A worldwide study reported that 93 percent of people admit to habitually lying in the workplace as a means to accomplish their agenda.^[i] For many, lying is not a moral issue; it is a tactic to accomplish their purpose.

In his book Live Not by Lies, author Rod Dreher wrote, “The foundation of totalitarianism is an ideology made of lies.”^[ii]

Totalitarianism is a worldview built on lies and deception. This worldview is perhaps most prominently manifested today as Marxism or socialism.

Increasingly, euphemisms are used to hide lies by calling evil to be good. Some examples are listed below.

The murder of babies is characterized as a reproductive rights and women’s health issue.
Homosexuality is touted as the freedom to love whomever someone wishes.
Gender dysphoria (confusion about identification with a person’s biological gender) is celebrated as individual choice and self-identification.

From a Christian worldview, all these words and expressions are based on lies. They are incompatible with a worldview informed by Scripture. Christians should readily recognize the lies that are used to distort and deny the truth. For example, consider the Christian view on the following issues.

God defines the beginning of all human life at conception in the womb.^[iii]
Scripture defines the boundaries of human sexual relationships to exclude any sexual relationship between same-gender people.^[iv]
And the Creator also defines the biological sex (gender) of each person.^[v]

God does not grant to humanity the purview to change what has been divinely defined. Consequently, the failure to abide by God’s definitions is to live by lies. Perhaps this intimates that the cultures of the world are moving into totalitarianism.

In the early 1980s, Christian philosopher Francis Schaeffer saw the seeds of totalitarianism being sown. He traveled the United States speaking to Christians, warning them about the rise of lies and deception. He noted that the origin of the United States was rooted in Christian ethics as defined by Scripture, and he saw the culture of the country losing what he termed its Christian memory. Notwithstanding the founding Christian roots of the United States in the late eighteenth century, its culture has progressively decoupled from Christian truth.

In the first century, when Christ was on earth, truth was held in high regard as a virtue. Truth was largely anchored in Old Testament Scripture, such as the Ten Commandments. And truth was honored and valued pragmatically.

An example of truth in the first century was when the apostle Paul claimed to be a Roman citizen (Acts 16 and 22). Both times, he was believed. And when Paul’s young nephew reported a plot to kill the apostle Paul to the Roman commander, the nephew was believed (Acts 23). No validation was required as truth was such an ensconced virtue in the culture that everyone tended to value truth. Taking people at their word is an example of how people pride themselves on being truthful. In other words, truth was culturally expected. Words were not simply tools to be used to accomplish a purpose as they are today; rather words were expressions of truth. And truth was highly valued by all.

The view of truth as a virtue is further confirmed by the revelation that Christ incarnate was the embodiment of truth (John 14:6) and the purveyor of truth (John 8:31−32). Since the fall of man, lies have been part of the fallen world because Satan is the father of lies (John 8:44). And in recent times, Satan’s influence on the cultures of the world seems to be more pronounced and, therefore, lies have become more acceptable.

Today, truth is not a virtue. This enables lies to be viewed as amoral, simply as tools to accomplish an agenda. Today’s low view of the value of truth means that people’s words cannot be trusted. This leads to sayings such as caveat emptor, which is Latin for let the buyer beware. A consequence of this is that human agreements are increasingly longer, more onerous, and more expensive. Perhaps this is the judgment of God on a world that increasingly denies his standards.

The struggle of humanity is the struggle for truth and the grace to live in truth. However, given the base nature of fallen mankind, there is an irresistible propensity to embrace lies. Humans by nature want to live by lies because they love darkness rather than light.^[vi] And even when humans, through the common grace of God, show a desire for truth, it is not sustainable. The only permanent solution to this disease of living by lies is the truth of Jesus as revealed in Scripture and historically understood by the orthodox Christian church.

Lies are so inculcated in today’s culture that humans seem largely immune to them. Abortion is viewed as a sacred entitlement, but, in truth, it is narcissistic in favor of the mother since it puts no value on the murdered child. Homosexuality is erroneously presumed to be a valid expression of love that, in truth, disregards the will of the Creator. And gender dysphoria is treated like a child’s right. The predicate is that children can make right choices by choosing to redefine themselves is folly—deranged thinking.

When I was a child, when there was conflict between my teacher and me, my parents always believed the teacher over me. My parents understood my fallen condition. Parents now tend to believe children over teachers. Why the change? The parents of today seem to fail to recognize the depravity of children. Consequently, they don’t believe the teachers but believe their fallen children. In matters of truth, godly teachers are far more reliable than children. Depraved children are unable to make wise decisions for themselves, which is why they need wise parents and teachers to guide them.

In the cultures of the world today that are disconnecting from God’s standards and seeking to redefine their own, truth is progressively being lost. Lies and deception are progressively ruling. The result of this will be judgment on the world as the prophet Isaiah said:

Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness, who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. (Isaiah 5:20 CSB)

Without the plumbline of truth, divinely defined, there is no way to live wisely in God’s universe. The end of lies and deception will be darkness and death. May we learn this truth and repent. This is the only way to live well in God’s universe.