Truth2Freedom's BlogThe mindset in postmodernism is that objective truth does not exist. But in post-truth, the person believes that objective truth exists, but they subordinate truth to their preferences, or their comfort. In other words, one doesn’t care that truth exists or what the truth is if it doesn’t line up with one’s preferences. "There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily" - George Washington letter to Edmund Randolph — 1795. Faith in Jesus Christ is our response to God's elective purpose in our life. These two truths--God's initiative and man's response--co-exist throughout the Bible. The gospel is "the message of truth" because truth is its predominant characteristic. Salvation was conceived by the God of truth (Ps. 31:5); purchased by the Son, who is the truth (John 14:6); and is applied by the Spirit of truth (John 16:13). To know it is to know the truth that sets men free (John 8:32). Believers are people of the truth (John 18:37), who worship God in spirit and in truth (John 4:24), and who obey the Word of truth (John 17:17). People have rejected, neglected, redefined, and opposed God’s truth for centuries. Some cynically deny that truth even exists or that it can be known by men (John 18:38). Others foolishly think that denying truth will somehow make it go away. Truth determines the validity of one's belief. Believing a lie doesn't make it true. Conversely, failing to believe the truth doesn't make it a lie. The gospel is true because Jesus is true, not simply because Christians believe in Him. His resurrection proved the truth of His claims and constitutes the objective basis of our faith (Rom. 1:4; 1 Pet. 1:3). Truth is our protection and strength (Eph. 6:14). Throughout history, people have tried everything imaginable to gain favor with God. Most turn to religion, but religion apart from Christ is merely a satanic counterfeit of the truth. At the heart of every false religion is the notion that man can come to God by any means he chooses--by meditating, doing good deeds, and so on. But Scripture says, "There is no other name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). That name is Jesus Christ, and we come to Him by confessing and repenting of our sin, trusting in His atoning death on the cross, and affirming His bodily resurrection from the grave (cf. Rom. 10:9-10). There is no other way to God. False religious leaders and teachers talk much about God’s love, but not His wrath and holiness; much about how deprived of good things people are, but not about their depravity; much about God’s universal fatherhood toward everyone, but not much about his unique fatherhood toward all who believe in His Son; much about what God wants to give to us, but nothing about the necessity of obedience to Him; much about health and happiness, but nothing about holiness and sacrifice. Their message is full of gaps, the greatest of which leaves out a biblical worldview of the saving gospel and replaces it with the worldview of postmodernism with its dominant ethical system of relativism. The Bible describes mankind in the end times: “always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Tim. 3:7). Spiritual answers cannot be deduced by human reason alone (1 Cor. 2:14). It’s not that spiritual truth is irrational or illogical, but that human wisdom is defective, because it’s tainted by man’s sinfulness, and unable to perceive the things of God. That is why the Bible is so important. It gives us the answers we can’t find on our own. It is God’s Word to mankind. Scripture is divinely revealed truth that fills the vacuum of spiritual ignorance in all of us. Post-truth is the word of the year for 2016 and also the philosophy of the day, According to the dictionary, “post-truth” means, “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” Simply put, we now live in a culture that seems to value experience and emotion more than truth. In a “post-truth” world, people make choices based on emotion and experience rather than objective fact. So in a post-truth world, truth is irrelevant. What exactly is a post-truth culture? It’s a culture where truth is no longer an objective reality. It has become subjective. It’s what’s true for me—my beliefs, my opinions, determine my truth. So in our post-truth culture, man determines truth. Man makes himself the ultimate authority. This starting point, which rejects God’s Word and the idea of moral absolutes, makes truth subjective. Truth will never go away no matter how hard one might wish. Christianity is grounded in objective truth. “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). Objective truth exists because we have God’s Word. In the Gospel of John, Jesus says, “Sanctify them by Your truth. Thy word is truth” (John 17:17), and Paul and James describe the Bible as “the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15; James 1:18). The Psalmist says, “The entirety of your word is truth” (Psalm 119:160). Jesus Himself said, “For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice” (John 18:37). When Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except by me” (John 14:6), He wasn’t expressing His personal belief or opinion. He was speaking the truth, a fundamental reality that doesn’t change from person to person. It doesn’t matter if our culture thinks all roads lead to God. The truth of the matter is “no one comes to the Father but by [Jesus].” This blogs goal is to, in some small way, put a plug in the broken dam of truth and save as many as possible from the consequences—temporal and eternal. "The further a society drifts from truth, the more it will hate those who speak it." - George Orwell
Great story ! 🙂 i hope he finds the fellow who set the fire
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or fellows / thanks so much for your visit
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What an interesting story you’ve created here…with such dark tones to it.
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Inspired by a real one I just heard (sadly)
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Good atmosphere and the promise of more excitement–like the detail of the professor’s ring and choice of the tree to bury your pain. Look forward to next week’s offering.
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A chilling story. Horror at it’s best. Well done.
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HI – Sorry, I missed the previous stories… I hope they find this creep who set the fire.
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Dark and gruesome, filled with detail and atmosphere. Very well written.
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What a sad scene. Great figurative language you used; I just hope the arsonist gets caught!
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The detail about the professor’s ring is just awesome.
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Gruesome place, this Newcago. Nicely done.
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Love the way this fits in with the other stories. Very well done and very dark. I like it
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I’m getting inspiration from someone who worked the beat
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Excellent way of doing it. Gives you more realism to it
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Hello! This post could not be written any bteetr! Reading this post reminds me of my previous room mate! He always kept talking about this. I will forward this write-up to him. Fairly certain he will have a good read. Many thanks for sharing!
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Not a nice place Newcago!
Loved the all the detail you managed to include in such a short piece, well done
Dee
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no – I’m glad you can see the dark corners
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Knowledge wants to be free, just like these articles!
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Powerful stuff here once again.
Well done.
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The professor’s ring bit was good, which told me the setting was a school.
The story is a bit too close to the bone for me! Here in England a man, wife and ‘friend’ have just been imprisoned for deliberately setting fire to the couple’s house, which killed 6 of his children (all of the wife’s). He was trying to implicate his mistress, who had also been living in the house with 5 other of his children, and had moved out. This man has 17 kids in all. Doesn’t work.
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The setting actually an apartment house (didnt have the word count for the details). It was a real arson case that a friend of mine was a first responder to. What “man” doesn’t understand is that someone always pays for another’s reckless behavior often paying with life
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True, there are no effects without causes. Mine was almost a true story. I was the 11 year old girl who wrote that short story about the tree and sent it off for publication. I was 13, not 11. I sent it to a girls comic: ‘The Bunty’, which published stories about ballet and horseriding, not sci-fi/fantasy. The editor sent me a really nice letter of rejection!
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very atmospheric – I was curious as to how you were going to weave the old tree into your story but you did it very well.
I love Newcago (but I wouldn’t want to live there!)
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That takes a sick individual to do something like that. Hopefully he can find him.
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I always hear this imaginary sax music when I read your posts! Very atmospheric and a good read. 🙂
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How/why is he the only own who knows..
Read the previous episodes too.. Maybe I sense, but is it known yet what the secret weapon is?
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Newcago sounds like a dismal place. Your stories seem like the good basis for a novel.
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It would be worse…
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Love that you managed to work in little details, like the ring, even in so few words! The brief glimpse we get of Newcago here isn’t very pleasant, but it’s very intriguing all the same, and I’d be curious to know more.
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Unparalleled accuracy, unequivocal clarity, and undeniable importance!
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Hopefully the investigation can be done with the light of day!
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