Shabbat shalom kol beit Yisra'el and may the grace of our Master Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) be with you all as we assemble to hear the Davar Elohim (Word of God).

Something I have wanted for a very long time has been a metal detector. I have all the usual romantic reasons of wanting to find ancient artefacts and precious metals but I have also wanted one for practical reasons to locate underground pipes and cables. So you can imagine my delight when a few days ago I found a secondhand one in excellent condition and going for a song! Naturally, I snapped it up and conveyed it home with thoughts of maybe uncovering a Viking burial mound which I have long suspected is what our house sits on top since it occupies a prominent position in the locality and is just the kind of place the Vikings would have chosen for defence and ready access to water (see picture above).

As there was no instruction manual and there were lots of complicated dials and switches I went online in search of one and then, out of curiosity, checked Amazon to see what it cost new and what kinds of reviews it had had. My heart sank. It was rated as one of the worst metal detectors ever. Severel people had gone and buried some gold and silver coins in their gardens about an inch beneath the surface and the the detector didn't pick up any of them. One thing it was good at was detecting rusty tin cans even a couple of feet deep! I know, I should have checked the country of manufacture which does not have a reputation for quality goods. Even their own people shy away from their country's wares.

This got me thinking about our own internal emet (truth) detectors. I have been a minister now for about 30 years, a scientist even longer, and have also engaged in political, social and economic research for about a decade. No matter what discipline you look at, there seems to be gross ignorance on the part of the public as to what reality is and malfunctioning mental emet detection. How can a whole planet in the information age where much of the world is supposedly educated be so clueless as to what is going on?

One of the huge problems we face is that New Agers and others believe that there is no such thing as absolute 'reality' and that every individual creates his or her own private 'reality', and all by the power of the mind. The problem with this philosophical view is that if we each create our own reality then you cannot condemn individuals who inflict evil on others. Thus those who have suffered under tyrannical régimes - the Jews under Hitler, the Ukrainians and Russians under Stalin, the Chinese under Mao, the Cambodians under Pol Pot (and so forth) all created their own realities. And if they did that, you cannot condemn Hitler, Stalin, Mao or Pol Pot as being ethically wrong since these men were only a part of the 'realities' that these groups of people created themselves. By the same reasoning, you cannot condemn governments or individuals for committing acts of terrorism because according to this bizzare philosophy all their victims created their own 'reality'.

To give you an idea of the insane kind of thinking that non-believers indulge in, the acting teacher of Shirley MacLaine's daughter was burned beyond recognition in a head-on collision. MacLaine wondered: "Why did she choose to die that way?" And yet the same actress cried when she saw the effects of a Chilean volcano that killed 25,000 people, which makes no sense if you apply the twisted logic of the 'reality-creators' since those victims must have chosen their own death.

There is absolute reality and emet (truth) in every dimension, be it spiritual or temporal. My metal detector was pretty useless, even after callibration, because it wasn't detecting full reality in the metallic realm. Better (and more expensive) ones do because greater care is put into making them - the manufacturer has not tried to cut costs. Every time we choose to exclude a Biblical emet (truth) whether as a professed believer or unbeliever we make the reality we perceive fuzzy. And the more emet (truth) we reject, the more blind we become as to what the real world is like.

Our physical and psychic senses are well able to deceive us, unfortunately. People see mirages in the desert and think they are catching glimpses of oases or cities. People on psychedelic drugs experience all kinds of weird things and total disorientation, not knowing what's real and what isn't.

I picked up a book by an Indian guru when I was in town the other day. In it he described in colourful detail many of his experiences in the spirit dimension. He had a chapter on each of the Hindu worlds and went into great detail as to what he saw. Unfortunately neither our dreams nor visions are necessarily reality in any plane of existence. I had this emet (truth) driven home to me by Rabindranath R. Maharaj in his book, Death of a Guru [1] which is well worth the read. This Brahmin priest and yogi meditated for many hours a day and experienced the kinds of psychic phenomena that other Hindu mystics describe, including encounters with the Hindu gods themselves. He was not able to penetrate the psychic illusion spun by the demonic realm, which gains its power and thus ability to engineer psychic visions and experiences only because humans believe in their lies, until he received Messiah and was born again. Only then was he able to penetrate the illusion that had so overwhelmingly convinced him was reality for so many years.

And this is my point. Man in his own mental and psychic power cannot apprehend the fullness of reality, even in his limited sphere of perception, unless he is steered by the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit). As a seer myself I have experienced the contradictions that persist between the demonically-steered psychic realms and the realm of the ruach which are absolutely not the same. And even after having exercised this gift for over half a century I must still be very, very careful because the possibility of deception is very real indeed. I am still learning as I go.

