Falsehood is pricey. It is a cancer in any system that it finds itself — nations, churches, homes, and businesses. Prayers do not launder falsehood. Results do not launder falsehood. The cure for falsehood is truth. Falsehood is the alternative to truth. As truth is the fundamental law of success on earth, by God’s own definition of success, so is falsehood the number one factor of failure. A nation built on falsehood will not prosper, except it goes back to truth. The scriptures make it clear that, “only righteousness can exalt a nation.” (Proverbs 14:34). And in every nation on earth where falsehood is expunged or grossly minimised, regardless of whether these nations comprise Christians or not, such nations prosper. Today, I am writing to Nigerians. The sad narrative today is that a lot of us don’t actually hate falsehood. We only hate it if it doesn’t favour us. Some pastors and church leaders whose voices should send shivers down the spines of corrupt politicians, seat on the fence when matters of falsehood are thriving in the society.
Some even take things very far — they will publicly or tacitly promote and endorse these falsehoods — for as long as the interests of their personal ministry and church empires continue to grow in cash and in kind. God’s will in the season of falsehood is not silence. A silent church in a time of falsehood is as culpable as the perpetrators of the falsehood. We should read about the German church in the days of Hitler.
An organisation founded on falsehood will not last — even if it seems to be prospering for now. Never in history have leaders, nations and businesses built on falsehood lasted. If they lasted for five generations, they would fail in the sixth generation. If they prospered for fifty years, they would fail in the fifty first year. The stories of Hitler, Stalin, Mobutu, Sadam Hussein, Robert Mugabe, and many other tyrannical rulers and their empires readily come to mind. These empires blossomed for several decades, but never lasted. And if we go down the lanes of history — and we critique the iron rules of ancient empires like those of the Greek, Babylonian, Medo-Persian, and the Romans — we find in them a similar trend of failure. Falsehood never produces sustainable results — and the cure for falsehood is not fasting and prayer, but truth.
Truth is the most incontrovertible factor of success on earth, that even when those who don’t follow Christ practice it, they still experience its benefits in quantum proportions. The cure for falsehood is not prayer, but truth. The cure for falsehood is not “seed sowing”, but truth. The challenge we are facing today as a people is the lack of appreciation of the strategic role of truth in prospering our nations and strengthening our churches, and the grave consequences of falsehood in ruining our nations and societies. What is dominant in our society is the laundering of falsehood as truth — knowing that something is wrong, but trying to give it another name because it benefits us. As Christians, it produces something dangerous in us: “get it anyhow and sanctify it in church”.
The “Get it anyhow and sanctify it in church” menace is now getting the most of our hearts in the church. The believer in Christ has been called out of the world — out of falsehood. Though we are still actively and physically living in the world, we don’t trade on the same turf with the world (John 17:11). Friends, please understand that there is a stark difference between the ways of God and the ways of the world. Of recent, the burden to speak to this critical issue began to well up in my heart. I began to notice that the church is now producing a generation I call, “doers of Christianity” — people who are excellent “actors” in the church — promoters of falsehood. They sing, dance, talk, and act like Christians, but are far from being saved. In fact, some of these people end up as pastors and founders of churches, who will never be friends of truth but will always be allies of falsehood. There is virtually no fruit in their lives, but they still talk like Christians, pastor big churches, and “do Christianity”. They are “doers of Christianity”, who are only interested in success without truth. They are worshippers of success. Hear what Helmut Thielick said in 1945 to the members of his church about falsehood and success after the death of Hitler, and the complete destruction of Germany by the allied forces:
“The worship of success is the form of idolatry Satan cultivates the most assiduously. Under the influence of success, Christians would not ask in whose name and at what price this success was achieved. Success is the greatest narcotic of all.”
Should we continue to befriend falsehood, promote it, massage it, and seat on the fence when our voices are supposed to reverberate the truth into the souls of men? Who is a man of God? Who is a child of God? Have we buried our Bibles in the sands of falsehood to the extent that we have lost the meaning of truth? This is a clarion call to the church, and in particular to our friends who are at the moment allies of falsehood because of what will benefit from this. It doesn’t last. With falsehood comes eternity at some point. With truth comes eternity at some point. What we do with truth and falsehood today will determine where we will spend our eternity tomorrow.
