"Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth ... so help you God?"
I was wondering if the judicial system still honored God in that statement, so I asked my good friend who is a court reporter and she said "Yes, they still do." I was glad to hear that God still remains when it comes to seeking truth.There is something about speaking the truth that I noticed, in the courtroom anyway, is that swearing (or pledging) to speak the truth is not enough. Raising your hand and pledging to God that what you are about to say is what is considered to be truth.
Face it, in today's world, the truth is sometimes difficult to spot. All we have to do is turn on the television and wonder about truth. During a political campaign, how can we know if the candidates are speaking the truth? How do we know if their promises will come true? Or how about the advertisements that come on television...how do we know that a certain detergent will get our whites the whitest?
Their word is simply just not enough. Our word isn't enough. It takes more than our word to express truth. We must see proof. We must have evidence. We must have some kind of experience with the person or the product that is in question. If we could just see with our own eyes, than we might be able to see the absolute truth.
Absolute truth from man is not always easy to attain. First, you have people who stretch the truth on purpose, for their own gain or to cover something up. Then secondly, you have people who mistakenly shade the truth, possibly because they did not investigate enough or they themselves were not given the whole truth of the matter. Either way you look at it, the absolute truth is difficult to find. In man that is. The absolute truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth can only be found in God.
"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw His Glory...full of Grace and Truth." JOHN 1:14
Today, very few people believe in absolute truth. I believe that is because the darkness has filtered in and tried to disguise by deceit and masking lies as the truth. People today seem to fall for anything. The enemy is one of the best salesmen around...he can sell people on just about anything. But the Bible warns us that in the last days we will be easily fooled.
But there is only one absolute truth that can never be excused or distorted into something false and that is exactly what John is speaking about in the above mentioned passage. In order for us to know truth...we must know God. In order to know the truth about God ...we must know His Word. In order to believe His Word ... we must have faith. In order to have faith ... we must have a relationship with Christ.
If you ever find yourself in a situation that truth seems distorted, just remember what Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life." (John 14:6) Put your trust in Him and His Word, for it is the absolute truth!
2 comments:
Hi there, I found the timing of your post interesting because last week and this week I actually went to watch a trial in a neighboring county and when they swore people in they no longer use "So help me God"-maybe it is just here in Colorado but it made me wonder when they stopped using Him as the source of truth.
Thanks for sharing today.
Hugs, Noreen
Noreen, I have read that some places have taken the "So help me God" out of the statement, that is why I wanted to ask my friend what our courts do in my city, I was pleased to hear they have kept it in so far. Thanks for the visit. -Laurie
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