We live in an imperfect world.  In a world struggling under the weight and curse of sin.  The consequences often include afflictions to our physical bodies.  And when we resort to physicians they are sometimes faced with a difficult choice. Should they shield us from devastating truths, at least for a while, and send us home with some comforting white lies and a placebo, or should they confront us with painful realities?  Given the choice most patients would probably opt for the truth and try to summon up the courage to accept questionable therapies sometimes as debilitating as the disease.  But man has a soul as well as a body, and when it comes to dealing with his spiritual problems, far too often he opts for the placebo and evades uncomfortable truths.

Two thousand years ago Pilate asked Christ, " What is truth?" (John 18:38).  The refrain is commonplace today.  Postmodern man no longer believes in the concept of truth anymore.  Truth has become personal and subjective.  Truth is whatever works for you.  In the world of evolution the concept of eternal unchanging truth is an alien anachronism.  But to such a world Christianity still offers an unchanging eternal standard of truth, the word of God.  To such a world Christ spoke when He said, "To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth ." (John 18:37), eliciting that cynical response from Pilate.  Pilate didn't know it But Christ had already answered his question when he declared, "I am the way, the truth and the life" (John 14:6).  As the Apostle John testified, "For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ".

Christ also said, "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32).  What does that mean?  Americans with their tradition of liberty ought to know, but do they?  Was Christ speaking of political liberty?  We know all about that for we have had it for over two centuries.  Was he speaking of economic liberty?  We know all about that too.  America is a prosperous land, a place of plenty and of opportunity, where people are not generally in subjection to grinding and hopeless poverty.  But Christ was not speaking of that either.  The men of his day were prosperous enough and He did not come to lead them in a political crusade to liberate them from Roman oppression.  He pointedly refused all attempts to involve him in such activities.  He was speaking of spiritual liberty.  He came to liberate men's spirits, their souls, from "sin and death and hell".  There was a day when Americans were familiar with that too.  A day when the pulpits of the land resounded with the faithful preaching and teaching of the word of God.  A day when men understood spiritual liberty; when they sought deliverance from ignorance and superstition; when they desired freedom from sin and all its degrading vices; when they prized the liberating truth of God in Jesus Christ.  A day when men were more concerned with the eternal destiny of their souls than the temporal well being of their bodies.  Today Americans see many of their fellow citizens in degrading bondage to ignorance and superstition; to sin and vice.  From the deluded followers of Jim Jones and the People's Temple, through the devotees of David Koresh and his Branch Davidians, to the suicidal madmen who followed Marshall Applewhite to the Hale-Bopp comet, we have seen the consequences of religious ignorance and superstitious bondage to lies.  Similarly we have seen millions mesmerized by the "electronic church" with its glitzy media presentations of slick televangelists.  But time and again it has been proven as the Apostle Paul warned, "For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things. For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ" (Phil 3:18-20).  Other legions of our fellow citizens are enslaved in the web of degrading vices.  Alcoholism, drugs, and sexually transmitted diseases are rampant in epidemic proportions.  To all the above Christ offers liberty and hope when he declares, "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32).

But the real epidemic that America faces is a sickness of the soul that is called sin.  And no one is immune from that disease.  The Apostle Paul describes this epidemic saying, "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one" (Rom 3:10,23).  And as with all sick men they must choose a doctor.  They can choose one that will placate them with comforting untruths.  They can choose to be pacified with placebos.  Or they can choose the reality of some very hard truths.  They can admit that they are seriously sick and in great need.  They can resort to Jesus Christ, "The Great Physician".  They can go to Him who said, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised" (Luke 4:18).  They can seek deliverance by turning to the word of God which teaches, "where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" (2 Cor 3:17).

If you used to go to church but are now caught up in materialism and swamped with the concerns of this life we exhort you with the Apostle Paul to, "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage." (Gal 5:1)

If you would like to learn more of the truth of God in Jesus Christ we invite you to study with us.  We offer no placebos.  But we can and do offer you the timeless and liberating truths of God as found in the scriptures.  We have an answer to today's Pontius Pilates who still sneer at the concept of truth.  We have found Him who is the truth, Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, the Son of the Living God.  We invite you to join with us studying His word.  We invite you as Christ invited the men of His generation when he said, "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32).  We extend to you the invitation of the Apostle Paul who taught that God, " will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim 2:4).  Are you tired of the endless confusion of postmodern life in a truthless society that has seemingly lost the ability to differentiate between good and evil?  Then we invite you to rebuild your life on the timeless, eternal, unchanging truths of God's word and to share with us the inestimable privilege of studying the very word of God.