During World War II, a German POW, speaking in German with an American soldier of German origin, asked, “There isn’t much left of New York anymore, is there?”
“What do you mean?” his captor responded.
“Well,” he said, “you know it’s been bombed by the Luftwaffe.”
Bombed by the Luftwaffe? The Luftwaffe never got within thousands of miles of New York, much less bombing it to smithereens. As one historian wrote, “Americans were to find that many German soldiers had swallowed the most outrageous lies of Nazi propaganda without question.”
The most outrageous lies? So what else is new?
What are the outrageous lies that many believe today? Where does one begin? Things like morality is personal, subjective—there are no moral absolutes. One culture’s morals as a valid as any others. Or, we are the products of pure chance, creations of a godless universe that never saw us coming. Or, there is no real truth. Truth is, simply, what you and your society believe. As one postmodern writer said, somewhat (but not wholly) facetiously, “Truth is what your colleagues let you get away with.”
Jesus, however, said the following: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). Wow! Things don’t get more absolute than that. Either what Jesus said is one of these most outrageous lies, up there with New York being levelled by the Luftwaffe, or it’s not only true, it’s the most important truth anyone could ever know. Through Jesus, through Him alone, we come to the Father?
Fortunately, from Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, we have been given great reasons to believe Him, and to enjoy the certainly, assurance, and hope that He offers all who come to Him.
And that’s no outrageous lie, either.
