What Is Truth?

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By Timothy Johnson

Preacher’s Point

As a child, I remember adults discussing how “politicians lie all the time.” As a younger adult, I remember people saying, “Politicians will say anything to get elected.”

I have always been a news junkie, and as I have grown into my senior years, it is apparent that those in my younger years were correct.

Three banks, Silverdale, SVB, and Signature, recently collapsed within a week. Meanwhile, we are told, “This is the best economy in forty years!”

Forty years ago was 1983, two years into Reagan’s “trickle-down economics. Which the Democrats told us could never work.

So, if we’re in the best economy in forty years, trickle-down economics was better than the economy today and better than anything Clinton, Obama, Trump, and two Bush Presidents ever did.

In recap, the best economy in forty years features collapsing banks and is second only to an economy that would never work. It does not take an accountant to see that things do not add up.

A politician two thousand years ago asked, “What is truth?” If he had waited for an answer, would things be different today?

John 18:38, “Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find in him no fault at all.”

Pilate felt that his prisoner, Jesus Christ, was innocent of any crime, yet he had a mob outside screaming for Jesus’ death. Pilate was between a rock and a hard place. History tells us Pilate was receiving heat from Rome about the funds needed to quell these little rebellions that kept popping up in the area. Bringing troops from the local barracks for a few hours to disperse a crowd is one thing, but calling for reinforcements from the surrounding areas because of a rebellion is another. The former shows Pilate can handle a difficult situation, and the other shows Rome that he is unfit to govern Israel. And, more importantly, in political terms, a rebellion will cost much more money. Pilate knew the more the situation got out of hand, the greater the odds he would lose his job.

Pilate faced two choices. He could release an innocent man or protect his political interests and kill an innocent man.

Pilate attempts a compromise. He has his soldiers whip Jesus with a cat of nine tails. The scourging left Jesus a bloody mess. Isaiah 53:2 informs us that when Jesus hung on the cross, you could not tell it was a man hanging there. They pressed a crown of thorns into Jesus’ head. The thorns were so long and sharp that they penetrated his forehead and scalp. They wrapped a purple robe around Him.

Pilate hoped that the mob would see Jesus nearly bleeding to death and have their blood thirst satisfied, and he could release Him. However, the crowd grew more vehement, demanding Jesus’ death.

When Pilate sees that the mob is unsatisfied, he chooses his political interests over an innocent man’s life.

If we step back and look at Pilate’s situation biblically, we must wonder if Pilate had a choice.

Jesus came to this earth to save us from our sins. Jesus is the Lamb of God. Being the Lamb, He is the only sacrifice God the Father will accept for our sins. Jesus’ purpose was to die on the cross for our sins. God set the plan in motion before the creation of the universe. Not even Pilate could change God’s plan.

God’s plan is still in effect. The rapture will come, the Antichrist will rise, there will be seven years of tribulation, and Christ will return and reign this world from Jerusalem for one thousand years. Pilate could do nothing to stop God’s plan; are we any different?

We are experiencing the great falling away prophesied in 2 Thessalonians 2:3. The moral decay God told us would come in 2 Timothy 3:1-5 and Romans 1:20-32 is in full swing. The church turning away from the truth has been a growing phenomenon for over a century. God told us this was coming in 2 Timothy 4:1-4.

Today’s politicians are similar to Pilate, making decisions based on their political interests. But just as Pilate’s decision to send Christ to the cross was set in God’s eternal plan, are the actions of today’s political leaders all part of God’s plan? If end-time events and the return of Christ are near, as most Christians believe, the answer is an emphatic “Yes.”

So what do Christians do? Do we have an attitude like, since we cannot stop God’s prophecies from coming true, there is nothing to do but sit back and watch? The answer to that question is, “No!”

What do we do? God gives us the answer in 2 Timothy 4:2,5, “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine…But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.”

What is truth? We are watching it unfold all around us.

Preacher Johnson is Pastor of Countryside Baptist Church in Parke County Indiana. Website: www.preachers-point.com; Email: [email protected]; Mail: 25 W 1200 N; Kingman IN 47952. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Timothy-Preacher-Johnson-101171088326638. All Scripture KJV.

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