Fortresses of Falsehood

The world builds fortresses of falsehood. Secularism’s prophets are all around us. They speak to us on the news. They preach to us on social media. They weave their deceptions into the stories they tell us in TV shows and movies. Even corporations and stores attempt to become temples to these unholy delusions, and the false prophet politicians codify the deceit.

The lies of these prophets are so outrageous they defy science and rational thought. “There are over 50 genders.” “Men can be women.” “Women can be men.” The media proclaims utter absurdity. Headlines like, “Man gives birth to child of homosexual partner” are promoted as reality, and the slogan, “love is love,” is proclaimed as a beacon of virtue, but it is Satan disguising himself as an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:13-15). 

These castles of sand will crumble. Those who claim that followers of Jesus will be on the wrong side of history are not looking far enough into the future. Christ has defeated death and will return to stand on the earth in righteous judgment. The prophets of this world say, “When the overwhelming scourge passes through, it will not come near us, for we have made lies our refuge, and in falsehood, we have taken shelter” (Isaiah 28:15).

The truth that the judgment of God is coming should cause us all to do only one thing. Tremble. For we have all fallen short of the glory of God and his righteousness (Romans 3:23). We have all hidden behind lies, and we must turn our eyes to the only true Cornerstone, Jesus Christ. He is the tried stone, the precious Cornerstone. He is the plumbline of truth. He is the stone we, the builders, have rejected. All our shelters that do not align with him will crumble like the walls of Jericho. The knowledge of this should leave us asking, “How can any of us be saved?”

Jesus, the Precious Cornerstone, did not only enter humanity to show us truth, righteousness, and justice; he also came to bear the wrath we deserve on the cross. The Cornerstone is also our fortress. Whoever believes in him will not be put to shame (1 Peter 2:6). The cross of Jesus is the only true refuge, and it is a gloriously joyful refuge in which to hide. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin (Romans 4:8).

Once we become his disciples, we must stand by his word. The false prophets of this world will try to break us, and if they can get us to repeat their absurdities or be afraid to speak otherwise, they will have successfully done so. Even if these false prophets make their way into the church and speak from positions of authority, they will be no less untrue. Here is what God said about the prophets of Israel during the time of Jeremiah:

Your prophets have seen for you false and deceptive visions.
They have not exposed your iniquity to restore your fortunes,
But have seen for you oracles that are false and misleading.
(Lamentation 2:14)

What is our motivation to stand unmoved on the word of God in the face of such opposition? First, we love our Savior who saved our lives from the pit. There is a judgment coming, and those who are in Christ have an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading kept in heaven for us (1 Peter 4:4). Not only is God keeping the inheritance for us, but he is also keeping us for the inheritance, and he does that through faith. He caused us to be born again to a living hope, a hope that does not die at the end of our mortal lives but is eternal through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. It would be absurd to trade our Savior and the eternal life he gives for the passing pleasures of the here and now.

Second, we love the lost who the father of lies has deceived because we were once like them. Standing on the word of God will cost us. It has cost countless Christians throughout the ages, for many have even been put to death. We stand against these fortresses of falsehood because we love those who are hiding behind them. When they come against us for holding biblical views of human sexuality and gender, or any other biblical truth, they will threaten us with cancel culture, censorship, unemployability, court dates, and possibly someday soon, fines and jail time. When that happens, this is the message I want those who will do it to us to know. Every bit of our canceled, censored, unemployed, fined, and jailed selves will still love you. We are praying that in our distress, you will see a picture of Christ’s love and suffering for you and be called out of the darkness into the light.

Finally, to the Christian. The word of God says, “The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him” (1 John 1:1). We need to ask ourselves, do we believe our Lord, or do we still think we will be able to be winsome enough and find enough middle ground that they will never come for us or our institutions, something even Jesus himself did not do? They will come for us, and the worst thing we can do is compromise the word of God. In compromising, we deny the Lord who bought us, deny the inheritance he is keeping for us, and abandon the world to their lost condition.

Take heart, the Lord will build his church, and the gates of hell, these fortresses of falsehood, will not prevail against it, no matter what it costs us now. Even if it costs our lives, in our flesh, we shall see God.

-D. Eaton