My Favorite Bible Verses

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Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

John 16:4:5-7 NIV

In his epic novel 1984, George Orwell explores the destruction of trusted truth in a futuristic society that relies on doublethink, newspeak, and the Ministry of Truth. In the futuristic work, society’s quest for truth is compromised by doublethink, Newspeak, and the Ministry of Truth. 

Doublethink was the practice of holding two contradictory opinions as parallel truth. Those who wished to control would use logic to justify the opposite of what was truth. Leaders, aka Big Brother, would conveniently forget information and retrieve its mutated form when needed to convince the populace.

Newspeak was a language propagated by the government. It had a limited vocabulary and restricted grammar, perhaps similar to our cultural use of new intent with old words. The language utilized mixed messages through prefixes and adjectives.

Perhaps the greatest threat to truth and knowledge was the formation of the Ministry of Truth. This government agency falsified historical records to propagandize their agendas. Free thought was discouraged and punishable. The ministry used news media outlets, entertainment, and education to reinforce their twisted truth.

The powers that be dictated what was true.

Not unlike our convoluted culture of today. One doesn’t know what to believe. News stations offer contradictory representation of events. Some of us older folks ask, “Where is Edward R. Murrow?” A journalist in the 40s and 50s, he was known to be truthful in his reporting. One of his many mantras was, “To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; to be credible we must be truthful." 

The problem in finding truth is not futuristic, nor is it a present-day phenomenon. Jesus often debated with the Jewish leaders who tended to misrepresent Scripture to their benefit: to persuade, to control, or to line their own pockets. (See John 8)

To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said,

 “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

John 8:31-32