# Walking in Truth in a World of Lies

## Metadata
- Author: [[Steve Gallagher]]
- Full Title: Walking in Truth in a World of Lies
- Category: #books
## Highlights
- The word deception could be defined as communication or behavior that is meant to leave others with a false impression. ([Location 86](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08FBC2TT3&location=86))
- 12According to Robert S. Feldman, the psychologist who conducted the study: People tell a considerable number of lies in everyday conversation. It was a very surprising result. We didn’t expect lying to be such a common part of daily life… It’s so easy to lie. We teach our children that honesty is the best policy, but we also tell them it’s polite to pretend they like a birthday gift they’ve been given. Kids get a very mixed message regarding the practical aspects of lying, and it has an impact on how they behave as adults.13 ([Location 117](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08FBC2TT3&location=117))
- Habitual liars are so accustomed to deceiving others that they actually get to where they can no longer differentiate truth from falsehood; or, at the very least, lose track of all of the lies they have told. Such people have been termed prolific liars, chronic liars, inveterate liars, and, at the extreme end, pathological liars. And who could forget New York Times columnist William Safire calling Hillary Clinton a “congenital liar”? “They delight in falsehood,” observed David. (Psalm 62:4) In other words, habitual liars take great pleasure in propagating false narratives and perpetuating dishonest impressions. ([Location 127](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08FBC2TT3&location=127))
- Being subjected to an unrelenting barrage of falsehood has a way of leaving people in a state of undetected cynicism. ([Location 141](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08FBC2TT3&location=141))
- Cynicism has now become so rooted in American thought that even standards of honesty that have been established over many decades in our society are held in contempt. ([Location 147](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08FBC2TT3&location=147))
- “Postmodernism really isn’t about ‘truth,’ it’s about doing whatever is right in our own eyes.” -SHANE IDLEMAN1 ([Location 152](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08FBC2TT3&location=152))
- “The church in its effort to become relevant has become irrelevant. It has decided to redefine itself in such clearly cultural terms to appeal to the culture that it can’t confront the culture.” -OS GUINNESS2 ([Location 154](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08FBC2TT3&location=154))
- When considering the subject of truth, one must take into account the fact that a person’s perspective about truth will be heavily clouded by what he wants it to be. The one who hungers for righteousness will tend to be very open and amenable to God’s truth. On the other hand, a sex addict, for instance, would be very vulnerable to the falsehoods of antinomianism—the errant belief that grace frees the Christian from the gospel’s demands for holy living. ([Location 162](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08FBC2TT3&location=162))
- In large part, human beings are willing to believe anything, as long as it caters to what they want. The enemy, fully understanding this human tendency, has become very adept at creating belief systems with just enough plausibility to make them credible. These fabricated religious systems keep people by the millions from coming into a saving knowledge of God. That’s bad enough, but—perhaps worse—they also create so much confusion and uncertainty in the religious realm that, without the aid of the Holy Spirit, not even the stoutest seeker would have the wherewithal to ferret out the truth. ([Location 166](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08FBC2TT3&location=166))
- In 2016 the Oxford Dictionaries named “Post-truth” as Word of the Year. “Post-truth” has been defined as the phenomenon in which “objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” ([Location 174](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08FBC2TT3&location=174))
- The public is increasingly favoring the more tolerant philosophy of humanistic relativism. People think everyone’s opinions and ideas should be considered “relative to differences in perception and consideration. There is no universal, objective truth according to relativism; rather each point of view has its own truth.” ([Location 181](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08FBC2TT3&location=181))
- Much of this vein of thinking can be laid at the doorstep of Friedrich Nietzche who was convinced that a person’s beliefs are neither right nor wrong. He dismissed the ethical system of Christianity as a “slave morality” followed by fearful and weak people. According to his thinking, an emotionally healthy person would reject the Christian ethic and create his own. ([Location 183](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08FBC2TT3&location=183))
- The lack of love and godliness in the lives of professing Christians* leave unbelievers simply shaking their heads in self-righteous disgust. ([Location 189](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08FBC2TT3&location=189))