(John 18:37-38a) “Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.” “Pilate saith unto him, What is truth?……..

Did you know that when you hold a compass and the arrow points north, it’s not really pointing to the North Pole? The North Pole is a geographic top of the Earth. It is a fixed position that never changes. That’s why it’s called “TRUE NORTH” and it’s from this FIXED POSITION that mapmakers draw their maps. A COMPASS on the other hand does not point to the north but it points to a magnetic field that is roughly 1300 miles away from the North Pole. This is called “MAGNETIC NORTH”. Every pilot and every sea captain must make constant adjustment from what his “COMPASS” says is north and what the MAP says it is TRUE NORTH. Failing to make this adjustment of a few degrees early in the journey could mean missing the destination by hundreds of miles. TRUE NORTH vs. MAGNETIC NORTH is a revealing metaphor for anyone young and old searching for truth in today’s world. [Dennis Rainey Preparing for Marriage p. 14-15].

TRUE NORTH

TRUE NORTH is fact, (FIXED, ABSOLUTE, CERTAIN, & TRUSTWORTHY,) and it is to life & relationships with God and with each other, what the geographic north pole is to a map of earth, and you will find truth when you:

  • Learn from the Scriptures (John 17:17) “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.”
  • Look to the Saviour (John 14:6) “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
  • Led by the Spirit (John 16:13) “Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come.”
    And the three will never contradict each other.

MAGNETIC NORTH

MAGNETIC NORTH on the other hand may feel (FEEL, EXPERIENCE, EXPECTATION & LOOKS) but is deceiving. For example you will not find truth in the humanist’s hallways of learning & broadways of philosophies, because according to the Humanist Manifesto 2 “the humanist is nothing more than ‘HUMAN SPECIE which has emerged from natural evolutionary forces” whose ‘TOTAL PERSONALITY IS A FUNCTION OF THE BIOLOGICAL ORGANISM TRANSACTING IN A SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT’. Although equipped with instruments such as ‘REASON AND INTELLIGENCE’ however “Decision-making must be decentralized”. “IT strives For The Good Life” here and now, but “There is NO guarantee all problems can be solved or all questions answered, IT has the right to suicide”. IT is not to be “exploited as Sexual objects but IT is permitted to express ITS sexual proclivities and pursue ITS life-style as IT desires”.

IT can mix ‘within many liberal, Marxist, skeptic etc. … Religious groups’ because ‘IT has developed the art of compromise”. Although IT believes and “enhances religious liberty” but not for the SALVATIONIST whose faith in the prayer-hearing supernatural creator God “is unproved and outmoded faith”. ITS commitment to tolerance falls short of those who hold to ‘THE THEOLOGIES OF HOPE, Messianic ideologies, promises of immortal salvation and fear of eternal damnation which are both illusory and harmful”. As “Technology significantly modify ITS behavior IT ages and then IT has the right to die with dignity. Since IT begun with human and not God, no deity will save IT and thus “from Nature to Nature”.

IN CLOSING

(John 8:31-32) “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
(1 Tim 2:3-4) “For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour. Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.”

(2 Tim 3:1-2; 7-9) “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy…….Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was.

With the love of Christ
Peter Rahme
Pastor- Inner West Baptist Church