“Sir, can you help me; I’m searching for spiritual Truth. I feel that there is such a thing and I want it. I’ve spoken with a number of church pastors and parishioners about this issue. I’ve asked them to tell me which church is THE church and which has THE truth. So now I’m asking you, which one is right?”   “All of them.”   “But I’m seeking GOD’S Truth.”   “All of them have GOD’S Truth.”   “But each one has a different set of  truths.”   “Right. You see, truth is subjective. Therefore, finding truth is very simple: you determine what you want truth to be, find a church that declares that truth and join it. Or, if you have been brought up in a church and taught that that church’s truth is THE truth, then stay there.”   “But which one has the RIGHT truth?”   “All of them. You see, ‘RIGHT’ and ‘TRUTH’ are what each church has determined them to be. In the world’s church system each church is THE CHURCH, has THE TRUTH and is RIGHT.”   “But everyone I’ve talked to says that the words of the Bible are GOD’S TRUTHS, and that God wrote the Bible and declared it to be THE TRUTH.”   “Well, it’s true that God wrote the Bible, and that it is His Truth. But, this creates a problem. You see, we don’t always like His Truth. So, being the gracious God that He is, He allows us to ignore what we don’t like and to tweek the rest to make it right, or at least acceptable. In other words, each church is allowed to make the Bible say what it wants it to say.”   “So each church has its own version of TRUTH?”   “Right.”   “So there are as many sets of TRUTHS as there are churches?”   “Now you’ve got it.”   “I’m confused; if THE BIBLE contains THE TRUTH, why not just have ONE CHURCH with ONE BIBLE and ONE TRUTH?”   “That would create ONE UNSOLVABLE PROBLEM.”   “How so?”   “Well, you see, if everyone in the church believed the Bible and obeyed it, that would make everyone subservient to God, Who wrote the Bible–not good. You see, if we accept His Bible as THE BIBLE and His Truths as THE TRUTHS, then we have to obey HIS BIBLE TRUTHS. We would have to answer to and serve HIM. This would take control of the church out of our hands. Again, not good. Our way, each church creates its OWN TRUTHS and ANSWERS ONLY TO ITSELF.”   “Why didn’t any of those church people I talked to explain that to me?”   “Well, no one’s going to admit it. You will hear much talk about ONE BIBLE, ONE TRUTH, ONE GOD, ONE HEAD, ONE BODY, ONE FAITH, THE UNITY OF BELIEVERS and such–that’s just church-speak. If we actually believed that there would be only ONE CHURCH ruled by God according to ONE TRUTH, not hundreds of churches and hundreds of truths determined by people.”   “It’s all so confusing–hundreds of churches and truths.”   “You have stumbled upon the crux of the matter–it’s all one big confusing mess. That’s why you must never study the Bible on your own. You are not equipped to understand it. The various churches have leaders trained to guide you into that church’s TRUTH and to steer you away from the parts of the Bible that are useless.”   “Now I’m even more confused. If the Bible is THE TRUTH, what parts are useless?”   “All those parts–actually most of the Bible–that contradict your church’s doctrines. If you studied on your own you will find many such contradictions. Then you would begin to question your church’s truths, which would cause you to search even deeper for even more contradicting Truths. Confusion would reign. You will save yourself a lot of trouble by listening only to what comes from your church’s pulpits and podiums and read only what comes from your church’s headquarters. The people in charge know what they’re doing. Just follow them.”   “Now I’m even more confused.”   “Here’s the simplified truth: it’s not WHAT GOD SAID IN THE BIBLE that counts, its WHAT WE SAY HE SAID OR SHOULD HAVE SAID that actually matters. Now, we don’t mind correcting Him, in fact, He requires us to edit His Word so that each church can have its own set of doctrines. After all, ‘Variety is the spice of life,’ right? It’s all about love, inclusion, etc., right? It all boils down to this, if He had gotten it right in the first place, we wouldn’t have to be constantly correcting Him. So actually, this whole mess is His fault.”   “Well, I believe that His Bible is the ONLY TRUTH and He commands us to obey it.”   “Now that’s really bad.”   “How so?”   “You see, if that were true, that would make Him both LORD AND SAVIOR. To be saved we would be forced to obey HIS WORDS. That would make Him our Lord–our spiritual Boss. HIS WAY would be the ONLY WAY. This would be intolerable. We like to create our own ways. But don’t worry; we haven’t totally discarded Him. We’re not bad people–we’re Christians. So, even though we reject Him as Lord, we’re keeping Him on as Savior.” L.J.