I just finished reading 1984 by George Orwell and what an incredible book.
Ok, so my summation and what I found to be one of the most profound statements in literature I have ever read.
“Freedom is the freedom to say that 2 + 2 = 4.”
I don’t want to ruin it for you but in Oceania truth is subject to change at a whim of Big Brother. If Big Brother decides that two plus two equals five then that’s the truth. It could mean three, it could mean seven and what Big Brother said was always correct.
In a totalitarian state being politically incorrect will not only make you unpopular but it means that you would could be in the words of my new friend Winston, “Arrested by the thought police and vaporized.”
What does that have to do with us who serve Christ?
EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!
My friends, please allow me to explain.
Today we live in a time where all truth is subject to the speaker. People say things like, “Hey well that’s good for you but I don’t believe in that.” Or they say, “Well my god isn’t your God.”
Anyway I’ll try to keep it simple.
Is truth absolute? Does two plus two equal four? Can it ever equal five? NO!
Because of social conditioning some of you reading these may even say, yeah it’s possible. It is never possible my friends. The truth is always the truth and it’s not subject the speaker, truth is subject to the facts.
If I take two oranges and get two apples then I have four pieces of fruit.
Why is this important? Because today the truth is under assault. Not always out in the open but sometimes in subtle ways.
Know the truth my friends. Know it and hold on to it no matter what. We love, we are merciful, we are saved by grave and we forgive those who sin against us. Heck, I will have a conversation and respect anyone and everyone who disagrees with me. But I WILL NOT! I will not pretend that my truth is questionable. I will not say that, or consider that in any way THE TRUTH is subject to change.
In the word of our Lord….
John 8:31-32
31To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
And to what truth was he referring to?
John 3:3
3In reply Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”
John 3:16
16″For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
Enter through the narrow gate my friends. The gate of absolute truth.
Freedom is the freedom to say what is right is right and even were the last person on earth who still believes in the truth, it doesn’t make it any less true.
P.S.
And for the non-readers out there, lol shame on you but there is a movie, haha! Here’s a great video that shows some of it.
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Very interesting comparison, James! I’m a huge “1984″ fan – and basically anything from Orwell – and just unveiled two t-shirts based on the novel: http://kafkacotton.com/blog/2010/03/voting-is-strength-new-1984-designs/
I also donate money from any sales to literacy efforts – hope you like!
Hey thank you, yeah that book blew my mind. I’m actually a pretty big fan of, if you can say history. Even more-so now since I’m beginning to realize that we have been socially conditioned to ignore history.
We as modern society tend to forget what happened just a few weeks ago.
What got me started on all this is that my nephew did a research paper on Global Warming and we discovered that in the 1980′s the big global threat was global cooling. In fact there was news articles saying that scientists were concerned that there was no end in sight it could be the dawn of a new Ice Age.
Go back twenty more years and it was global warming yet again. We went back as far as 1890 and found an excerpt from a newspaper calling for again the threat of global warming.
I’m not sure how much industrialization and automobiles were affecting the Earth’s temperature in 1890 but I would guess to say not much.
Anyway, that’s sprung up my inspiration to see just how much of our history has been conveniently set aside or in some cases even altered.
I have since learned that Mao, in China during the cultural revolution was responsible for killing some 60 to 70 million people throughout China.
Hitler maybe did a tenth of that.(I’m not a fan of Hitler to be clear, just making a point.)
Hitler was the world enemy and China has received more accolades and rewars by the United Nations than any other country ever.
As a believer in Jesus or Yeshua, whatever you want to call him, I feel that we are often too concerned with hiding behind our faith. We often, not always but often hide behind who we are when we should face the world and do our best to help people and improve it. Not just sit by and let it all fall apart in the name of, “Oh well, Jesus is coming back soon so who cares.”
If that was the case then nothing would have ever gotten done throughout history.
Jesus even said a couple of cool things about this.
Mathew 5:13-15
13″You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.
14″You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.
So many Christian men who aren’t clear on what the Bible says but they can tell you who is starting on offense and defense for the their favorite football team. I see Christians who say things like yeah, “Christmas is awesome, Jesus is the reason for the season.” Yet they are freaking out at the mall during the holidays and racking up their credit card debt.
We are all flawed right? In every facet of life we all have our shortcomings and I try to have love for everyone, even people from different backgrounds.
I think with all religions there is a pressure to pretend like you have all the answers. To pretend that we have it all figured out and our lives are great because of it. I have faced some opposition and at times been in the, “Minority of one.” Especially when questioning some of our motives and practices.
The thing we is DON’T have all the answers. What we have is a relationship with THE ONE who is the source of all the answers.
I’m beginning to realize though and this book helped me a lot realize that even if were in a minority of one, that doesn’t make the truth any less true.
We need to break free from the proletarian mindset. We need to be clear on who we are, why were hear, where do we come from and stand firm. We need to lead by example.
I firmly believe that people in the world want answers and are often confused as to what to believe because of misinformation and the convenient control of historical information. I had a buddy in High School who spent two years in England as a foreign exchange student. I didn’t pay much attention at the time but I remember him telling me that the History books there painted a different picture about our role in the world.
In the words of Big Brother, “He who controls history, controls the preset and he who controls the present, controls the future.”
Sorry if that was long winded and I was all over the place. I tend to go off from time to time which is sometimes all the time, haha!
Anyway, thanks for reading and thank you for your response.
I was told once by a Roman Catholic Priest, John O’Brien of all people to read The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx, he said I would be in the shock of my life.
I just got the book and look forward to reading it.
So is your interest in Orwellian literature a reflection of anything else?
Whoah hey I just saw your shirts and they are awesome.
Perfect timing in fact as I’ve been looking for a 1984 shirt. I may have to just pick one up, I’m going to start checking your page out.