The Bible is a brutally honest book.  It spares no feelings and has no concern for political correctness.  It does not care if someone is offended by its messages. It deliberately calls out the vulgar actions of depraved persons yet with words that are delicate enough for even children to read.  It labels sins as sinful and announces their condemnation.  It does not pretend that all is well with the world, but instead it identifies the world's problems as the products of rebellion against God. Indeed, the Bible does not sugarcoat or soft-soap, mollify or placate, coddle or pacify, or tell white lies and half-truths, but rather it boldly speaks the whole truth without apology.

In our time, people are not accustomed to receiving such honest truth.  Our society has cultivated sensitivities in people so that the Bible's truth has become offensive to them.  Such people are deluded, believing that they should never have to hear anything that makes them uncomfortable or causes them displeasure.  This is nothing new, for ancient Judah likewise developed an ear for smooth words and lies that were easy to hear.  Scripture describes them in Isaiah 30:9-10:

⁹For this is a rebellious people, false sons, sons who refuse to listen to the instruction of the Lord; ¹⁰who say to the seers, "You must not see visions"; and to the prophets, "You must not prophesy to us what is right, speak to us pleasant words, prophesy illusions.  ¹¹Get out of the way, turn aside from the path, let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel."

Similarly in the New Testament, Scripture gives the following warning about those who will close their ears to God's word in 2Timothy 4:3-4:

³For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, ⁴and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.

The extent of this delusion is astounding, for many people stand in denial of the most obvious and undeniable facts.  To demonstrate, consider a familiar passage in Ecclesiastes 3:1-8.  Here the Bible calls on us to recognize the appropriate times for both pleasures and hardships in this life.  However, there are some in our society who would deny that there are ever appropriate times for hardships.  Here is the passage:

¹There is an appointed time for everything.  And there is a time for every event under heaven --

²A time to give birth and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted.

³A time to kill and a time to heal; a time to tear down and a time to build up.

⁴A time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance.

⁵A time to throw stones and a time to gather stones; a time to embrace and a time to shun embracing.

⁶A time to search and a time to give up as lost; a time to keep and a time to throw away.

⁷A time to tear apart and a time to sew together; a time to be silent and a time to speak.

⁸A time to love and a time to hate; a time for war and a time for peace.

By the modern sensitivities of our society, people don't want to hear that there is a time to die, uproot, kill, tear down, weep, mourn, throw stones, shun embracing, give up, throw away, tear apart, be silent, hate, or fight in war. Instead, they want to hear only pleasant words and illusions that conform to their delusions.  So then, if a man wants to believe he is a woman, then everyone is expected to respect his delusion and call him a woman.  If anyone wants to deny the existence of God (the most obvious fact of all -- Rom. 1:18-20), then everyone is expected to keep silent about the Holy One lest the unbeliever be offended.  If anyone wants to think that he has an inheritance in the kingdom of God even though he is an unrepentant sinner (1Cor. 6:9-10), then Christians are expected to hold their tongues and let him believe a lie.

It is no wonder then that so many people reject the truth of God's word.  If they cannot handle that which is unmistakably true by the general revelation of nature (i.e. the existence of God, the beginning of life at conception, the fact that God had created us unchangeably as male and female, the certainty of death, etc.), then how will they handle the spiritual truth of God's special revelation in the Scriptures?  Jesus said it Himself in John 3:12: "If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?"  Nevertheless, the truth of God's word must be told regardless of whether people want to believe it.  There is not both a time for truth and a time for lies, but rather there is only a time for truth.  Now and forever is the time for truth, and we must preach the truth of God's word whether men like it or not.

Stacey E. Durham