This statement is something I have heard more than once, from Christian pastors, lately.
It is quite plainly wrong.
HONESTY = TELLING THE TRUTH ABOUT FACTS
I am shocked that I have to write this fact check, actually, because honesty is a value that is so basic to living a godly life that even kindergarten children understand that they should tell the truth about factual matters.
But today, sadly, many well-educated Christians do not understand this.
Whenever preachers say “everything except Jesus is just a matter of opinion” they are neglecting the relationship between the human spirit/will and the reality of the world that God has created.
It is this physical world that we live in, in which the Son of God was incarnate, in history, in reality.
Truth is important because this world is real and physical and God made it.
The secular version of this statement is very prevalent, “Everything is just opinion”, which is essentially the philosophy of post-modernism.
It is most often expressed as, “Well you can have your opinion and I’ll have mine.”
To me as a Christian, the religious version is worse, because it suggests that God doesn’t care if people are lying about what the facts are in a certain situation; it suggests that God doesn’t want us to careful not to be mistaken, when we are passing on information that is supposed to be factual, or when we do our jobs.
HONESTY IN THE BIBLE
The Ten Commandments tell us that facts are important; the eighth commandment says, “You shall not bear false witness.”
In other words, do not lie.
If everything in the world was just opinion, then it would be impossible to lie, for there has to be a fact in the first place, for someone to lie about.
And Jesus said, “The reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”
To be on the side of truth is not only to confess that Jesus is Lord, it is to be truthful about facts.
HONESTY IS INTENTIONALLY TELLING THE TRUTH ABOUT FACTS
This is why the statement “everything is just an opinion” utterly disregards human intentions and the reality of the physical world.
For sometimes people tell lies for their own benefit.
When they are lying, they are telling people that something factual is not really a fact; that something that actually happened didn’t happen or vice versa, or that something real about the world is not real.
That is what a lie is.
And lies have consequences.
IGNORING FACTS CAN HAVE BAD CONSEQUENCES
Ignoring facts or being mistaken about what the facts are also has consequences.
It can be seen in something as simple as fixing an engine.
If you fail to do the job correctly, the engine will not work. For instance, if you turn a bolt in the wrong direction, you can snap the bolt if you force it far enough.
RIGHTY TIGHTY, LEFTY LOOSEY
It is a fact that the bolt must be turned in only one direction when loosening it, and the other direction when tightening it. “Righty tighty, lefty loosey.”
This is not just a matter of opinion.
And if, after having tried to fix the engine, the boss finds that the bolt is snapped, if the worker should say, “I did not turn the bolt in the wrong direction,” when he actually did, then that is what is commonly called a lie.
Someone listening to the boss and the worker arguing might say, “Well, it’s just a matter of opinion; either of them could be right.”
If the bolt has been snapped it is not just a matter of opinion.
There is a fact in there somewhere.
Something really happened to the bolt.
SCIENTISTS GIVING HONEST ASSESSMENTS OF THE DATA
There are facts in the realm of science as well: facts in science are basically honest assessments of the quality of the evidence. Looking at the data, in other words, bearing witness about the quality of the data, honestly.
If a scientist sees that there is good evidence for some fact claim, then lies about it saying it might not be true, or it’s just a matter of opinion, then that really is a lie, it is not “just a matter of opinion.”
ANDREW HILL: OUR REAL LIFE EXAMPLE
And we have a real life example. Andrew Hill lied about the evidence for Ivermectin’s effectiveness against Covid, and he admitted it. The recording of Tess Lawrie’s zoom call starts at around 3:00. Some of you will have watched this already in my fact check about Ivermectin.
FACTS ARE IMPORTANT TO SCIENCE; AND HONESTY IS FOUNDATIONAL
The virtue of honesty is so basic to science, that it is foundational.
If someone lies about the data in a study, changing figures so that the result is different, or reframes their conclusions to skim over something important, or by not reporting a crucial fact at all, this undermines science completely. Yes, and there are also mistakes, sometimes scientists accidentally fail to record data correctly, and there is also confirmation bias; we all make mistakes, we can all suffer from confirmation bias; these are errors - precisely because there are real facts that we can make errors about.
