Do you believe in truth? Sounds like a funny question but our youth are asking.
Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #281 of Discerning What Is Best, a podcast applying unchanging biblical principles in a rapidly changing world, and a Christian worldview to current issues and everyday life.
In the late 1970s I was newly out of college, a graduate student, a new middle and high school social studies teacher, and most importantly, a newly wed. We got married the same summer we were awarded our BAs, then accepted our first professional academic appointments in a Christian school in Cleveland.
This was back in the day when the private Christian school movement was gaining steam, and a lot of teacher conferences were developed to support the effort. In the course of time, I attended one of these conferences and was privileged to hear Calvinist Christian philosopher and theologian, Dr. Rousas J. Rushdoony, who was then gaining a reputation for his conservative theological and political views, some controversial, and writing books that people yet read today after he went to his reward in winter 2001.
I clearly remember Dr. Rushdoony saying, “There is no new truth, but continually much new error.” He did not mean that human beings know everything or that we can’t learn anything new. Nor did he mean there would never again be a new discovery.
He was speaking about philosophy and epistemology. What Dr. Rushdoony meant is that the Bible is God’s revealed Word, it is infallible and inerrant, it is complete in its canon, and it contains within it everything we need for life, as the Apostle Peter said in 2 Pet. 1:3: “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness.”
What Dr. Rushdoony was saying is that the Word of God gives us truth, reveals to us God who is truth, and tells us—human beings—who we are, where we came from, why we were created, what is our essential nature and purpose, and what will happen to us in the not-so-far-off end of history.
Dr. Rushdoony coupled his statement about truth with the observation there is much new error. Here he meant that since the dawn of time, human beings have used the creative mental capacities God gave them to search for something—anything—other than God and what he said is true. Human beings have never stopped creating new error.
So, we can hold in our hands and hearts God’s truth about life and the reality he created. We can know that we are sinful creatures living in a fallen world. Yet we know that God not only created but he loved each human being and has provided a way of redemption, hope, and peace for them.
--Think about that for a minute. God created and loved and provided a way of reconciliation and divine fulfillment for every human being. That includes terrorist suicide bombers. That includes perverts and pedophiles. That includes liars, drug cartel kingpins, spouse and child abusers, and murderers.
Liberal theology or TV theology or what might be called secular celebrity theology like to say, “God loves you the way you are.” This truism is OK insofar as it goes, but it leaves a lot of critical understanding unsaid. Sure, God loves you the way you are because he loves you and me no matter what we are or what we have done—like the Apostle Paul who used to be the Christian-killer Saul, “the chief of sinners.”
But what pop theology omits is that God does not want us to remain in our sinful condition. He wants us to change, and he has provided a remedy—the Good News—for our sinful condition that is available to one and all if we but believe and accept it.
To believe and accept God’s plan of salvation, his plan for our lives, we must choose. We must in faith decide to believe. We must acknowledge God’s truth.
It may not strike you but think about this. What God is doing in giving us a choice is by other words known as religious liberty or freedom of religion. God does not force people to acknowledge truth or believe. There is no record in the Bible of God the Father or the Lord Jesus Christ ever coercing people to express faith and believe. Not once. None. There is only the invitation.
I wrote another podcast not long ago about young Americans being not just skeptical but American Youth Adrift in Cynicism. I noted how Gen Z (20-somethings and late teens) and Gen Alpha (age 1 to 16) are confused, and experiencing significant emotional and mental health challenges, including elevated levels of anxiety, depression, loneliness, stress, and suicidal ideation compared with many previous generations.
While it is too early to say regarding the youngest children, Gen Z and older Gen Alpha evidence relatively high rates of religious disaffiliation, while some pursue individualized spirituality. They wrestle with the idea of truth, and in fact moral relativism, the idea that truth is circumstantial and cannot be known is the primary driver of their existence, consequently, like all human beings, they are asking existential questions. Is there a God? Who is God? Is he involved in this world? Does he know or care about my life, my problems? What is the meaning of life? Do I have a future? Is there an afterlife?
Even more disconcerting, youth cynicism, unmoored from truth, leads many to nihilism, the idea that life possesses no inherent meaning or lasting purpose.
If that is not bad enough, social psychologists now speak of something called “alethophobia” the persistent fear or dislike of the truth, often marked by an unwillingness to accept facts. People who fall into alethophobia reject hard facts that contradict their personal beliefs or comfort zones, ignore scientific data, deny personal mistakes, or avoid uncomfortable realities about history or culture.
Now did you get this? American culture, especially among the young, now features people who not only don’t believe in truth, but they are also afraid of or do not like truth!
This is astounding. Remember what old Dr. Rushdoony said? “There is much new error.” It appears that one of the errors of this time in which we live is the idea that truth is scary, uncomfortable, even deniable. So, a person denies facts in front of them and then what? They go away, change? How about this one? A man can have a baby. Or, a mother can strangle her three infant children, then claim she didn’t know what she was doing due to postpartum psychosis, and therefore is not responsible for the murders she admitted committing?
Here are a few more things people believe but that are demonstrably untrue: “If it feels right, it is right.” “As long as nobody gets hurt, anything is morally permissible.” “Nobody has the right to judge another person's morality.” “Moral truth is whatever a culture says it is.” “If everyone does it, it can't be wrong.” "Truth is different for everyone." “My intentions were good, so what I did was good.”
Scripture tells us that Satan is the father of lies, and since he senses his time is short, he is working overtime to create new deceptions, new error.
So, the Bible tells us to beware deceptive philosophies, human traditions and worldly thinking can draw people away from Christ (Col 2:8), and we are to test the spirits to see if they be of God (1 Jn. 4:1).
To protect ourselves from falsehood, from alethophobia, from error, according to the Bible we should:
• Believe that Jesus identifies himself as “the truth” (John 14:6).
• Recognize that truth brings freedom (John 8:32).
• Trust that God’s Word is truth (John 17:17).
• And “Buy truth; do not sell it” (Proverbs 23:23).
According to the Bible, deception grows when people begin to prefer:
• comfort over truth,
• acceptance over truth,
• power over truth,
• pleasure over truth,
• ideology over truth,
• self over truth.
This is why Paul speaks not merely of knowing truth but of "loving the truth" (2 Thess. 2:10).
The Bible says that the greatest protection against deception is not intelligence or education, but a heart that genuinely wants reality as God defines it, even when that reality is uncomfortable, costly, or humbling.
Our youth no longer believe in truth and are adrift in cynicism. Perhaps the greatest gift we who are older could give them is a demonstrable faith in the living and true God. The Bible says of the Sovereign God of the Universe: “For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory” (2 Cor. 1:20).
Well, we’ll see you again soon. This podcast is about Discerning What Is Best.
If you find this thought-provoking and helpful, follow us on your favorite podcast platform. For more Christian commentary, see my website, r-e-x-m as in Martin, that’s rexmrogers.com, or check my YouTube channel @DrRexRogers.
And remember, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2026
*This podcast blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/ or my YouTube channel @DrRexRogers or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.