Right now, in our courts, press briefing rooms, news studios, offices, factory floors, classrooms and living rooms of America and beyond, we are learning on the largest possible scale what happens when we disregard truth.

We see it in our courtrooms—the place perhaps above all others that is designed to reveal the truth. Yet here we find not the impartial pursuit of justice but rather politically motivated lies.

Take, for example, Fani Willis, the district attorney who indicted Donald Trump and 18 other people for election interference in Georgia. She used taxpayer dollars to hire to lead the prosecution an unqualified man with whom she was in an adulterous relationship. The two spent public money for romantic trips together and lied about it. When subjected to a hearing about these transgressions and deceits, Willis took the stand, swore to tell “the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth,” possibly perjured herself, and acted defiantly. Nathan Wade, her lover, insisted under oath that the two had no romantic connection and minimal contact before she hired him. Yet lawyers produced phone data analysis showing that, during the 11 months before Wade was hired, the two had tallied “over 2,000 voice calls and just under 12,000 interactions”—an average of six phone calls and 36 text messages per day for 11 months straight. What happens when those we entrust to expose truth are such bold liars?

We see this same problem in our network studios, in the decisions of executives and journalists selecting certain information, omitting important information, incorporating false information. Take, for example, the way mainstream media outlets, convinced of the righteousness of her cause in prosecuting Trump, sided with Fani Willis despite her ethical breaches and lies. On one cnn panel discussion, former federal prosecutor Jeffrey Toobin outright said, “So what? … Suppose they had this relationship—suppose they lied! Why does that disqualify them in this proceeding?”

This is how elites, radicals and everyday Americans treat truth: “So what?”

People Do Not Care

Pursuing truth is fundamental to education, which is meant to be a purveyor and bastion of truth. The motto of America’s most prestigious university, Harvard, is “Veritas,” Latin for truth.

In December 2023, Harvard president Claudine Gay was found to have repeatedly committed academic deception: plagiarism. University leaders claimed it was mere carelessness. When Gay, under outside pressure, finally stepped down, the mainstream media said she had been victimized by conservatives’ political attacks, or even racist attacks because Gay is black. So what if the president of the university steals work and lies about it? Why should that disqualify her from overseeing the education of our nation’s topflight students?

In February, a story stormed social media that a “nonbinary” biological girl named Nex Benedict had been beaten to death by anti-lgbt bullies in an Oklahoma high school bathroom. Vice President Kamala Harris and the White House press secretary spoke out to defend “lgbtqi+ youth.” National media coverage magnified small vigils held by homosexual groups. glsen (formerly known as the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network) blamed Nex’s death on “anti-trans hatred peddled by Chaya Raichik (Libs of TikTok), bigoted school leaders and extremist state legislators.” Yet the facts reported by police, backed by bodycam footage of their discussion with Nex after the fight, showed that Nex (real name Dagney, and not clearly “nonbinary” as the media said) started the fight by provoking some younger girls she didn’t know (not bullies that regularly plagued her). She showed no sign of serious physical harm, and autopsy results show she did not die of trauma; in fact, her death may have been completely unrelated to the fight. So what about the facts? Anti-lgbt violence is real!

Such examples occur routinely. Everywhere you look, facts and truth are being buried by narrative and spin: our media, our political class, big business, entertainment, education. When lying serves political, financial, aspirational or romantic goals, people everywhere are willing to bend the truth.

But the truth is, the truth does not bend.

Blurring Truth and Lies

Saying “so what?” to the truth is a pandemic. Our leaders—and, to tell the truth, most of us—have made it a way of life to selectively present information, to make sweeping generalizations, and to rush to judgment when doing so benefits our policies, our preconceptions, our will.

There is no shame in lying today. People simply do not care. In an age of information overload and subjective narratives, people hardly even expect to be told the truth.

And technology enables lies to circulate with jaw-dropping speed and ease. We often treat the information we encounter very breezily. It is common to glance at a headline and think you know the whole story. A 2016 study by computer scientists at Columbia University and the French National Institute showed that 6 out of 10 links on social media are shared without the sharer having read the article. We don’t even take time to truly understand the news, let alone verify it.

While we consume more information more shallowly, more and more of that information is simply wrong. In many cases it is intentionally deceptive. As a result, our view of reality becomes distorted. We don’t know what we can trust. Distinguishing truth from falsehood is becoming a greater and greater challenge. Meanwhile, people intent on spreading misinformation have a growing set of tools to use—tools that are rapidly becoming shockingly powerful.

An Australian National University study published Nov. 13, 2023, asked people to study images of human faces and discern which were real photographs and which were created by artificial intelligence. The computer-generated images were so lifelike that more people believed the AI-generated faces were human than the faces of actual people.

Now “deepfake” technology is fabricating hyperrealistic videos with the potential to deceive even the most discerning eye. A new AI application called Sora creates highly sophisticated video from text instructions. Type “Historical footage of California during the gold rush” and you will soon see an extended sequence of stunning panoramic drone footage of a bustling mid-1800s ramshackle town built beside a little creek in the mountains—completely fake. Type “Surveillance video footage of kgb agents administering a lethal injection to Alexey Navalny,” and it could create that scene within minutes.

