Who lied to you?

When I was in grammar school, I shared a class with a young man who became known as "Stevie the Liar." If anyone told of an event that they had actually experienced, Stevie developed a more extravagant fabrication that overshadowed that occurrence. Stevie constantly shared "points of fact" that upon closer scrutiny proved to be more of his vivid imagination. In fact, Stevie's reputation was such that he was credited with the dispersing of any misinformation, no matter which of our classmates relayed the telling. Stevie was the teller of tales.

We have all been lied to.

Who said that there was a Santa Claus, a tooth fairy, a boogie man, or some other character that languishes in the night? Who told you that Christopher Columbus discovered America, when we all understand that he was met by waving, native people as he rowed ashore?

More than we would like to admit, we probably have produced a tale or two of our own. We use inventive terminology to condone the use of false information in our interactions and relationships with other individuals. "A little white lie," "a stretch of the truth," or "creative license," and we polish up our guilty feelings when we are pressed by the facts.

Who has missed the opportunity to be like the George Washington fable and take the responsibility for a wrong, when it was ours to claim? Who has not stated that someone's appearance was pleasing, a baby was cute or an action was appropriate, when your unspoken opinion was to the contrary? Have you ever stated that you were feeling "fine" when the opposite was true?

Yet, there are lies that have affected the thinking of man through time.

Who said that God does not exist, even though every aspect of the world around us screams His presence? Who said that evolution explains the development of man, when no two evolutionists can explain why their opinions differ? Who said that you would "go to heaven" when you die, while scripture after scripture talks of the dead resting in graves, awaiting a resurrection and not ascending to heaven? Who told you that pagan practices performed in the name of Christ please God when He said "You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way" (Deuteronomy 12:30-31)? Who said there is a trinity on the God-plane, when Christ describes His relationship with His Father without any introduction or mention of another being?

Again, who lied to you?

When we hear public officials speaking in terms that sound authoritative but in contrast to statements that have already been chronicled, who can we believe to be telling the truth? Who can you turn to, tune into, or trust in, when this world's mindset is based on mislabeled truth?

God has provided the guiding hand for those interested in finding truth by His preservation of His words recorded in the Bible. God the Father allowed the sacrifice of His Son to reveal "the way, the truth and the life" (John 14:6) for man, based on a rock-solid foundation of eternal knowledge. God instructed man through Paul's writing to "prove all things" (1 Thessalonians 5:21, KJV) to distinguish truth from lies. Christ reiterated that man needed every word of God to live by because "Your [God's] word is truth" (John 17:17). The Bible stands singular as a source for truth.

Who lied to you?

Christ explained that there is a source, an instigator, a "father" of lies, in a conversation documented in John 8. In this passage, Jesus labels Satan, the devil, as a "murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in truth, because there is no truth in him" (v. 44). Satan exists in a realm complete with lying and deception from which he "deceives the whole world" (Revelation 12:9).

Tomorrow's World publishes and broadcasts around our planet to provide each of us with the "full counsel of God" and His truth. Send for our free booklet Do You Believe the True Gospel?.