One of my favorite authors growing up was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of the epic Sherlock Holmes. One of his well-known statements is, of course, "Elementary my dear Watson!" But if you're a fan of the stories, you'll also recognize this notorious quote: "Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth."
That's quite a saying when we look at what is happening to truth today. Truth is being divided into two parts; and those two parts are fact and value. The fact side includes what we call the empirical, which is what you can see, hear, touch, taste and smell. You may call me ridiculous, or misinformed, but you will be amazed at what is being placed into the value side. The things that go into the value side are all based on preference and opinion, and hold no weight in our society today. One of these is God, another is ethics, and theology. But among these you will also find life, and even gender! Gender is placed over on the value side! what this means is, the truth about male and female is simply fictional! If you say you're not a male, then that's fine, you can be a female...and even something apart from the two! And here's an eye opener; any doctor you talk to believes that life begins at conception. They do? Sure! It's just that some of them don't put any value on the life until birth. Personhood is placed in the value side. Now if you're going to do that...if you're going to split truth into fact and value like that, what's to stop us from taking lives on the death side? So what can we gather from the stories of Sherlock Holmes that can help us with this major problem? Well, in the stories of Sherlock Holmes, there was an arch villain named Professor Moriarty. Moriarty was singularly the greatest opposition of Sherlock Holmes. but what people don't think about when they think of the evil Professor, is that he had a network of people working to get his evil deeds done. That's one of the things that we as Christians forget many times when it comes to Satan. Satan has a network. I don't know how many are in this network. But I do know that the Bible talks about the angels of heaven being ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands. This is a number that cannot be given, there are so many. If this describes the angels of heaven, then the Bible also states that a third of the angels were cast out of heaven. And while there are more on our side than there are on the wicked side, that's still a lot of angels. Just one angel was able to kill 120,000 Syrians overnight! Imagine an innumerable host! So lets kind of get the feel of this network that Satan has. It starts with the god of this world, Satan himself; but then it branches into the principalities, who could possibly be 10 great demons who work directly under Satan. They control continents and seas, etc. Now lets just narrow down to the continent of America. There is a demon in charge of our country, who has 50 demons who are divided into fifty states. These, in turn, are in charge of a battalion of angels who are over cities. Then these are in charge of those who cover streets, and homes...you get the picture. There are angels assigned to your home. I'm thankful that God does not allow us to see the spiritual warfare that is going on right now...however, though we cannot see the war that is taking place, if you do anything for God, you certainly get a feel for it! The greatest goal that Satan has is to rob this world of truth. Professor Moriarty was a thief. And he aided all of the criminals of London in exchange for their allegiance to him. Moriarty was wealthy because of his thievery. In the same way, there is a valuable item in our society that Satan is trying to rob us of. And he is using his network of demons to do it. It is something that he has convinced man is no longer of any value, and need not be so guarded. However, the Bible counsels us to buy it, and never sell it. It is of more value than the Crown Jewels of England. It is the truth. Proverbs 23:23 says, "Buy the truth and sell it not!" As Christians, we need to do what we can to investigate the splitting of the truth that we are seeing today; and like Sherlock Holmes, we need to do what we can to put an end to the evil plans of Satan. We need to do what we can to prove to the world that what remains in our churches, in our Bibles, in our understanding...however improbable...it must be the truth! Can I challenge you to start with this...there is one thing that we as Christians possess that is the backbone to all that we believe concerning God, and His Son, Jesus Christ. It is the solid foundation that makes it impossible for this world to separate truth, even though they think they can. It is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Remember what I said at the beginning of this post. The world is trying to separate truth into fact and value. Fact is based on the empirical; what you can see, touch, taste, hear, and smell. But according to I John 1:1, I see that as impossible. So, like Sherlock Holmes, we must eliminate the impossible, and in this case, splitting the truth is impossible. I John 1:1 says, "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the Word of Life [Jesus Christ]." So can I say like Sherlock Holmes..."It is ELEMENTARY my dear Watson!" You cannot divide the truth! And so "once you eliminate the impossible; all that remains, however improbable, must be the truth!" So Fan the Flame! Proclaim the truth! Preach the Word! And for goodness sake, Watson! Make deductions!
