Signs of the Times – Bastardizing the Truth

There are many signs of the times we live in which point to the rapid return of Christ. One of those signs is the current trend people have toward bastardizing the truth. While this is not a new phenomenon, it has gathered intensity and widespread acceptance both in the world and in the church. Bastardizing the truth is one of the key features pointed out in Scripture as a sure sign of where we stand in relation to the end of this age.

If we are to appreciate the impact this process has we need to understand what bastardizing the truth means. So, what does it mean to bastardize something? According to Merriam-Webster (1), it means;

• to reduce from a higher to a lower state or condition : debase
• to declare or prove to be a bastard
• to modify especially by introducing discordant or disparate elements

This process, as we stated earlier, is not a new phenomenon. What is new is the intensity it is being performed both in the world and in the Body of Christ – the church. How can we know when someone is bastardizing the truth? First, let’s look at how the world goes about it. A great example of this is seen in the propagation of the fallacy of evolution.

By all accounts (meaning when scientific methods are used and adhered to), evolution is proven to be an impossibility. It is impossible statistically, chemically and biologically. There are so many contradictions between what is assumed (by those who believe in evolution) and what is known, or can be verified scientifically, it should be patently obvious. That is where the bastardization of truth comes into play. People who don’t believe in God – and more importantly those who don’t want to believe in Him – find ways to mystically reduce the order of creation to merely physical means. It doesn’t seem to matter to them that the means they espouse contradict known physical laws, they simply choose to believe the assumptions they claim.

Protein degradation is a chemical fact, so intact heme molecules should not be present in 65M year old fossilized dinosaur bones – yet there it is. Racemization of amino acids is a fact, yet they can’t account for the L-form specific sequencing of proteins. They don’t know how old the universe is. They don’t know where matter came from in the first place. They pick and choose which ‘facts’ they believe and which they don’t. The list goes on and on and on.

The bastardization of truth is seen in the way these ‘scientists’ adamantly deny Creation; vehement denial in spite of the volumes of information they confess they don’t know. If you don’t ‘know’ how something happened, how can you ‘know’ it didn’t happen the way someone claims it did? They introduce all kinds of ‘what if’ scenarios and guesses when confronted with hard questions. They introduce discordant or disparate elements to justify why they continue to believe the unproven. They are bastardizing the truth.

Bastardizing the truth is also running rampant in the church – a sure sign that things are lining up in the last days exactly as foretold. An example of this is seen in the way many professing Christians view homosexual ‘marriage.’ Despite the clear warning of Scripture, an increasing number of Christians reduce those Scriptures to mere suggestions, or give some bizarre interpretation which aligns with their errant thinking. They reduce the upward call of Christ in Scripture to a lesser form of humanistic thinking. Instead of professing the power of the New Birth they profess the acceptance of a deviant lifestyle. They ignore abundant and detailed Scripture, choosing instead to satisfy themselves with human thoughts and ideas. They are bastardizing the truth.

There are many and numerous examples available, but these are the first things that come to mind. The answer for this error, as with anything else in a life pleasing to God, is the subjection of our errant thinking to the infallible Word of God;

2 Cor 10:4-5

For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ

May God grant us the clarity of thought necessary to avoid succumbing to bastardizing the truth.

(1) http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bastardize