CLARITY

From My Perspective - - -

It is vital that one maintain credibility at all times and at all costs. However, Credibility without Clarity can prove to be wooden and ill-defined. A person can have Credibility but if that person never articulates his/her worldview with Clarity there can be little benefit to and for anyone from that Credibility. We live in a period of History where there are rapidly changing events on the world’s stage. Very often, the reporting of those events is in terms that are vague, misleading, ambiguous and deceitful. The truth becomes enshrouded with intrigue. That which seems obvious is blurred by those who desire to maintain a personal narrative of the events for their own designs and purposes. Deceit reigns where Clarity should be in the forefront.

Occasionally, a voice is raised that cuts through the verbiage of the day, and utters the truth in a commanding way. It becomes a breath of fresh air penetrating through the stench of subterfuge. On September 27th, when Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel addressed the United Nations, he spoke definitively and with Clarity. Part of his address included the following: “Three thousand years ago, King David reigned over the Jewish state in our eternal capital, Jerusalem. I say that to all those who proclaim that the Jewish state has no roots in our region and that it will soon disappear. Throughout our history, the Jewish people have overcome all the tyrants who have sought our destruction. It’s their ideologies that have been discarded by history. The people of Israel live on…”

Netanyahu then addressed his view of Modernity when he said: “In Israel, the past and the future find common ground. Unfortunately, that is not the case in many other countries. For today, a great battle is being waged between the modern and the medieval. The forces of modernity seek a bright future in which the rights of all are protected, in which an ever-expanding digital library is available in the palm of every child, in which every life is sacred. The forces of medievalism seek a world in which women and minorities are subjugated, in which knowledge is suppressed, in which not life but death is glorified. These forces clash around the globe, but nowhere more starkly than in the Middle East…Israel cherishes life, Israel cherishes peace and seeks peace. We seek to preserve our historic ties and our historic peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan. We seek to forge a durable peace with the Palestinians…We won’t solve our conflict with libelous speeches at the UN. That’s not the way to solve it. We won’t solve our conflict with unilateral declarations of statehood…Israel wants to see a Middle East of progress and peace. We want to see the three great religions that sprang forth from our region – Judaism, Christianity and Islam – coexist in peace and in mutual respect. Yet the medieval forces of radical Islam, whom you just saw storming the American embassies throughout the Middle East, they oppose this. They seek supremacy over all Muslims. They are bent on world conquest. They want to destroy Israel, Europe, America. They want to extinguish freedom. They want to end the modern world…Ultimately they will fail. Ultimately, light will penetrate the darkness.”

In Jeremiah 9:4-6, we have a word from The Lord: “Beware of your friends; do not trust your brothers. For every brother is a deceiver, and every friend a slanderer. Friend deceives friend, and no one speaks the truth. They have taught their tongues to lie; they weary themselves with sinning. You live in the midst of deception; in their deceit they refuse to acknowledge me, declares the Lord.” Similarly, in Ephesians 4:25 (NKJV), “…putting away lying, Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor, for we are members of one another.” In 1968, Francis Schaeffer wrote, Escape From Reason. Part of his thesis was: “It is an important principle to remember, in the contemporary interest in communication and in language study, that the biblical presentation is that though we do not have exhaustive truth, we have from the Bible what I term true truth. In this way we know true truth about God, true truth about man, and something truly about nature. Thus on the basis of the Scriptures, while we do not have exhaustive knowledge, we have true and unified knowledge.” We need to return to the foundations of Truth and be emboldened to declare The Truth with Clarity. Consider these things with me.