Five Legged Dogs

  We are currently living in a confusing or what some would call a Troubling Age. I could not agree more wholeheartedly.  Now I am sure that people of every past generation felt the times they lived in were full of problems unique only to their time. However, I believe there has arisen an attitude that is more accepted and more widely held among a greater span of age groups and societal backgrounds than ever in times past. The attitude I am referring to is the changing definitions of what the words really mean. Truth and common sense have lost their age-old moorings.  People are now left to decide arbitrarily on what is right or wrong based on their own personal preferences. Just because we want it to be true, no matter how passionately we believe it to be true, does not make it true.

 

Old Abe Lincoln made a statement over 150 years ago that desperately needs repeating in this Troubling Age, "How many legs does a dog have if you call its tail a leg? Four! Calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg."  In the South, during the Civil War, the Confederate States labeled the conflict as an invasion, and an attack upon States Rights, not a War to keep the Union intact. Among the Slave holding States, the issue was framed as an infringement upon personal property, not a matter of withholding a Human Being's personal right to freedom. Just referring to a person as personal property rather than a slave did not change the truth, not matter what sanitized words are used. 

Nowadays, if a person disagrees with someone else's position or opinion on an issue they are often labeled as "Uninformed, Old Fashioned, Uneducated ",or sometimes even referred to as a "Hater." As a Christian and a believer in the inerrant Word of God, I believe the Bible does and continues to give clear guidance and wisdom to help Mankind navigate and make wise choices, even in the most difficult of times. If, and this is a big 'IF', we will allow the Word of God be our guide, and let the words within the Scriptures say what they clearly mean, instead of twisting them to mean what we want, only then can a Nation hope to find the truth of a matter.

The Apostle Peter wrote, "They have twisted his letters around to mean something quite different from what he meant, just as they do the other parts of the Scripture-and the result is disaster for them." 

2 Peter 3:16

The Prophet Isaiah, 2600 years ago, under the Inspiration of the Spirit of God penned these words,
"Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!  Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes And clever in their own sight! " Isaiah 5:20-21

"Just because you call a tail a leg, does not make it a leg."  Amen to that, Uncle Abe. AMEN!