Unless we have conniving, villainous imaginations, we cannot truly envision all the problems this technology can create. People today get most of their information through digital text, photos and video. Many polls confirm that the top source Generation Z uses for news is TikTok.

What can be done to curb the deception, especially the technological deception? Barack Obama says he has the answer. But in truth, his “answer” is actually at the root of the problem.

‘Not Absolute Truth’

In April 2022, Obama delivered a speech at Stanford University about disinformation. It was expertly crafted to come across as a rational and fair attempt to bridge societal divisions and unify people.

The way to restrict dangerous information, he said, is to increase the federal government’s power to control it. Yet he warned against the totalitarianism of China, which severely restricts Internet content, and of Russia, which feeds its citizens disinformation. America’s exemplar, he said, is Europe, and its Digital Services Act. (Learn why this act, which came into effect in January, is concerning in “The EU’s War on Free Speech.”)

“This is an opportunity,” Obama said. “It’s a chance that we should welcome for governments to take on a big, important problem and prove that democracy and innovation can coexist.” That all sounded typical of a big-government American Democrat. Then he said this: “It is a chance for all of us to fight for truth—not absolute truth, not a fixed truth, but to fight for what, deep down, we know is more true, is right” (emphasis added throughout).

In his view, there is no absolute truth. There is no fixed truth.

What follows when the concept of absolute truth is replaced by “what, deep down, we know is more true”? Absent absolutes, you can believe whatever you want, whatever is expedient. This can change over time, day to day, moment to moment.

In practice, however, you’re not free to believe what you know is true. You must accept whatever the authorities decide is “truth.” Obama listed several examples of “disinformation” the government should censor, including “unorthodox” views regarding climate change, vaccines, election fraud and white supremacy. The political left has established what is “truth” in each of these instances, and has taken extraordinary steps to silence all nonbelievers: bullying, deplatforming, shadow-banning, censoring, publicly shaming, fining, incarcerating and exiling. This is the “fight for truth” Mr. Obama is describing—truth as he defines it.

When truth is defined not by a Higher Authority but by whomever holds power, not only do lies prevail, but so too does tyranny.

Father of Lies

The idea that we “know, deep down,” what is true is, frankly, the devil’s lie.

It was the first thing he said in the Garden of Eden to convince Eve that God Himself was a liar: “God knows that in the day you eat of this tree, your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” Don’t listen to Him, he said. You can see for yourself what is good and what is evil. You know, deep down, right from wrong. You decide.

“… When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it” (John 8:44). That is a character summary of Satan the devil, straight from Jesus Christ. That is the truth about the origin of lies. Yet the people who first heard it rejected it (verses 45-47). And society today barely acknowledges the existence of evil, let alone the devil. Ignorant, then, of his devices, they are vulnerable to his attacks (2 Corinthians 2:11).

Realize: You will get no truth from the devil, because there is no truth in him. Even when he communicates facts or truth, he mixes it with error. And whether or not you believe it, Scripture reveals that this being is the god of this world! (2 Corinthians 4:4). He has blanketed this whole world in deception (Revelation 12:9). As the devil’s influence increases, so do fakery and lies.

Beware deceit. The devil is always obscuring, discrediting and disparaging the truth. And once he has people confused, they end up simply believing whatever they choose, “knowing good and evil,” not realizing they are under his influence. In many cases, they don’t even care whether what they believe is true.

Studies have found that often when people are given facts that contradict what they already believe, they simply dismiss them. In some cases they actually become more convinced of their false beliefs. In his book The Catalyst, Jonah Berger writes that in these studies, “[r]ather than changing false beliefs, exposure to the truth often increased misperceptions. Giving people correct information made them more likely to believe the exact opposite.”

Considering the pervasiveness of false information and fake news, you can understand why people are skeptical. Yet if Satan can confuse us about truth, we become terribly vulnerable to his deceptions. He can lead us down the primrose path to greater and greater absurdities: The government spying on citizens and censoring free speech is protecting democracy. Burning down buildings is justice. Allowing men to use women’s bathrooms is love. All these fictions begin with people not valuing actual truth, but rather exalting their own “truth.”

The prophecy of Isaiah 5:20 is particularly relevant today: The devil has gotten people so befuddled, they call evil good and good evil. They cannot discern between light and darkness, sweet and bitter. In fact, today, people regularly confuse tyranny with democracy, subjugation with freedom, even male with female.

We think we can bend the truth when convenient or “necessary.” But actually, we and our society have bent and broken ourselves as we have slammed our words and actions against the unchangeable, immovable, unbreakable, absolute truth.

Valiant for the Truth

“These six things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying tongue … An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations … A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren” (Proverbs 6:16-19). God hates lies because He knows what terrible damage they cause.

