The Reference Sample

In my real job away from Our Maker's Acres Family Farm, I work for an oil company.  We distribute fuel, oil, and lubricants to our customers.  I may bore you for a minute, but stick with me.  There's a point to my story.  Product integrity is very important to our business.  We have numerous measures in place to ensure that our customers get high quality oil for use in their vehicles, equipment, and other machinery.  I'll briefly discuss one of the safeguards.

When we get oil in from the refinery, we pull a reference sample, label it and keep it in a cabinet for use later.  The oil is then pumped in a tank.  Later when oil is ordered by a customer, we pump it out of our tank and into a truck for delivery.  Every oil has different qualities and is engineered specifically for its end use.  The oil on the left below is a turbine oil, the one in the middle is hydraulic oil, and the one on the right is a motor oil. 

Reference Samples

Now you wouldn't want to put a hydraulic oil in an engine.  You want to be sure to check and double-check things.  What you want to do is pull a sample from your nozzle in the truck BEFORE you transfer custody to the customer.  Then you compare this sample to the reference sample.  Several checks are made.  First, you check the color.  Each oil has a distinct color.  You hold the sample next to the reference sample and ensure the color is the same.   Then you check for water.  If there is water in the oil, it will be on the bottom, milky, and separated from the oil.

Color is good.  Clarity is good.  No water in this oil

Then you check for sediment.  Dirt and grime, if in the oil, will be evident in your sample.  Viscosity is also checked to be sure it is within tolerance of the oil's specifications.

No dirt or grime or contaminants

You NEVER want to take a chance of putting impure oil or the wrong kind of oil in the customer's tank or piece of equipment.  Putting contaminated oil in equipment could cause the machinery to fail.  This could cost the customer a lot of money.  Contaminated oil OR the wrong kind of oil put in the application could cause injury or death.  It is serious business. 

At the end of my checks, as a final safeguard, I walk into the warehouse and I hold the sample from the nozzle of the truck up to the reference sample.  If the oil is the same, I give a thumbs up on the camera.  If, like in the photo below, the oil is different, it fails the test and I reject the oil.  It does not get accepted for use.  It is impure, dirty, contaminated, or the wrong kind of oil.  The oil is then quarantined.

Failed the Test!  REJECTED

Sorry I took a long road to get to the point, but here it is...

We live in a world of moral relativism - a world where everyone has "his truth" or "her truth."  We are asked to be tolerant of sin and bad behavior that would have been called shameful in recent past.  False teaching has crept into churches.  Bad behavior is lauded and moral virtues are ridiculed.  Of course we are not without fault.  In a fallen world we tend to justify our foibles and peccadillos. 

Jeremiah 17:9“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”

If only we had a REFERENCE SAMPLE.  Somewhere that we could go and analyze worldly thoughts and ideas or for that matter theological opinions.  Something that we could compare against to determine Truth, to determine what is pure and right and good.  I have good news for you.  We can go to the Bible.

We see a great example of this in the Book of Acts:

Acts 17:10-11 King James Version (KJV)10 And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews.
11 These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.

 The Apostle Paul found that the Bereans were noble because they listened to his teaching and then compared it to the Scriptures to determine if what he was teaching was correct.  We should be like the Bereans, using the Bible as our reference sample to ensure that things are truthful, good, pure, and right.  If they do not pass the test, we should reject them.  The stakes are high!  The consequence of accepting corrupted ideas, impurity, sin, false teaching could not only lead to injury and death, but effects that could last for eternity.

Does Absolute Truth Exist in a World of Moral Relativism?

Image Credit

John 8:31-32 (NASB)

The Truth Will Make You Free

31 So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

This morning at church we had a guest pastor who brought the message.  It was a message that caught my attention and was very timely.  I thought the message was exceptional, and I'll do my best to distill the high points because it deserves repeating.  The gentleman led off with statistics that showed an alarming shift in people's belief in absolute truth.  According to Barna Research, today 72% of adults believe that there is no such thing as absolute truth!  I could not believe this could be true!  For 30 years ago 84% of people believed in absolute truth.  How can this be?

We are in a place where truth is whatever you want it to be?  You hear things such as, "my truth" being said.  Tolerance is the seen as one of the greatest virtues.  The problem with tolerance is that there are certain things in which there is no room for tolerance:

1. Math: 3 x 4 = 12. Not 11, not 13.  Mathematics has no room for tolerance.  The answer is correct or incorrect.

2. Chemistry: Water is two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom.  Any change in that 'cocktail' and you have something other than water.

3. Music: A conductor in an orchestra works intently to ensure all the instruments are in tune and the orchestra plays the correct notes.  There is no tolerance for music that is off-key.

As a Christian, of course I believe that God and His Word is the source of all Truth.  I believe it is inerrant you should go to the Word of God to determine right and wrong.  Trying to calibrate your moral moorings with popular opinion is a moving target.  The minister gave an excellent illustration of this.

There was once a man who worked for a plant.  His primary responsibility was to blow the whistle at 6:30 AM to let the employees know when to commence work and blow the whistle again at 4:30 to let the employees know that it was quitting time.  Each morning the plant-worker walked to work and he would pass in front of a watch-maker's shop, look inside the window, and set his watch to match the clock in the window.  Then he would walk on to work and blow the whistle.

One day the watch-maker saw the man gazing in the window, setting his watch.  He walked outside and asked the plant-worker if he could help him.  The plant-worker told him that he was just setting his watch with the clock in the window.  The watch-maker then laughed and told him, "That old clock? It doesn't keep time well, so each day I listen to the whistle at the plant and re-set the clock based on that!"

And so it is if we use society, cultural norms, laws, customs, etc. as truth.  In doing so we will be like the plant-worker and the watchmaker, chasing our tails in trying to determine Truth.  We must calibrate our Truth Detector with the Word of God - For He is the Way, the TRUTH, and the Life.