LIAR LIAR

LIAR, LIAR

Recently I have heard people call this the “Time of Lies” and the “Land of Lies”. A study recently concluded that the average person lies 200 times in one day! Another study concluded that on average the 3 candidates during the primaries lied 25% to 75% of the time! In my profession it has become a common practice to not only lie to patients in advertising, but also in the clinic itself! Oh, sure, these are not the usual bonafide in your face lies, but they are in face value, “Lies”! When a doctor says to the patient that he needs such and such because the x-ray or test suggests it, without doing the proper diligence, he or she is in essence lying. What is even more egregious are the lies that may not hurt the patient, but which do make the practice a lot of money on a daily basis!

I will give an example: Patient A came into my office last week with an apology and a frown saying that he had responded to another doctors “free exam and discounted x-ray ad”. He said that after they took a full set of x-rays, they would not clean his teeth! Instead a consultant sat down with him for a long time trying to convince him that he needed $1,826 worth of dental work discounted by his plan to only $856! They showed him on the x-rays how bone loss was causing periodontal disease, and that in order to stop the progression of disease he would need a very expensive 4 quadrants of deep cleaning done (which was an inflated charge!- note also that if just 3 or less teeth are involved per quadrant the code changes to a much lower fee).  I looked at his past x-rays and in his mouth and told him that the diagnosis was completely wrong and that he did not have any periodontal disease!  The bone loss was due to toothbrush erosion only!  They used the x-rays to scare him into thinking that the bone loss was due to disease not erosion!  The “shadow’ on the x-rays was not due to disease!  The average person would not know better! All the patient needed was a good tooth cleaning and check up, costing $108 in our office.  This is an example of what is happening on a daily basis throughout this country!  People are getting ripped off by people in “white coats” who know they are skipping on the truth!

God judged the earth because “everyone was doing what was right in their own eyes”.  The basis for deceit, slander, malice, and theft is lying.  I was recently listening to a pastor talking about the “lying spirit” in our society and  church (which will be discussed more later).   President Obama  stated that Islam has always played an important part in the making of our country. The fact is that the only significant association that our nation had with Islam was when Jefferson sent our navy to stop the Barbary Pirates from taking slaves and booty from merchant ships!  To the pirate and Islam it is good and justified to lie to the infidel!  Lying is not part of our ethical standards and never has been!

This brings up a serious problem: cultural assimilation.  We are embracing cultures more than ever and their ethics are different than ours.  Our tolerant society has made us more vulnerable to all sorts of lies. One very large religion and culture believes in and trusts in “millions” of gods!  How many lies do you think are embedded in their ethics and standards?   Healing remedies, child rearing, sexual interactions and other norms can easily be distorted and abused under the darkness of authoritarian controls! Mythical, ethnic, and religious dictates can be used to sanction child abuse, spousal abuse, social banishment, witchcraft and who knows what!  To the esteemed white robed Pharisees, who held their culture under bondage with many made up laws & traditions , Jesus said, “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

Some of the worst lies are those that blind the mind and harden the heart. Here are a couple that the Bible warns about: “A fool says in his heart there is no God”, and “Pride goeth before destruction”.  It is foolish and dangerous to lie to ourselves and to continue living in ignorance, self denial, and pride.  When you do, not only are you setting yourself up for judgment, but in that state of mind and heart you could fall into a quagmire of problems including poor health, divorce, poverty, crime and death!  Open your heart to the Truth: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and he will make your path straight”.

Even as a believer it’s so easy to persist in lying to ourselves concerning our bad habits whether it be smoking, drinking, drugs, laziness, procrastination, or junk food. Take note that each of those “bad habits” listed above in themselves embody “tons” of lies! There is a spiritual component- a contaminating darkness- that everyone should be aware of! Our lies along with other lies become part of our thinking and behavior to the point that we lie to skip work, to steal, to win an argument, or to win approval!  In time we can become isolated both physically and spiritually, growing in frustration, bitterness, anger, unforgiveness, distrust, and evil desires!   Then at the point of despair the hardened heart allows the fall and we say or do something that is regretful and foolish,  hurting ourselves and others. The consequences can be dire, playing into the hand’s of Satan! Jesus said, “that Satan has come to steal, kill, and destroy;  I have come that you might have Life; and that you might have it abundantly!”  Satan’s lies are like a lion waiting to pounce at any moment to undermine our credibility and our purpose!

Just as our body relates to the physical world our soul communicates with the spiritual world. Caught in between is our mind! You may not see it happening or coming, but when we lie and ignore our conscience the consequences will take a toll! When Satan lied to Adam and Eve, they rebelled and lost the “Spirit” or “Life of God” in them! God had told Adam that if he ate of the fruit he would die and this death in actuality was a spiritual death. The Word says, “The wages of sin is death!” Like Adam we are spiritually dead in sin! “But while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”. This is how God demonstrates His love for us. Our Hope is in Jesus Christ and the work He did on the Cross! He paid the penalty so that we might have Life- the “Life of God” in the form of the Holy Spirit! The Word says, “For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive”. We are a new Creation in Christ, set free to be a light in the darkness, and to battle the world system that turns “the truth of God into a lie, and worship and serve the creature more than the Creator!”

Serious problems arise when the world’s lies infiltrate the church and are allowed to hide or grow!  We have witnessed many pastors who have fallen or have left the ministry.  If they had tapped into the Power of the Holy Spirit and sought the Righteousness of God with all their heart, mind, and soul, the lies of the flesh and the gates of Hell would not have prevailed!  The foundation of faith cracks when we allow the world system to dictate agendas, theology, the teaching by laymen, and the God given identity of the church itself!

For many years I was part of a church that one might classify as an “Emergent church” or a “Seeker Sensitive Church”.  Those titles by the way are “cop-outs” and only serve to create excuses for compromise!  Is worth effort and risk to reach out to the lost with lies?  For instance in these churches there is no effort to use good apologetics to teach the congregation the Truth about “6-Day Creation”! They do not want to create “controversy” even though the Bible is very clear that God’s greatest miracle was when He created the Universe.  That Miracle supports the fact that He continues His creation by: 1) creating us in the womb, 2) making us a new creation in Him, 3) and will create a new heaven and a new earth!

If you believe in evolution you will have to throw out “Original Sin” because “death” would have happened before the “Fall” and hence the penalty of sin would not be death.  If the penalty of sin is not death then the New Testament is a lie!  And just one lie undermines the entire Gospel and Satan wins!  Evolution and the “Old Earthers”, however, undermine a lot more, including the veracity of Noah’s flood and God’s Covenant with us.  God said that He would never “Flood the Earth” again! Old Earth scientists along with the evolutionists claim that Noah’s flood was only a “local flood” and that all those fossils that we see embedded in sedimentary rock were not caused by a world wide flood!  Hence every “local flood” that we have today is calling God a liar and the church would be complicit in that lie!  Just as with slander and deceit, a few good lies can spread and do a lot of damage to individuals and to the whole church!