What does He think when He sees pervasive complacency about deceit? In Jeremiah 5, He prophesies of a time when apparently nobody in the end-time English-speaking nations (typified by Israel’s capital city, Jerusalem) would execute judgment or seek the truth!

In His view, even religious people are swearing falsely (verse 2). A survey of several studies on the prevalence of lying undertaken by Psychology Today showed that “deeply religious people view lying more negatively than their less-religious counterparts. When it comes to the actual act of lying, however … we found that more religious people were actually more inclined to lie than less religious people” (Sept. 27, 2022). Lying is not just an issue with a few leaders in politics, law enforcement and education. In God’s eyes, this is a universal problem.

“An astonishing and horrible thing Has been committed in the land: The prophets prophesy falsely, And the priests rule by their own power; And My people love to have it so” (verses 30-31; New King James Version). Yes, people have become so comfortable with lies that they do not want truth. They want to be lied to!

Jeremiah was deeply sorrowful over these sins (Jeremiah 9:1). “… For they are all adulterers, a company of treacherous men,” he mourned (verse 2; English Standard Version). Nobody seeks truth. “And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies: but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, saith the Lord” (verse 3). Yes, all around people are using deceit as a weapon, purposefully spreading lies.

What tragedy unfolds when lies become common practice. God warns, Beware—trust nobody: “Let everyone beware of his neighbor, and put no trust in any brother, for every brother is a deceiver, and every neighbor goes about as a slanderer. Everyone deceives his neighbor, and no one speaks the truth; they have taught their tongue to speak lies; they weary themselves committing iniquity” (verses 4-5; esv).

This is the state of our world. Everyone deceives; no one speaks the truth. People are nice to others’ faces, then hurtful behind their backs (verse 8). Barack Obama sounds sensible, but he seeks to dismantle Americans’ constitutional freedoms and to impose tyranny!

When people embrace deceit, they cut themselves off from God (verse 6). God is the “God of truth” (Deuteronomy 32:4). This world lives in deceit—and through that deceit, it distances itself from God.

“Shall I not visit them for these things? saith the Lord: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?” (Jeremiah 9:9). God is already beginning to execute His judgment against this nation.

God wants us to be “valiant for the truth”—warriors defending the truth and living by it. He cannot lie (Titus 1:2). He has set His will never to lie. That is His character, and it is the character He wants to see in people. He will have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:4).

With lies and deceit swallowing this world, the need for such commitment to truth is fierce. We need to be valiant for the truth in our own lives and in our families. We need to teach our children to be truthful. And we need to hold ourselves to a godly standard of honesty and truth. It is harder than most people realize.

‘What Is Truth?’

When Jesus Christ stood trial, this sinless man who had been accused of blasphemy, heresy and sedition told the Roman governor Pontius Pilate, “[F]or this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice” (John 18:37). Christ spoke of the truth—not an indefinite, flexible view of what is “more true,” but the one and only absolute truth. The truth He bore witness to is truth we can actually know if we will hear His voice and accept it.

This learned Roman official famously responded: “What is truth?”

Pilate had no idea what truth is. And neither, increasingly, does our world today. People are deeply confused about truth.

In this trial, Pilate said he found no fault in Jesus, but he obeyed the will of the crazed mob and had Him scourged and then crucified. How weak, how perverse, how unjust this man was, inhabiting his world bereft of absolutes.

In his January 2024 article “‘What Is Truth?’”, Gerald Flurry wrote about this incident that, had Pilate been willing to obey the truth, Christ would have answered his question. “Do you also sin by asking, ‘What is truth?’ and refusing to believe, obey and act on that truth?” Mr. Flurry wrote. “We cannot continue to sin, continue to crucify the Son of God, and expect that God, the only Source of truth, will reveal to us what is truth.”

Yes, truth is something God reveals. That is the foundation of all that is absolutely true. “Thy word is truth,” Jesus Christ said (John 17:17). All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for us (2 Timothy 3:16). The whole Bible is truth—truth we can count on, that we can stake our lives on. It doesn’t simply ask questions, raise hypotheses, throw out conjecture and speculation. It gives answers. (This is a truth you can prove. Request our free booklet The Proof of the Bible.)

When God told Adam and Eve of the tree that led to death, He was telling the truth. They could not discern it through their senses—but had they believed Him and lived by it, they would have lived by that truth.

“Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:31-32).

Lies shackle us. The truth frees us.

Though we don’t want to accept this, we all have elements of deceit in our thinking—ideas that are not completely true: false ideas about other people; false notions we have unwittingly picked up from a deceived world; false perceptions about ourselves. We must fight to clean these out. We need to exalt the truth in our lives in every detail.

We must believe, obey and act on truth as God reveals it—or we will be deceived.

Study, and cling to, God’s word of truth. Be valiant for the truth. Beware deceit. Eschew all forms of lying in your own life. Be a person of truth—sincere and truthful, a person of your word. The truth sets you free! Take full advantage of that marvelous blessing. And prepare yourself for the time, very soon, when God’s truth—the absolute, unbreakable truth—will free this whole world from all its deceit and lies.