When the consumer closes in on the news these days it is not uncommon to hear references to truth and lies. If human beings are sinners then they are also liars. The scriptures testify to this fact. All of us – no exceptions – are failures when it comes to performing God’s will.  When I go to my Bible I do not expect to be a rhetoric miner.   I do not expect arguments. I go in fully expecting to derive a sense of stability and reliability.  I expect the truth and nothing but.  Exhibit A is the aversion to putting Christ above all authority as the Scriptures affirm.  All the prophets, grind to a halt as the ultimate authority. All the prophets of all the nations cannot be reliable. It dos not take much examination to can see their shortcomings and shortsightedness. “True religion” is rhetoric we can do without.

If you take the wisest man, Solomon, or the leading authority in the Jewish tradition you will most likely hang your hat on fearing God and keeping His commands. You will also be ignoring Moses in his most humble and honest moments.  Solomon did not ghet past the first demand of the Mosaic legacy: you cannot have more than one “god”. Hear Moses now and feel the click.

I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen like you, and I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him (18). It shall come about that whoever will not listen to My words which he shall speak in My name, I Myself will require it of him. (19)

Deuteronomy 18:18-19

The disciples of Christ understood this.  Listen to Peter’s embrace of the message from Moses.

Moses said, ‘The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren; to Him you shall give heed to everything He says to you. (22) And it will be that every soul that does not heed that prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.’ (23)

Acts 3:22-23

You can only paint yourself into a corner with your commitment to the law and ancient practices.  Christ is of no effect to the person who confesses confidence in his own compliance with the instruments of condemnation and prejudices that are wholly unattractive and futile.

PEOPLE WHO REFUSE TO OWN THEIR HISTORY

If people insist that there are individuals in the North American context who have never demonstrated the vileness of our founding national leaders then there is little reason to hope for a just society. Canadians who do not see the criminal streak in Canada’s settlement of the land and confederation will die due to their rhetoric and pass on the lifestyle to their children. Even in our most cospopolitan areas there lurks all the vilest specimens of humanity. The genocidal outrages and the attraction of military-dominated governments are bound to continue. It will take an unprecedented bit of courage and universal agreement to end the silly rhetoric of nationalists and conservative types. Deny, deny, deny. People who refuse to admit their history can be expected to engage in trashy rhetoric, misguided protest, education that leads away from facts, and they will unload their passions on the victims of bad policy.