And this is exactly why freedom of speech is so important to science. Other scientists need to be free to challenge conclusions.
Truthfulness to ourselves and truthfulness to God are really important: for instance saying to ourselves, “I don’t have time to look at these claims,” then telling others, “these claims are not true,” is actually a lie.
If you didn’t examine the data you don’t know.
JESUS IS FOUNDATIONAL TO SCIENCE
Faith in Jesus is completely foundational to science, in other words, because He is Truth. Jesus is the Word of God that fills all things; the light that enlightens all people. (see John chapter 1)
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made, and without Him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. John 1:1-5
This is why science grew up in a Christian civilisation, among people who believe in one God, who believe the universe is physically real and not an illusion and that God created the universe so that cause and effect actually work; in other words, actions in this universe actually have real, factual consequences.
And Jesus said:
If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness! Matthew 6:22
The light of truth has to permeate our whole lives.
As Christians our whole witness is destroyed when we tell a lie.
Such is the darkness that permeates the human mind, soul and will, that to be truthful is not simply something that comes easily to any of us: it requires a complete overhaul of our human nature, which is not something we can accomplish on our own, but is something that can only be accomplished by the grace of God.
The true Light who gives light to every man was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognise Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God— children born not of blood, nor of the desire or will of man, but born of God. John 1:9-13
I HAVE BEEN DISHONEST SOMETIMES; SO HAVE YOU.
Let me add that I have lied in the past; who hasn’t? Probably you have, too, unless you are one of those rare people who have never told a lie.
And anyone who repents of their sins and asks God for forgiveness will be forgiven, because of Jesus’ death on the cross.
Even the health bureaucrat Andrew Hill would surely be forgiven by God, if he sincerely repented and turned to God and asked for forgiveness; God has forgiven him, if he has confessed his sins, because Jesus died for him.
Let us pray that Andrew Hill will repent, and that he will make an offer of some sort of restitution that might be the visible fruits of that forgiveness – telling the truth publicly would be a good start.
But let us pray for ourselves as well, for grace, for God’s Spirit of Truth to permeate our lives. For who can know if he or she has a blind spot, where we are not seeing well? We need God’s help in this.
ADDENDUM - IS IT EVER OKAY TO LIE?
I am adding a quote from Richard Wurmbrand, one of my favourite Christian authors, a Jewish convert to Christianity who was a Lutheran pastor in Communist Rumania. He was jailed for fourteen years for refusing to stop preaching about Jesus Christ.
He describes the aftermath of the Communist era,
It is difficult to win in this life. Other children were rebellious against parents who had played a treacherous role. These children could not bear the thought of being children of a Judas. Many felt guilty for having lied to the police during investigation, to protect themselves or to keep others from being arrested. They had been taught strict honesty. For Christians who think like this, it would have been wise never to engage in secret work. Such work is impossible for someone who considers it a sacred principle always to tell the truth. A Bible smuggler from West to Eastern Europe once told me, “I never said a lie.” I asked him, “When applying for a Russian or Romanian visa, what did you declare as the purpose of your visit?” He replied “Tourism.” This was a lie.
‘Lies’ in self-defence, in defense of innocents or the church, are not really lies. When in danger of death, Paul defended himself before the priestly council these words: ‘I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee; concerning the hope and resurrection of the dead I am being judge” (Acts 23:6), which was certainly not the issue. But those who felt the guilt of having lied were indifferent to any ethical niceties. They said, “If these Communist police were to find out that I lied to them in matters about which I was questioned, how would they believe what I told them about salvation?” Page 106, From Suffering to Triumph, Richard Wurmbrand
Wurmbrand also elsewhere tells the story of a teacher who asks a student, “Is your father an alcoholic?” The student lies and says, “No.” Wurmbrand says the teacher was wrong to have put the student in a position of having to lie in the first place.
Corrie Ten Boom also has spoken about the necessity of lying sometimes to protect innocent people, for her family hid Jews from the Nazis in the second world war. I cannot find that section offhand, it is in “In my Father’s House”, but here is a link to one of her excellent articles.
CHANGE LOG
Removed line about perjury, it destroyed the flow.
Shortened my confession…!
Added addendums about Is it Ever Okay to lie?