It is impossible for the finite to judge the infinite anyway. When the first Soviet cosmonaut went into space and declared that no 'God' was visible, and that therefore there wasn't one, he was typical of the way we are blinded to emet (truth) because our mind has simply become too crowded with our own philsophical or religious worlds. We simply have too many erroneous distractions. Accordingly, it can take a long time for emet (truth) to penetrate and part the clouds of darkness by first deepening the conflict between the lies that have for so long been believed and the emet (truth) exposing their inconsistencies, which in turn pose seemingly unanswerable questions, thus making the future seem more and more uncertain. Peeling the layers of lies we have allowed to accrete can be painful and unwelcome at first, but come off they must if reality is sought.

The biggest lie that any part of ourself must face - or even the whole Self if we have really descended into the depths of darkness - is that we are in some way 'God', whether one uses that label or some obfuscating one that basically says that self is the only meaningful 'reality'. We are all, unfortunately, fatally attracted by any teaching that exalts self because the flesh exalts the self. But the emet (truth) is, the self alone is like a candle slowly burning out. It cannot exist alone and it cannot define reality within itself. Lacking any absolute foundation, it is forced to define itself by means of fleeting comparisons with other people or 'selves' who themselves are in constant flux. Those who reject Elohim (God) are desperately in search of other people who can give a sense of something permanent.

There is nothing quite as seductive in this area as one who can apparently tell the future. Scripture tells us to beware of anyone who apparently foretells the future if it comes to pass if that 'prophet' subsequently admonishes you to follow any other Elohim (God) other than the one of the Scriptures (Dt.13:1-3). Though demons don't know all the future, they know some of it, especially the future they are themselves willfully creating through those they control. Yahweh is even more specific - don't consult anyone who engages in ritual sacrifice of people (like devil worshippers), who practice divination, sorcery or who otherwise engages in witchcraft, casts spells or who offers their service as a medium or spiritist claiming to be able to consult the dead. The works of these people are spiritual death (Dt.18:10-11,20-22) and are guaranteed to cut a soul off from reality and from the Elohim (God) who is Ultimate Reality, Yahweh.

There is only one emet (truth) and there are no more multiple paths to Elohim (God) than there are multiple truths. Only that Ruach (Spirit) which acknowledges that Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) has come into the world with the single, absolute emet (truth) of Yahweh, is from Yahweh (1 Jn.4:1-3). It is that simple. True, the one who believes this has a lot of digging to do to make sure that a counterfeit Messiah calling Himself 'Yah'shua' or 'Jesus' is not interposing himself as the authentic one, and that entails knowing your Torah (Law), the Nevi'im (Prophets) and the Apostles. You have got to know your Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and know it well.

None of this is to say, of course, that there is no emet (truth) in other religions. What we are saying plainly and unapologetically is that the Bible is true and that whatever contradicts the Bible is false. However, it is not some 'emet (truth) that saves you but all emet (truth) that saves; and since we don't have enough time in a lifetime to unpack 'all emet (truth)', Elohim (God) has send the One whom we are to trust and follow who embodies all that emet (truth). So agreeing with Confucius who said, "Do not do to others what you would not have them do to you", which agrees with a teaching of Messiah Yah'shua (Jesus), and living your life accordingly (Mt.7:12), is not enough - it has merit as far as a code of daily conduct is concerned in this life but it does not deal with the main issue of the human condition, which is sin. And unless that is dealt with, doing unto others what you would have them do to you, it will have no advantage whatsoever in the eternities. You will still die in your sins because we are not saved by our good works but by the Good Work of Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) on the Cross if we embrace it as our own by fully trusting in, and surrendering to, Him forever. Living a good life is commendable in this life but it has no bearing on eternity unless the Incarnation of Emet (Truth) is fully and wholeheartedly embraced in ahavah (love) and obedience. Most other religions may teach you not to murder and to respect ones parents but again doing these commendable things does not deal with the issue of sin which is what must be tackled first to make the divine lifestyle meaningful and relevent.

Coming to an awareness of the emet (truth) in all religion and embracing it is positive but embracing the emet (truth) that only Yah'shua (Jesus) saves from sin and only Yahweh is the true Elohim and Creator of the spiritual and material realms is essential as far as eternity is concerned. Emet (Truth) Principles cannot save you - only their Author can. That means dealing with a Divine Person. That is where everything holds together or falls apart.

Millions will perish because they supposedly want emet (truth) but not the Emet (Truth)-Bearer. The rest, who do not want the Emet (Truth)-Bearer either, don't want emet (truth) in any absolute sense but want to define it existentially as something uniquely originating within themselves. They are sadly the most deceived of all.

Endnotes

[1] Hodder & Stoughton, London: 1977