Bearing Witness to Truth
Fall 2021
When Truth is Fallen in the Street
In previous articles I have drawn comparison between the days in which Isaiah said, “Truth is fallen in the street” (59:14) and our own days of cultural and spiritual confusion. In this article I want to address the topics of bearing witness to the truth in such times and of our attitudes while doing so.
At a point when the Jews were struggling with their view of Christ, Jesus pointed them to the ministry of John the Baptist and said, “He bare witness unto the truth” (John 5:33). As we shall see, John fulfilled that ministry during days that were particularly difficult, so I want to use John’s ministry as a template for our considerations. But I also want to keep in mind the Apostle Paul’s admonition regarding “speaking the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15), because the flesh always manages to corrupt even our noble efforts. If we are not watchful, on the one hand, our presentation of truth can be corrupted by self-righteousness (and ultimately hypocrisy), while on the other hand, the flesh will seek to present a “loving” ministry which compromises truth in order to avoid giving offense. But compromising the truth can never be truly loving. I want to survey the major incidents in John’s life and make four observations that apply in our own days.
He Was Born into Difficult Times
While we read of John in our New Testament Scriptures, he really was the last in the line of the Old Testament prophets. He lived during the time of the Roman occupation of Judea. This was the fourth in the succession of Gentile empires that God in His providence had allowed to rule over the people of Israel because of their apostasy. While we must always be careful with our application of things surrounding national Israel to our own situation in the New Testament church, it doesn’t take much imagination to draw the parallels to the apostasy of the Church in our modern context and the cultural and political decay that currently surround us. We live in a society that is now dominated by anti-Christian forces.
The difficulties of John’s times were not merely confined to the worldly culture that surrounded him. He also had to confront a corrupted church that had evolved during those times—and we should be careful to notice that the church had corrupted itself in both liberal and conservative directions. In their attempt to preserve the prospects of the Kingdom of God during their times, the liberal Sadducees had decided, “If we are going to survive during all this, we are going to have to change and work with these people.” That attitude ultimately led them to abandon key doctrines and to become worldly in their lifestyle. On the other hand, the Pharisees were the separatists of their day, but they let their separatism lead them into self-righteousness and a party spirit. They ultimately lost the truth traveling in a conservative direction. By allowing themselves to focus upon the enemies of truth instead of upon truth itself, they ultimately lost the truth. They asked, “How can we defeat the opposition?” or “How can we feel good about ourselves when we are not in control?” instead of saying, “Let us bear simple witness to the truth even though the opposition now seems to dominate.” This is to say nothing of another faction, the Zealots, who felt that even the separatism of the Pharisees was not enough, so they began to take matters into their own hands and incite violence in their opposition to Rome.
It is not difficult to see how these mindsets that corrupted the church of John’s day can or perhaps already have corrupted the Church of our own day. How much better to be numbered among the faithful remnant such as John’s parents, Zacharias and Elisabeth, or Mary and Joseph, or Simeon and Anna who “waited for the consolation of Israel.”
He Spoke Truth to a Variety of Needs
Perhaps the most notable feature of John’s life was that he was a preacher. What is preaching but the public declaration of truth? Though it might be easy to imagine it as such, John’s preaching was not one-sided. He preached the whole counsel of God. He preached the need for repentance. One of his messages was “Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:1). Being faithful in our day will certainly include calling sinners to repentance. It seems that some of the Lord’s people are a little reluctant to do so at this juncture. Perhaps this is because sin is so rampant and openly accepted that broaching the subject seems more immediately offensive than it did in prior times when even secular culture recognized the wrongs of an openly sinful lifestyle. Perhaps a reason that others within the Church are hesitant to preach repentance is the fact that some have morphed into preaching it with something of the attitude of the Pharisees, but two wrongs don’t make a right.
Another major theme of John’s preaching was the positive side of the gospel. He preached the remedy for sin when he proclaimed, “Behold the Lamb of God.” This phrase might seem very familiar to us, but think of how shocking and how thought provoking it must have been to the people of John’s own day. They were intimately familiar with the sacrificial lambs of their outward ceremonies. This message forced them to work through the meanings and the truth of their symbols. How much should this cause us to consider the importance of sound doctrine in such times as ours. It can seem that the evils are so great and so many that we need to spend all our time crying out against them. But if we fail to understand and proclaim the details of the gospel (which of course involves the careful study of our confessed theology and the person and work of Christ), we will be able to do little more than whine about our circumstances instead of preaching the glorious truth of Jesus as John did.
He Didn’t Hide From the Issues of the Day
Another notable feature of John’s life was his imprisonment and his ultimate martyrdom for speaking out against the incestuous marriage of Herod to his brother’s wife. Perhaps this was more notable and even more necessary because of the public nature of the sin. Such a thing would certainly have been news and gossip-worthy fodder in the public arena. Perhaps John was even put on the spot and asked about it. Whatever the circumstances surrounding John’s approach to the subject, it is clear that he answered the matter directly and that his answer was communicated to the powers that were. Clearly our generation now openly indulges in various forms of immorality and even perversion. Not content with merely living their sinful lifestyle openly, activists seek the sanctioning of their sin. The Church becomes an inevitable focus of attention during such cultural upheavals. Amazingly, even confessionally evangelical churches are being forced to wrestle with, or reaffirm, or change the obvious in the turmoil that has enveloped our times. Liberal wings of the Church have joined leading secular voices promoting the acceptance of such sins. It is clear from Scripture that those sins were not welcomed into the Church. People were saved from those sins and welcomed into the Church (1 Corinthians 6:11). There is a world of difference.
Perhaps nowhere else is our need to be both truthful and loving put more on display. The graphic nature of the sins of homosexuality and the public acceptance of such sins demonstrates a level of extreme cultural declension and open rebellion against God. Truth isn’t neutral with regard to these sins (or any other sins). But the perverse nature of such sins can evoke improper attitudes among the Lord’s people. It is vital to recognize that the most sheltered and morally pure lifelong church member has no more personal right to claim the favor and salvation of God than those whom God graciously has chosen and saved out of such a lifestyle. Let us remember the parable of the workers in the vineyard (Matthew 20) and rejoice and welcome any whom God saves, recognizing that we do not have any more worthiness to enter His Kingdom than they. This gospel mindset, coupled with Paul’s comment that some in the church at Corinth had been saved out of such lifestyles, should actually encourage us to lovingly and humbly share the gospel and expect fruit from even these corners of our corrupt nations.
He Faithfully Endured Hardship
Lastly, we observe that John did in fact endure hardship and even martyrdom because of his commitment to truth. It is clear that not all who hear the warnings and the comforts of the gospel will repent and believe. Just as John experienced, we find that Bible believers are increasingly marginalized and maligned in this world. Let us not react out of fear or anger. Those responses can unwittingly communicate (or reveal) the mindset, “Oh no! Their gods are winning.” This is clearly not the case. Read the book of Daniel.
Our Lord has promised, “In the world ye shall have tribulation.” So let us not be surprised by the changing winds of culture. For Christians in the West at least, things are merely shifting from the unusual back to the normal. Let us therefore be ever more well-grounded in our understanding and our experience of the grace and power of the gospel. And let us also remember that our Lord followed that statement with, “Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
Rev. Reggie Kimbro | Minister of Grace FPC, Winston-Salem, NC