J. Terry Wheeler
1432 Kirtland Dr.
Ann Arbor, MI 48103
(313)665-0405
Edited and Uploaded By Shone Brooks
2/17/96

This is a little missive dealing with the fundamentals of reality and how to understand them. It is an effort to get people to face the hard choices, so they don't run from obvious answers they don't like. It is an excursion into truth-telling, with the hope it will be a habit.

The idea that truth is defined by what you want it to be is noxious nonsense. The child or the dope head may want--really want--to fly. May believe sincerely that he CAN fly. May have "seen" others fly. But if and when he gets to a twenty-five-foot-high ledge and jumps, the reality of gravity rudely brings him back to earth. He is a wise man indeed who will then learn to keep his feet planted firmly on the ground until the reality of gravity is amply accounted for. Gravity can be worked with. It cannot be ignored.

This little illustration applies to all of life for every human being. It is properly called common sense. Whether you apply the parable in its specific or infer general applications, it is the truth. It is the truth for you. It is the truth for me. To deny the truth because you hate to be told you cannot fly is foolishness of the worse sort. If you ignore it, you seek an early grave. If you cannot or will not allow this truth to be part of your concept of what is real, you are insane. If you teach others the contrary, you are a liar who seeks the death of others, though your followers may love being told they can really fly, and may even sincerely believe you.

This truth is easy to see because falling is a common absolute experience. As this is an absolute truth, it follows there are others. We will be more familiar with some truths than with others. We may not know any. But it is ridiculous to deny absolutes just because we don't want any more.

God is. He is one. He made us--human beings--in His image. He made the universe according to His wisdom. These are absolutes that I know from revelation, His revelation. To deny these is to play the fool. To deny these successfully would mean that know all there is to know about the universe, which would make you a whole lot like God if that were so. But I know you don't know that much; I don't know much either (another universal truth).

But I do know that those who keep rejecting the revelation of God keep thinking they can "fly"; and they keep falling. I do know that my experience with nature produces consistencies that I need to accept as real life if I want a long, happy, and fulfilling existence on this earth. I know that the nature I deal with is the same nature surrounding you. And I learn consistently, continuously, all day long that the Bible--God's revelation--is consistent with what I face in my experience of who I am and where I am--and who you are.

Once more, to say, "I don't want to believe the Bible," is like saying, "I don't want to breath oxygen," or, "I don't want to see colors with my eyes." It is nonsense. It is irrational and unreasonable. The closest to normal this mind set brings you is the spoiled child whose word and wants are absolutely meaningless to reality.

Let's say I want to believe in a god who will not make me feel guilty, who will not condemn me to hell, who will say abortion, suicide, fornication, etc. is okay, who will support me in homosexual activities, and who will hate the "murderers" of spotted owls. Let's say I get others to believe in this god. Let's say I found a church on such beliefs and write them a creed. Is my activity good? Why? Because you like it? Or is it evil because you yourself kill spotted owls? Whose word can speak for my reality if this is really my belief, my desire?

Do wants determine reality? What about the realities of Hitler, Stalin, or Caesar? What about the wants of Jack-the Ripper or convicted rapist/murderer Irvin Mitchell? Or are the wants of the one who is popular at the time or the wants of the one who rules that determine reality? Hitler wins on both these counts. He was absolute ruler of Nazi Germany by popular vote. Do you want what he said was real? If political might makes right, kings are once more enthroned and our Constitution is and has always been an exercise in illusion. On the other hand, despots can't fly either.

Life is. You have to play by the rules of life. You have to play by the rules that support life. It does not matter if you don't like the rules. There is no other game. But you can win. God will see to it if you trust Him faithfully.

We are living in a society that is jettisoning all the wisdom that civilization has taught us because many don't like the conclusions: God is; the Bible is His word; Jesus Christ is His Son. They are turning to gods and philosophies that could not carry the day or the victory for their ancestors, but they would rather have discarded gods than the Wisdom that even now sweeps the globe and proves itself true every day. They want to remake, not just history, but reality itself. But true enough, they still can't fly.

Illusion carries its own comfort. But the thing about illusions is they don't last long. God lasts forever. And so does His word. Failed philosophies will not now suddenly succeed. The religious way of Native Americans and Eastern Gurus still fail. Please get off the ledge. Please don't jump. You are worth more than lies.