One Word Of Truth Outweighs The World
[The devil] was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. – John 8.44
If a ruler listens to falsehood, all his officials will be wicked – Proverbs 29.12
The simple step of a courageous individual is not to take part in a lie. One word of truth outweighs the world. – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Have you ever thought back over your life about the things that have molded you, your thinking and your life direction – things that have impacted you and made you who and what you are?
The first serious book I remember reading was Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago. It came out just after I turned 13. Growing up during the Cold War I had learned that leftist ideology was evil, but until I read Solzhenitsyn I didn’t have a clear understanding of why.
I was shocked to learn that the Soviet government restricted and altered world news to paint a false picture of what was going on in the world to control the minds of the people.
I was horrified that the Soviet government was to manipulate data and distort facts – to lie – in court to convict a man, not for criminal action, but merely for what he believed. I was horrified that lawyers and judges accepted such distortions uncritically and re-interpreted the words of the prosecuted in whatever way was necessary to achieve a predetermined conviction of guilt.
I was also horrified by the mental and physical torture of the gulag itself, creating a prison society of utter distrust – prisoners being encouraged to spy on each other and being rewarded for doing so; those caught ‘doing wrong’ were denied rations or put with scant clothing into tiny unheated outdoor cells of solitary confinement in the Russian winter. Interrogators lied to prisoners during interrogations, giving false hopes of release or seeing family to create disappointment, fear, and despair – emotional breakdown designed to force acceptance of the Marxist world view.
I had always been taught to tell the truth and that lying was evil. But until I read Solzhenitsyn, I never comprehended how insidious and destructive lies could be. The inhumanity of the evil of Marxism was etched deeply into my mind and heart.
A few years after reading The Gulag Archipelago I converted to evangelical Christianity and went to Bible college, where one day I heard Georgi Vins, a Russian Baptist pastor who had served time in a Soviet prison camp for his faith. Pastor Vins had only been recently released and his experience recounted in his chapel message and later at our lunch table was Solzhenitsyn all over again. Pastor Vins, however, was persecuted, not for his politics, but for his Christian faith.
People lie – but we are taught that bearing false witness is wrong. The ugliness of leftist ideology is its approval of lying and intentional manipulation and distortion of truth to mislead people, not only to achieve political goals, but to destroy souls that stand in the way of those goals (cf. e.g. Proverbs 6.16-19). More than a political evil, it is a moral one and an enemy, not only of freedom, but of God, His truth, and our faith. Those who claim differently have either swallowed a lie or are telling one.
Distrust is my default position regarding anything remotely leftist. That distrust was built into me by the impact of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s books, and the wisdom of that distrust has been confirmed by the testimony of others many times over since.
If a ruler listens to falsehood, all his officials will be wicked – Proverbs 29.12
The simple step of a courageous individual is not to take part in a lie. One word of truth outweighs the world. – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Have you ever thought back over your life about the things that have molded you, your thinking and your life direction – things that have impacted you and made you who and what you are?
The first serious book I remember reading was Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago. It came out just after I turned 13. Growing up during the Cold War I had learned that leftist ideology was evil, but until I read Solzhenitsyn I didn’t have a clear understanding of why.
I was shocked to learn that the Soviet government restricted and altered world news to paint a false picture of what was going on in the world to control the minds of the people.
I was horrified that the Soviet government was to manipulate data and distort facts – to lie – in court to convict a man, not for criminal action, but merely for what he believed. I was horrified that lawyers and judges accepted such distortions uncritically and re-interpreted the words of the prosecuted in whatever way was necessary to achieve a predetermined conviction of guilt.
I was also horrified by the mental and physical torture of the gulag itself, creating a prison society of utter distrust – prisoners being encouraged to spy on each other and being rewarded for doing so; those caught ‘doing wrong’ were denied rations or put with scant clothing into tiny unheated outdoor cells of solitary confinement in the Russian winter. Interrogators lied to prisoners during interrogations, giving false hopes of release or seeing family to create disappointment, fear, and despair – emotional breakdown designed to force acceptance of the Marxist world view.
I had always been taught to tell the truth and that lying was evil. But until I read Solzhenitsyn, I never comprehended how insidious and destructive lies could be. The inhumanity of the evil of Marxism was etched deeply into my mind and heart.
A few years after reading The Gulag Archipelago I converted to evangelical Christianity and went to Bible college, where one day I heard Georgi Vins, a Russian Baptist pastor who had served time in a Soviet prison camp for his faith. Pastor Vins had only been recently released and his experience recounted in his chapel message and later at our lunch table was Solzhenitsyn all over again. Pastor Vins, however, was persecuted, not for his politics, but for his Christian faith.
People lie – but we are taught that bearing false witness is wrong. The ugliness of leftist ideology is its approval of lying and intentional manipulation and distortion of truth to mislead people, not only to achieve political goals, but to destroy souls that stand in the way of those goals (cf. e.g. Proverbs 6.16-19). More than a political evil, it is a moral one and an enemy, not only of freedom, but of God, His truth, and our faith. Those who claim differently have either swallowed a lie or are telling one.
Distrust is my default position regarding anything remotely leftist. That distrust was built into me by the impact of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s books, and the wisdom of that distrust has been confirmed by the testimony of others many times over since.