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 "There is a vast difference between a prophet and a politician… The politician seeks out which way the majority is going, then he stands in front of them and says, "Follow me." But the prophet stands alone and says, "You are going the wrong way, turn around."… The prophet is never popular because his word is costly and requires change. People often are deceived because they choose that which is presently comfortable, rather than being willing to pay the price of 'Truth.' The truth is costly and often, the results are not seen. But to choose less, in the long run, is much more costly." - Wade E. Taylor.
INTRODUCTION
Throughout history, the truth has always been a liability to any who have been entrusted with it. Those who proclaimed it often paid with their lives. Christ not only spoke the truth, much to the frustration of the religious Leaders, but He was the living truth, personified in a man. That’s why they killed Him.
"WHAT IS TRUTH?"
Pontius Pilot foreshadowed the intellectual arrogance of this present age when he asked Jesus the question that relativists today would prefer not be answered; "What is truth?" This question reaches across the last two thousand years and even though God tells His people to always be ready to give a reason for the hope that lies within them (! Peter 3:15), increasingly fewer Christians can answer it.
GOD IN A BOX
Truth is reality (not relative), devoid of our subjective assumptions. It is that which is; a definition very close to God’s description of Himself in Exodus 3:14 as "I Am" - He just is! The orthodox Christian world view has always been that truth is constant and as absolute as God is. Christianity declares that God created a ‘box’ (the universe), and even though He is transcendent from it, He is intimately involved with all that’s going on inside that box. Relativist thought says that the box is all there is and if there is a God then He is in it. This thinking has subtly crept into the twenty first century church, with some Christians trying to squeeze God into a box of their own design.
Is it any wonder that the multiplicity of choices that our society offers, also affects our concept of God. We pick and choose what we want when it comes to God in the same way we pick products off the supermarket shelf or select our food at a buffet. Whatever suits us, that’s what we take, as long as it fits into our own idea of what truth or God should be. We squeeze Him into that box of our own design.
"I CHANGE NOT!"
God will laugh in the face of the last trendy social engineer as he faces his Maker and waits for the verdict. But it won’t be a laugh of ridicule, but one that recalls His word in Isaiah 44:25; "…Who frustrates the signs of the babblers, and drives diviners mad; Who turns wise men backward, and makes their knowledge foolishness."
VICTIMS OF THE IDEOLOGICAL BATTLEFIELD
The church has lost a whole generation of youth (the 18-25’s), who have become victims on the ideological battlefield of our post-modern world where the Christian world view has become just another alternative. This lost generation were untrained for combat. They were given a sword (the Word of God), but were never instructed in how to use it to fight for truth. As a result, 50-80% of Christian youth abandon their faith within the first years of college, as soon as they encounter the first opposition to their faith from atheistic professors.
The urgent necessity of our time is to train Christians who are prepared to forsake the path of popularity and to stand for the truth - a generation of young ‘prophets’ who, having done all, WILL STAND!
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