The Burden of Proof

 

 

If I claim what I am not

Am I telling the truth?

And if I say, that’s how I feel

Is that acceptable proof?

 

If the truth is what it’s not

Then what is a lie?

A lie would be the truth

Can’t you see why?

 

They would be synonyms

Words that mean the same

Hence, right now you think

That I am insane.

 

This kind of argument

Is prevalent these days,

We have gone stark raving mad

In so many ways.

 

 

Truth is a feeling

That burns deep inside

And once I sincerely feel it

That truth cannot be denied.

 

There is a truth for you

And a truth for me,

And though diametrically opposing

It is the truth that we see.

 

I see it as black

While you see it as white,

We are both correct

The two are alike.

 

 

 

Similarities in differences

Difference in similarities

Truth and falsehood

Are established parities.

 

Established in the sense

That it was not always so

But given our recent knowledge

It’s a fact we now know.

 

I fear for our children

I hope you can see why,

The goalposts have been moved,

On what can we rely?

 

 

What will our teachers teach

If a lie is the truth?

Hence the title above:

That is the burden of proof.

 

Stewart Russell © October 2019

 

Half Truth Is Whole Lie

 

 

I received this one today

Even though I knew it before,

But for some reason I cannot tell

It grabbed me even more.

 

I believe it was the Holy Spirit:

His timing is always on time

And I am fully convinced of this

Re how this impacts my mind.

 

“A little leaven,” the Word says,

“Leaveneth the whole lump.”

Hence, the use of half-truths to get by

Must certainly be debunked.

 

There is no darkness in light

For light dispels all darkness

But shadows you will definitely see

Because of light’s brightness.

 

In the same very way

The truth will show up a lie,

And wherever the slightest falsehood

It will be seen through truth’s eye.

 

 

Half-truth is a whole lie

Which makes half-truth a misnomer,

Half-truth really does not exist

Though some think it is clever.

 

There is no truth in a lie:

I know that will be hard to take

But when one passes off a lie as truth,

That one becomes a fake.

 

Half-truths do not exist

And neither do fake-truths

But given the direction in which we are headed,

People will present a false proof.

 

Stewart Russell © August 7, 2021

 

No Such Thing as Truth! How true can this be?

If in fact as postmodernists declare

There is no such thing as truth

Would this not also be a falsehood?

You see, in itself it gives the proof.

They are trying their very best

To rubbish God’s Holy Word

And in trying to achieve this feat

They will even use the absurd.

There is no such thing as truth

Is a contradiction; there is no doubt,

It shows the lie for all that follows

And such a premise must be thrown out.

For once the premise is faulty

The whole argument tumbles down

And as brilliant as postmodernists appear

They must be viewed as circus clowns.

We live in a knowledge boom time

In which knowledge is on the increase,

In the Bible we read of this era

But this too will also cease.

There is no such thing as truth

Are you quick to believe in such?

Or are we saying like some today

That truth doesn’t matter much?

“We live in a time of universal deceit

And telling the truth is revolutionary.”

These words attributed to George Orwell

Really must be a cause for worry.

In a day of fake news and alternative facts

Truth must in deed be strange

And if there is no such thing as truth

This world must clearly be deranged.

In a world of madness is where we are

Cunningly pretending to be sane,

The Emperor’s new clothes are on us

As lies packaged as truth and so renamed.

  

“Hath God said?” you’d remember that,

The first case of an alternative fact

That altered the face of original truth

And led the first humans into a trap.

A trap from which they could not escape,

The consequences are still felt today

And men have moved away from truth,

No such thing as truth you hear them say.

“A Strong delusion” according to the Bible

That’s how the word of God puts it,

And man has perfected the art of lying

Such that it has become a compelling habit.

There is no such thing as truth

Once only the tiniest of germs at birth

Has grown in quantum leaps exponentially

And now it fills the entire earth.

It puzzled a Roman governor too

When once he had asked what is truth,

Oblivious at that particular time

That standing before him was his proof.

There is no such thing as truth

Means that today any and everything goes,

No wonder our world is in such a state

And man born of a woman is full of woes.

Many are comfortable with believing a lie,

“It’s truth,” some would dare to expound

Even though with comprehensive examination

No such evidence can be found.

A strong delusion I must repeat

For having believed an obvious lie

Our world today is in desperate straits

And creation’s beginning it still denies.

Everything hinges and hangs on the beginning

And the truths concerning that,

If in fact there is no such thing as truth

Then all we believe is a lie and that’s a fact.

