tell a lie; actually, that's a lie--he could, but chose not to on intentionally. The Bible calls all men liars (cf. Romans 3:4).  President Jimmy Carter told us he wouldn't lie to us, but this was an impossible task as Chief Executive.

Philosophically, Thomas Aquinas believed and affirmed what Augustine had said in that all truth is God's truth and concluded that all truth meets at the top. Francis A. Schaeffer said the Bible is "true truth." Jesus said that God's Word is truth and sanctifies us (cf. John 17:17). Jesus said that the Father is the "only true God" (cf. John 17:3). Truth is what transforms and doesn't just inform or reform. Truth changes lives and is alive and powerful and fills us then makes us hungry. It reads you as you read it!

God judges those who practice deceit and lie on purpose or deliberately like false teachers or prophets, and they will not enter the kingdom of heaven  (cf. Rev. 22:15, ESV:  "... [T]hose who love and practice falsehood").  Satan is a liar and the father of lies, the father of all men before salvation, and when he speaks a lie he is speaking naturally, for this is his nature.  The man who insists he's telling the truth and swears in God's name is probably the most insecure of his integrity.  Like Shakespeare writes: "Methinks thou dost protest too much!"

Note that the Bible records Abraham as having lied about Sarah. When I say someone is a liar I am delineating someone who practices the sin intentionally and loves or approves of it--not some besetting weakness that is confessed. After conversion we have a new nature able, to tell the truth, and overcome the sin of lying--we are no longer prone to lie; however, the flesh is still tempted.  People generally associate liars as those who got caught; however, we are all liars, we all just didn't get caught!  Don't strive to be the ideal man with unrealistic expectations, but to be a real man with ones in touch with reality and needing God to overcome sin--always a battle till glorification.

To claim that you don't lie is a lie and a claim to divinity because only God can claim this:  "... Let God be true and every man a liar" (cf. Rom. 3:4, ESV).  In essence, this is blasphemy (which is a lie by definition) and a direct insult to God's holiness, as He is a jealous God and will tolerate no rivals or someone asserting deity or divinity.  If you've never realized what a liar you were before salvation or that you still are prone to do it because of the resident old sin nature, you have never been convicted of sin and don't know what the word really means or its connotations--the more you realize lies and the more sensitive you become, the more honest you become, the closer to the truth you get, the more aware you become of sin, and then the less sin!


The sad fact is that people aren't concerned with whether an idea is true anymore, but just whether it works, and works for them in particular. There is no Truth with a capital T and all truth is relative now, especially the ones relating to Christianity.  Christians are to proclaim the truth incarnate and that it is knowable, relevant, and profitable. New Age adherents believe something is true if it feels right. Morality is always based on transcendent truth that we all should know and appeal to, not personal opinion, feelings, or conjecture. Unbelievers are those who reject the truth (cf. Romans 2:8). People today deny universal truth that is valid for everyone but insists that it might be true for you, and not for them.


Objective truth is true whether believed or not. (Note:  Even the Greeks sought and loved the true, the good, and the beautiful.)  Two contradictory ideas cannot simultaneously both be true. What they tend to believe is that there is no truth and it is vain to search for it or claim you've found it.  Just like Pilate asked Jesus in John 18:38 what truth was, but didn't stick around for an answer. If you seek the truth with your whole heart you will find it and it will set you free--then you can speak forth truth, and not the lies and deceptions of Satan.   Soli Deo Gloria!