The Compromise Campaign

It began a few hours after the resurrection of Jesus, and it has been going on ever since. The campaign to compromise the truth, to cast doubt on the person of Christ and God’s holy Word is not some new insidious idea that the enemy came up with as a last ditch effort, but something that the devil and his minions have been actively pursuing since the very day that Jesus rose from the dead.
Three days had passed, the stone had been rolled away, and the tomb was now empty. Jesus had appeared to Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, and by uttering one single word, ‘rejoice!’ He had rekindled their hope, strengthened their faith, and caused their faces to shine with joy.
Baffled and not knowing what to do, having seen the empty tomb, some of the guard came into the city and reported to the chief priests all the things that had happened.
Not wasting any time, wanting to get ahead of the situation, the chief priests and the elders began a campaign that would span two thousand years, a campaign that has in recent times gathered more steam with the releases of such pseudo-intellectual drivel as the gospel of Judas, or the Da Vinci code.
The elders and the priests knew that they couldn’t let the truth get out, they knew that they couldn’t allow the masses to hear the news that an angel had appeared and rolled away the stone, that Jesus had risen from the dead, that all that He claimed would happen happened as He had said, because it would undermine their authority and power, and cause even more people to follow the Christ than before His crucifixion.
Matthew 28:12-15, “When they had assembled with the elders and taken counsel, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers, saying, “Tell them, ‘His disciples came at night and stole Him away while we slept. And if this comes to the governor’s ears, we will appease him and make you secure. So they took the money and did as they were instructed; and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day.”
This is how it all began. A council of elders, a large sum of money, some soldiers willing to lie, and the campaign against truth was born. This campaign rages to this day, and it has two major targets. There are people in this world that will do anything, and say anything to discredit either a risen Jesus, or the Bible, for these are the two great thorns in the side of the godless.
The enemy has not masked his purposes, and his intent is very clear. He has invested vast resources, and those who do his bidding have even attempted to infiltrate the house of God and sow doubt as to the divinity and sovereignty of Jesus, dismissing the Bible as nothing more than a noble book of moral imperatives, rather than the divinely inspired Word of God.
As well financed, streamlined and diversified as the campaign against truth is, there are some major flaws, and insurmountable obstacles that will keep it from being the success the enemies of the cross envisioned it would be throughout the centuries.
The first major flaw, the first weakness of the compromise campaign is ignoring or dismissing truth itself. Truth, simply defined is an affirmation or information that corresponds to a reality. There are two major reasons we receive something as truth, the first of these being that the person relating the information to us is credible. We receive something as truth because the person we are receiving it from, is worth believing, of good character and above reproach. If the person from whom we hear something is not credible, then it casts a shadow of doubt on the very thing they are attempting to disseminate.
If however the person is credible, then we have the tendency to believe them at their word. When Jesus stood before Pilate, He was asked a very direct and poignant question: ‘Are you the King of the Jews?’ And Jesus simply answered, ‘it is as you say!’
Jesus then continued saying, “For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.”
I submit to you today, that there has never been a more credible individual in the history of mankind than Christ Jesus. He testified of Himself, saying ‘I came into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth.’ If we take anyone’s words to heart, if it ought to be the words of Christ, for He is above all, worth believing.
The second reason we receive something as truth, is personal experience. There can be a thousand voices denouncing something, but if we have felt it, known it, seen it, or tasted it, it is truth to us, and the voices of the naysayers have no effect.
When Jesus healed the man that had been blind from birth, his personal experience dictated his response to the accusations the Pharisees made against Christ. The Pharisees had said Jesus was a sinner, and this man who had been healed, simply replied, ‘whether He is a sinner or not I do not know. One thing I know: that though I was blind, now I see.’
This man’s personal experience made his faith and ensuing conviction unshakable. He had been blind, of this he was certain, and now he saw.
The second flaw and weakness of the compromise campaign is the motivation behind this endeavor. Why do we do what we do? The answer to this question is the motivation that drives us. Whatever action we choose to undertake, whatever endeavor we choose to pursue, there is a motivation behind them that drives us.
What motivated the Apostles of Christ to preach the truth, what motivated them to preach a risen savior even though it had been forbidden by the high priests, was the fact that they had seen Him, they had spoken with Him, they had dined with Him, and their lives were forever transformed by being in proximity of Him.
What motivated the guards to go about the city and lie, what compelled them to tell all who would hear that Christ’s followers had come in the dead of night and spirited his body away, was nothing more than personal interest. A man, who pursues a certain course of action out of personal interest, will only do so while it is profitable to him. A man who pursues a course of action out of deep conviction and personal experience however, will continue to pursue it even in the face of great opposition, physical affliction, persecution and even death.
The third flaw and weakness of the compromise campaign against the truth, is the utter lack of any proof. Those who would deny the sovereignty of Christ, those who would deny the divinity of Christ, those who would deny a risen Christ, are quick to grasp at straws, from forging etchings on ancient tombs, to highlighting and pronouncing as firsthand accounts, manuscripts that were written some three hundred years after Christ’s time on earth. They know they cannot disprove Christ with evidence, and so they must manufacture it, conjure it, and twist it to fit their agenda.
In two thousand years, there has never been an ounce of proof to support the fanciful story that the Disciples of Christ came while the guards slept and took his body away. As even a first year law student will rightly tell you, ‘no evidence, no crime!’
While the men who made these extraordinary claims had not an ounce of proof, or a shred of evidence, the body of evidence supporting a risen Christ is undeniable. From seeking out His disciples, and encouraging them to put their finger in His wound, to some five hundred souls having seen Him until the ascension, there are witnesses upon witnesses who testified to a risen Christ.
The last flaw and weakness of the compromise campaign against truth, is the defying of logic. There are many things in this world that defy logic, yet God created us with the ability and the need to process, to use reason, and reach logical conclusions.
By the very words the soldiers were commanded to speak concerning what had transpired at the tomb of Christ both the elders and the men who dutifully repeated their words defied logic.
‘His disciples came at night and stole Him away while we slept.’ What’s wrong with this statement? What absolutely and unequivocally defies logic in these twelve words? If they were sleeping, how did they know what had happened? How could they testify to the fact that the Disciples of Christ had come and stolen him at night if they were fast asleep? Can you tell me what the rest of the people in your home were doing while you slept? Of course not!
The entire campaign against truth is based upon the false assumption that if we as followers of Jesus are fools for Christ, then we must be fools in every other area of our lives. It’s not so much the enemy that has a low view of believers, as it is his minions. With every generation they attempt to sneak one by, hoping to pervert the gospel and cast a negative light upon the sinless character of Christ, hoping that we are asleep at the wheel, that we would not employ logic, and expose them for the fools and liars that they are.
What is disconcerting is that whether due to indifference or just outright exhaustion, many within the house of God have stopped defending Christ; they have altogether ceased standing up for the truth, allowing the enemy to gain a foothold, to sow seeds of doubt, and causing some of the sheep to question the veracity of Biblical doctrine and absolute truth.
Be bold dear friend in defending the truth of Scripture, in standing for the cause of Christ, encouraged by the knowledge that the entire foundation of the compromise campaign is based upon an unabashed lie.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea Jr.