Proverbs 14.21
“There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.”
This verse from Proverbs 14 describes falsehood that is disguised as self-validated truth. The warning is that believing something to be true does not make it true, nor does doubting something make it false. Truth exists independent of what someone thinks or how they feel. “Truth” is that which corresponds to what is, not to what someone thinks or feels.
I can summarize it simply: Don’t believe everything you think.
This is one of the biggest cultural challenges of our time: People tend to believe that strong emotion validates their perceptions and preferences. But again, and we can’t say this strongly enough, truth is not determined by strength of emotion or confidence of thought. Truth exists independent of anyone’s thoughts, feelings, or perceptions.
The great question that confronts every person is this: Does what I think or how I feel conform to what is objectively true? This is not merely a question of philosophical theory; it is a question with serious, real-world implications. Solomon warns that falsehood disguised as self-validated truth will eventually lead to “death.” Serious indeed!
Unfortunately, today’s society has fallen headlong into this very trap. Claims to moral truth have become little more than expressions of emotional preference. While this is an individual problem, it has also become institutionalized. And that is a problem. A big problem.
Institutions that should be reserved for the intellect have been hijacked by feelings and activist agendas. This is precisely what plagues our universities: what were once centers of intellectual development have become domains of social and political activism and retreats for the emotionally fragile. The driving motto of the university is no longer the pursuit of truth but the coddling of hurt feelings.
Do a Google search of university mottos and you will quickly discover a profound contradiction. One hundred twenty-eight refer to truth, forty-six refer to wisdom, sixty-one refer to science, and zero refer to emotion or feeling. Examples: Harvard’s motto is Veritas (truth) and Yale’s is Lux et veritas (light and truth).
These venerable institutions of higher learning were not founded on an ethos of subjective feelings but on the disciplined and rigorous pursuit of truth. And yet, across all our institutions—from universities to the media to the judicial system to the political arena—truth is increasingly taking a back seat to feelings and activist agendas. This is true in the United States, and it is true across most of the western world.
Most parents who are sending their kids to college have no idea what kind of culture their sons and daughters are going into, and the incredible social pressure on campus that will be applied to get young students to submit to the “idea pathogens” that infect universities. Today in academia, progressive ideology trumps scientific facts. What we are witnessing is an astonishing—and alarming—departure from reason.
As the followers of Jesus, it is imperative that we not fall into the trap of self-oriented lives. We must reject the imperial self and obey the Lord’s call in Matthew 16: ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
We must get educated about the roots of the post-truth environment that is currently dominating American society, and then develop the wisdom to respond with skill to the dangerous practices and destructive policies being promoted in the culture. We must do so not in our own strength, but empowered by the Holy Spirit.
“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.” (Ephesians 6.10-13)