One of my favorite authors growing up was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of the epic Sherlock Holmes. One of his well-known statements is, of course, "Elementary my dear Watson!" But if you're a fan of the stories, you'll also recognize this notorious quote: "Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth."
That's quite a saying when we look at what is happening to truth today. Truth is being divided into two parts; and those two parts are fact and value. The fact side includes what we call the empirical, which is what you can see, hear, touch, taste and smell. You may call me ridiculous, or misinformed, but you will be amazed at what is being placed into the value side. The things that go into the value side are all based on preference and opinion, and hold no weight in our society today. One of these is God, another is ethics, and theology. But among these you will also find life, and even gender! Gender is placed over on the value side! what this means is, the truth about male and female is simply fictional! If you say you're not a male, then that's fine, you can be a female...and even something apart from the two! And here's an eye opener; any doctor you talk to believes that life begins at conception. They do? Sure! It's just that some of them don't put any value on the life until birth. Personhood is placed in the value side. Now if you're going to do that...if you're going to split truth into fact and value like that, what's to stop us from taking lives on the death side? So what can we gather from the stories of Sherlock Holmes that can help us with this major problem? Well, in the stories of Sherlock Holmes, there was an arch villain named Professor Moriarty. Moriarty was singularly the greatest opposition of Sherlock Holmes. but what people don't think about when they think of the evil Professor, is that he had a network of people working to get his evil deeds done. That's one of the things that we as Christians forget many times when it comes to Satan. Satan has a network. I don't know how many are in this network. But I do know that the Bible talks about the angels of heaven being ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands. This is a number that cannot be given, there are so many. If this describes the angels of heaven, then the Bible also states that a third of the angels were cast out of heaven. And while there are more on our side than there are on the wicked side, that's still a lot of angels. Just one angel was able to kill 120,000 Syrians overnight! Imagine an innumerable host! So lets kind of get the feel of this network that Satan has. It starts with the god of this world, Satan himself; but then it branches into the principalities, who could possibly be 10 great demons who work directly under Satan. They control continents and seas, etc. Now lets just narrow down to the continent of America. There is a demon in charge of our country, who has 50 demons who are divided into fifty states. These, in turn, are in charge of a battalion of angels who are over cities. Then these are in charge of those who cover streets, and homes...you get the picture. There are angels assigned to your home. I'm thankful that God does not allow us to see the spiritual warfare that is going on right now...however, though we cannot see the war that is taking place, if you do anything for God, you certainly get a feel for it! The greatest goal that Satan has is to rob this world of truth. Professor Moriarty was a thief. And he aided all of the criminals of London in exchange for their allegiance to him. Moriarty was wealthy because of his thievery. In the same way, there is a valuable item in our society that Satan is trying to rob us of. And he is using his network of demons to do it. It is something that he has convinced man is no longer of any value, and need not be so guarded. However, the Bible counsels us to buy it, and never sell it. It is of more value than the Crown Jewels of England. It is the truth. Proverbs 23:23 says, "Buy the truth and sell it not!" As Christians, we need to do what we can to investigate the splitting of the truth that we are seeing today; and like Sherlock Holmes, we need to do what we can to put an end to the evil plans of Satan. We need to do what we can to prove to the world that what remains in our churches, in our Bibles, in our understanding...however improbable...it must be the truth! Can I challenge you to start with this...there is one thing that we as Christians possess that is the backbone to all that we believe concerning God, and His Son, Jesus Christ. It is the solid foundation that makes it impossible for this world to separate truth, even though they think they can. It is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Remember what I said at the beginning of this post. The world is trying to separate truth into fact and value. Fact is based on the empirical; what you can see, touch, taste, hear, and smell. But according to I John 1:1, I see that as impossible. So, like Sherlock Holmes, we must eliminate the impossible, and in this case, splitting the truth is impossible. I John 1:1 says, "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the Word of Life [Jesus Christ]." So can I say like Sherlock Holmes..."It is ELEMENTARY my dear Watson!" You cannot divide the truth! And so "once you eliminate the impossible; all that remains, however improbable, must be the truth!" So Fan the Flame! Proclaim the truth! Preach the Word! And for goodness sake, Watson! Make deductions!