Discerning Truth from Falsehood

A friend of mine introduced me to a series of videos called "How It's Actually Made" in which videos of actual production processes are shown with narration that seems to be a humorous blend of truth, exaggeration, and often obvious jokes. The purpose of these videos is clearly to be entertaining, but the fact that actual production processes are shown, along with the fact that there are some truths in the narration, make these videos slightly educational as well. The tricky part is trying to discern the actual truths from the not-always-obvious falsehoods, and I've found that it's best to err on the side of caution and to not fully trust anything the narrator says.

Unfortunately, a lot of life is like that. When people talk, even when they're trying to be honest, not everything they say is going to be true, and it can sometimes be hard to discern the truths from the falsehoods. Thankfully, the same rule of thumb applies. As long as we take everything we heard and read with a grain of salt, we can try to avoid the trap of accidentally accepting as true a belief that is actually false.

Even more disturbingly, this can even happen at church. No one is perfect. Sometimes, people misspeak, misinterpret sacred text, or come to plausible but false conclusions. Even the sacred texts may not be free from error, as translations from one language to another sometimes lose or alter the meanings of words and phrases due to the fact that an idea that can be expressed in one language may not be able to be expressed clearly in another, and there is always the possibility of misinterpretation.

This is why it is so vital to try too develop the Spirit of Discernment, so the Spirit can help us sort divine truths from accidental (or humorously intentional) falsehoods. But even here, we must be careful. It can be difficult to discern the voice of the Spirit, and it's possible to confuse the voice of the Spirit with our own thoughts or perhaps even the voices of other spirits. It's difficult, if not impossible, to know whether the voice of the Spirit is truly the voice of the Holy Spirit confirming the truth of something that is actually true, or whether the voice is actually the voice of a deceiver, "confirming" the "truth" of something that is actually false.

Thankfully, I take some comfort in knowing that God can make obvious that which is important to get right. God often speaks through a still, small voice, but He can speak louder when He has to. If it is truly, vitally necessary for us to know the truth of something, He can make it plain in ways that cannot be misheard or misunderstood.

It's frightening that it can be nearly impossible to discern truth from falsehood in certain situations, but I'm glad to know that, if God knew it was important for us to know the absolute truth, He can make it practically impossible not to.