Truth: God’s Vaccine for Foolish Opinions.

By:  Dale Weckbacher

Proverbs 18:2

Fools have no interest in understanding;
    they only want to air their own opinions.

(NLT)

In the United States, free speech is a right protected by the first amendment of the U.S. Constitution.  (1)  The benefit of living in a society where freedom of speech is protected is that ideas can be openly presented and debated.  However, just because an idea can be openly expressed does not guarantee its adoption by society.  On other words, we have the guarantee of free speech but not the guarantee our ideas will become adopted. 

The main issue our society faces today is that of the absence of a way to discern truth from fiction.  Our media and academic institutions are dominated by a postmodernist philosophy teaching that truth is whatever one believes it to be.  (2) (3) (4)  This is why we are seeing society beginning to consider as normal beliefs that were considered foolish for hundreds and even thousands of years.  Examples of these foolish beliefs are,

1)      In the interest of a woman’s right to choose, it is legal for her to murder her unborn child.  Any society devoid of a sanctity for life can quickly turn into a barbaric society.  It can also lead to society valuing certain lives over others.  While Rome was a vibrant empire lasting for thousands of years, it also had a barbaric and evil side.  Romans kept slaves, were entertained by bloody games in circuses, were led by insane and cruel emperors that could order senators to commit suicide, and persecuted religions not in line with its religious views.  (5)  In 20^th century we have witnessed the brutality of leaders like Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, and Pol Pot.  (6)  While those of us living in civilized societies find the actions of such tyrants abhorrent, it is no less abhorrent than the brutal murder of innocent lives in the womb.  While the number of abortions is declining, (7) the fact that many still believe the murder of an innocent life that has no say in the matter in the interest of protecting a woman’s right to choose demonstrates a disregard of the value of the life of one person over another.  While the right to choose is protected in countries like the United States, that right to choose, except for rape, existed for a woman prior to becoming pregnant.  Abortion on demand is not about a right to choose but about covering up a bad decision resulting in an unwanted pregnancy. 

2)      Marriage is not between a man and a woman.  Genesis 1:27 reminds us that God created man in his own image and created them to be male and female.  The reason for this gender distinction was not because God is sexist but for the procreation of the race.  Why else would God have ordered Noah to bring a male and female of each species, including himself, into the ark if the purpose was not to repopulate the earth after the flood (Genesis 6:19).  The belief and practice of traditional marriage between a man and a woman has served societies well for thousands of years and allowed humanity to thrive with the current world population being estimated at 7.3 billion and projected to reach 11.2 billion by 2100.  (8)  God detests the gay lifestyle and was one of the principle reasons he destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19:5).  God has instructed us that marriage is between a man and a woman and humanity has thrived under this belief for thousands of years.  Let us not now pervert this with the foolish belief that a marriage can be anything else.

3)      God creates some to have the physical characteristics of one gender while mentally believing they are another gender.  After six days of creation, Genesis 1:31 tells us that God looked over all that he had made and determined it was good.  Since God does not change (James 1:17), he still views his creation as good.  The problem in the world is not that God errored in his creation but that humanity in the person of Adam and Eve introduced sin to humanity through their disobedience.  Thankfully, through Jesus Christ we can experience restoration back to the position humanity enjoyed in the Garden because God still loves his creation and considers it worthy of the sacrifice of his Only Son.  For one to consider the gender God created them with physically to be wrong is a slap in the face of God our creator and in my opinion a foolish opinion. 

We must vaccinate ourselves from foolish opinions by discerning what we hear with the Word of God.  This does not mean we will stop being inundated with foolish opinions but allows us to discern truth from foolishness and prevent ourselves from adopting these beliefs and continue serving our Lord in Spirit and in Truth while speaking out against these perversions of God’s truths.  When Jesus stood before Pilate, Pilate asked Jesus what truth was (John 18:38) as the one who correctly professed to be the way, truth, and life (John 14:6) was standing right in front of him.  Truth is found in Jesus Christ and the Word of God contained in the Bible. 

Unlike Pilate who stood in the physical presence of God in the person of Jesus, we have the completed Bible, the Word of Truth available to us and have no excuse if we begin to fall for foolish opinions.  I therefore encourage everyone reading this to inoculate themselves against foolish opinions by vaccinating themselves with regular doses of the Word of God. 

1. constitutionus.com. The Constitution of the United States. constitutionus.com. [Online] [Cited: January 21, 2017.] http://constitutionus.com/.

2. Dulgnan, Brian. Postmodernism Philosophy. www.britannica.com. [Online] Encyclopedia Britannica, October 31, 2014. [Cited: March 31, 2017.] https://www.britannica.com/topic/postmodernism-philosophy.

3. Sanbonmatsu, John. POSTMODERNISM AND THE CORRUPTION OF ACADEMIC INTELLIGENTSIA. socialistregister.com. [Online] Socialist Register. [Cited: March 31, 2017.] http://socialistregister.com/index.php/srv/article/viewFile/5851/2747.

4. Saugstad, Andreas. Postmodernism and the Media. bolesblogs.com. [Online] November 20, 2000. [Cited: March 31, 2017.] https://bolesblogs.com/2000/11/20/postmodernism-the-media/.

5. Roman Empire.net. The Evils of Rome. www.roman-empire.net. [Online] Roman Empire.net. [Cited: July 8, 2017.] http://www.roman-empire.net/children/evils.html.

6. Elena Holodny, and Amanda Macias. The 25 most ruthless leaders of all time. www.businessinsider.com. [Online] Business Insider, October 7, 2015. [Cited: July 8, 2017.] http://www.businessinsider.com/most-ruthless-leaders-of-all-time-2015-10.

7. abort73.com. U.S. Abortion Statistics. abort73.com. [Online] Abort73.com. [Cited: July 8, 2017.] http://abort73.com/abortion_facts/us_abortion_statistics/.

8. The United Nations. World population projected to reach 9.7 billion by 2050. www.un.org. [Online] The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, July 29, 2015. [Cited: July 8, 2017.] http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/news/population/2015-report.html.