Scattered, wandering and groping in fear

Moving further away from the Light

Fooling ourselves we are seeing quite clear

But terribly disoriented in our plight.

Post-truth is the new word; do take note

As accepted by the Oxford Dictionaries,

It relegates the evidence of objective facts

And establishes personal beliefs as summaries.

There is no such thing as truth

Because the false is all that we know

Having long dispelled the truth from our mind

Post-truth is the only way to go.

Post-truth is what enables our agendas

Personal and selfish though they be,

The word of God is reckoned a lie

When the blind believe that they can see.

He that is well needs not a physician

And he that can see, no balm for his eye

But truth will out and it always does

Even to the stoutest of them that deny.

There is no such thing as truth

We all that statement should defy

For if it were correct it could still not be a fact

Since built into such truth is the lie.

There is no such thing as truth

How true can this really be?

Not true at all you must agree

Since its very sense is contradictory.

Stewart Russell © 2017

The Sunday Morning Sermon

What moved you about the sermon?

Was it the content or the consent?

Did you feel comfortable and consoled?

Or did you hear stuff that you resent?

Was it loud, long and light?

Or was it riveted in the word and true?

What was it about the Sunday morning sermon

That really reached out to you?

Christendom’s populace seems bent

On a diet of ongoing entertainment,

Particularly among the young

But also those of the older segment.

Take for example today’s trend

Regarding the concerts, the music, the artists

No doubt very much out of place

Would be a message from John the Baptist.

Christian education is suffering

It’s under siege by Christian entertainment

And its promoters give much time and resources

To ensure to the youth it is relevant.

For there’s competition in the market square

Vying for the attention of the youth

And what we see in the secular

Is also among the Christians: that’s the truth.

There is fast becoming no distinction

Between these appealing facets

And now the rivalry is set and raging

As though to determine who is the best at it.

The concert halls are packed at weekends

And at that place when it is up on the hill,

I am not so sure about the message

But certainly the fans are there for the thrill.

The Gospel artistes will turn on the charm

And the audience will definitely respond

And depending on the artiste’s popularity

The applause could go on and on and on.

  

This is intermingled with praises

I am not always sure to whom they are inclined,

Whether it’s God above who is to be honoured

Or these are the praises to men assigned.

For the way some artistes are regarded

Would make you shudder more than a bit,

Some terms like anointed and awesome

Have become the regular audit.

And preachers are not to be left out

For they too are getting in on the act,

Much of their Sunday morning sermons

Have built in an entertainment pack.

Replete with antics and clichés

Designed to evoke hallelujah and amen

But regarding content and the word

Not much of that is coming from them.

Often they will open with a scripture

And right after they will close the word

And then proceed with the act

I am sure you have both seen and heard.

This is the morning after the night before

And the hallowed halls are not nearly as packed

As the concert halls after last evening,

I am not joking for you know that this is a fact.

For many have slept in late Sunday morning

And the few that have ventured out

Must be stirred up by the preached word

As the preacher pontificates and shouts.

His performance must be on the level

As the performance they witnessed last night

And so he will take his time to present

A sermon that is loud and long and light.

Loud because he must keep them awake,

Long because it must appear he has much content,

Light because there is little truth to the above

For not much word is presented is my lament.

And so we have the competition

Between Christian education and entertainment

Entertainment is the winner by a distance

And it’s education that they resent.

The result is a paucity of knowledge

As it particularly pertains to the word

And a tempered, watered down education

Since people must be otherwise stirred.

“What’s emotional is what’s important (1)

And how I feel rather than my spiritual state (2)

For sermons which are dead and staid (3)

Are the sermons that I deplore and hate.” (4)

Lines one and two are nonsense

However with lines three and four I concur,

Any preacher who preaches a dead sermon

Probably did not to God’s word refer.

For the word of God is quick and powerful

And sharper than any two edged sword,

While the preaching might be dead and staid

There is nothing dead about the word.

It’s time that we review our posture

Both as Christians here and abroad,

For untoward times are upon us

And we are spoken of as frauds.

For our stance speaks to double standards

And such is no stance at all,

Rather it’s the proverbial sitting on the fence

And it’s time to reexamine our call.

It’s a call to be pure and to be righteous,

It’s a call to holiness and to truth,

It’s a call to the few that are chosen

To take up God’s charge and show full proof.

There is a message somewhere in this poem

I do not mean to be critical or snide

But for me I will think on that message

And adapt where to me it can be applied.

I pray that God will bless and honour your ministry

In whichever part of the vineyard you are

But I also pray about the Sunday morning sermon

That with God’s word it will be on par.

Stewart Russell © June, 2017