SPECIAL PRÉCIS ON GOD’S GREATEST GIFT OF ALL: TRUTH STANDING DEFIANTLY ABOVE AND AGAINST THE LIE!

SCRIPTURE. “Do not be misled, my beloved brothers and sisters. Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above; it comes down from the Father of lights [the Creator and Sustainer of the heavens], in whom there is no variation [no rising or setting] or shadowcast by His turning [for He is perfect and never changes].” – JAMES 1:16-17, AMP

KEY TERMS:

• NO VARIATION. ‘Parallagé’ [παραλλαγὴ]: “Transmutation, i.e., fickleness, change or alteration.” NOTE: “[Used only one time in the entire Testament], the word παραλλαγή is used in the New Testament to describe a change or variation, particularly in the context of God’s Unchanging Nature. It appears in the context of emphasizing the constancy and reliability of God’s Character.”

• NOR SHADOW. ‘Aposkiasma’ [ἀποσκίασμα]: “A shading off, i.e., an obscuration; a shifting.” NOTE: “[Another unique term], ἀποσκίασμα is used in the New Testament: To convey the idea of a shadow or a reflection, often in a metaphorical sense to describe something that is a mere representation or a temporary form of a greater reality.”

• NOR TURNING. ‘Tropé’ [τροπῆς]: “To turn as in a revolution; to change.” NOTE: “[Still another unique word], in the New Testament, τροπή is used to describe a change or variation, particularly in the context of celestial bodies or divine constancy.

QUOTATION. “‘He is Eternal, which means that He antedates tTme and is wholly independent of it.’ Time began in Him and will end in Him. To it He pays no tribute and from it He suffers no change. ‘He is Immutable [Unchanging],’ which means that He has never changed and can never change in any smallest measure.’ To change He would need to go from better to worse or from worse to better. He cannot do either, for being Perfect He cannot become more Perfect, and if He were to become less Perfect He would be less than God. ‘He is Omniscient [Knowing Everything],’ which means that He knows in one free and effortless act all matter, all spirit, all relationships, all events.

‘He has no past and He has no future.’ He is, and none of the limiting and qualifying terms used of creatures can apply to Him. Love and Mercy and Righteousness are His, and Holiness so ineffable that no comparisons or figures will avail to express it. Only Fire can give even a remote conception of it. In Fire He appeared at the Burning Bush; in the Pillar of Fire He dwelt through all the long Wilderness Journey. The Fire that glowed between the wings of the Cherubim in the Holy Place was called the ‘Shekinah,’ the ‘Presence,’ through the years of Israel’s glory, and when the Old had given place to the New, He came at Pentecost as a Fiery Flame and rested upon each disciple.” ― A.W. TOZER, The Pursuit of God, 1948; edited

DK’S TAKE. If two things were somehow no longer to become true, then Mankind would be utterly, irretrievably Lost – both Now and then Forever. This leads us to an inexorably LOGICAL A SYLLOGISM.

• God is Immutable.
• God is Truth.
• Therefore, Truth is Absolute and can always be trusted because God is Absolute and can be trusted.

That Reality is what keeps me steady most of the time, beloved, my own humanity and vicissitudes of a vastly imperfect life notwithstanding that steadiness. As Anecdote: I tend to live 80 percent or so inside this Divine Security, but the other 20 percent is, well, you all know.

Which leads me to conclude this brief excursion into the magnificently reassuring Imperviousness of our Sovereign with a Favorite Quotation I often deployed during my Journalism Instruction days.

JOHN MILTON. “And though all the Winds of Doctrine were let loose to play upon the Earth, so Truth be in the field, we do injuriously, by licensing and prohibiting, to misdoubt her Strength. Let Her and Falsehood grapple; who ever knew Truth put to the worse, in a free and open encounter?” – Areopagitica, 1644; edited

It is important to note that Milton, a brilliant poet, philosopher, polemicist, and civil servant – was a sincere Christian. His celebrated Areopagitica (1644), written in condemnation of pre-publication censorship, is among history’s most influential and impassioned defenses of Freedom of Speech and Freedom of the Press.

CODA. Bottomline, for me at least, Truth and the Freedom to express it in the Public Square,must remain Preeminent in any Social Order. Indeed, as the controversial German theologian ERICH SAUER once rightly pronounced in The Dawn of World Redemption (1951):

“By speech Adam began in Paradise the exercise of his Royal Authority. At the very Beginning, even before the creation of the woman, God Himself brought to him the creatures of the air and the earth, so that he, discerning their natures, should give them suitable names (Gen. 2:20): And thus was their ‘king’ at the very beginning crowned by the Creator, and Speech became, spiritually speaking, the ‘Sceptre of Mankind.’’”

Therefore, without Truth and the God-given Freedom and ability to pronounce it, a Society Dies. Indeed, the Individual suffers the indescribably final human calamity of the Death of one’s very Soul.

JESUS PROMISED: “If you abide in My word [continually obeying My teachings and living in accordance with them, then] you are truly My disciples. And you will know the truth [regarding salvation], and the truth will set you free [from the penalty of sin].” – JOHN 8:31-32, AMP

Truth is our Beacon, by which we effectively navigate the Great Storms and Darknesses of this present World. But if we continue to ignore It, and Him, we shall surely perish from the very face of the whole Earth.

Selah.