The Truth Is, It's All About Truth

In this episode Kevin explores the challenges of accepting and presenting the truth about faith, especially in a world of relative truth. He discusses why people are blinded to the truth, the importance of humility in recognizing our own blind spots, and how Christians can better share the gospel.

Transcript

Kevin Toomer (00:02.006)
One of the things that I'm very passionate about on my page and just in general as a Christian is and as a teacher is apologetics, defending the faith, defending the truth. I believe this as the scripture says, we have to be able to give a defense for the faith that we have. But the reason why I'm so passionate about defending it is because there's so much false things that are said about Christianity, about Jesus, about God, about the Bible, which is kind of the genesis of why

I do this podcast and why this whole thing came to be because I have this desire to for truth, to tell the truth. And if you not be under rock by any stretch for any amount of time, you are seeing in the world, this idea of relative truth. Not just a fancy way of just saying basically anything goes and to break it down even further. Basically also means that what's true for you is just the truth that

You may have a truth in one perspective. I may have believed something else is true. Neither one of us is right. Neither one of us is wrong. So I, so that means I have to respect what you believe is true. You believe and respect what I believe is true, even if those things totally disagree with each other, but we have to coexist. Even though in my mind, I believe strongly what you believe is untrue and vice versa. Could you see why that lends itself to a lot of confusion?

And not just in a general sense, but even when it comes to Christians, we as Christians, a lot of times can be very fragmented and broken because of small things that we believe are true. And sometimes we give the small, minor things that are not really essential to the faith. We give it so much weight that we fracture our interactions with other brothers and sisters for really small, menial things when it comes to the faith. But I want to talk about

in this episode, it's more specifically about our faith and how people can know and be presented with truth and still operate as if that isn't true. And one of the things I've learned as I've grown, not just as a Christian, just as a man, as a person, I've learned, and this is a hard lesson. I used to think that most people believe certain things because they just weren't told the truth.

Kevin Toomer (02:25.646)
I used to believe that what may be if someone sat them down and explained to them the truth about something, whatever it is, doesn't even have to be in a Christian sense. It could be a misconception about a belief about how, you know, if someone believed how bicycles were built and they just believed because they came with their own, they saw a bicycle one day and they decided, well, I think bicycles are made this

And they lived their whole lives believing that's how bicycles were built. But I know my thought was somebody sat them down and said, no, let me explain to you. This is where you screw in this wheel. This is where you screw in this axle. This is when you screw in the handlebars. I can't fix anything. So I'm doing the best I can to describe it. But you get the gist. I used to think if someone sat down and explained the truth about something,

that would alleviate, okay, thank you for telling me. I know the truth. Now, as a result of this new information, I am going to now proceed the rest of my life with this new information in the correct way of viewing it, the true way. And what I've learned is that is not the case. That there are people who you can go to exorbitant lengths to explain, to break down,

to disseminate, to really say, okay, this is what it really is. And they still will leave you subscribing to what they believe prior to your explanation. Now, why is that? We're gonna talk about that in this episode. There's a bunch of reasons why, but from a Christian perspective, you may have that struggle when it comes to dealing with friends or family members. It is someone God may place in your life that he wants you to minister to. He wants you to evangelize. He wants you to...

to defend the faith to, and you have to be prepared for people to still may not understand even though you've broken it down for them. Now it's not your job, because it's not an evangelism episode, so to speak. It's not your job to convince. Your job is just to explain and to present truth. So there are three things I want to talk about just in a general sense of when you talk to someone who doesn't believe in just as a Christian.

Kevin Toomer (04:49.122)
Because I've even seen this not just in trying to explain the faith to non-Christians, but even trying to explain truth to current actual Christians. Because as a teacher, I've been in places where I've explained the scripture. I've given the proper context. I've given the Greek in the Hebrew. And I said, wait a minute, brother, sister, friend, I know when you were taught scripture X.

You thought it meant this, but let me explain to you why context is important, why you need to read the other scriptures ahead of it and below it. And now you see the weight of what this really means versus what you had been previously taught. And I've done that. And people will look me in my face and tell me why I still want to believe the way I did before, even though I broke it down to them. So now it can go both ways.

in terms of people who don't want to believe the truth about our faith in general, or some people who may believe the faith, but may have some truths in quotes that are not really true. But I want to focus on a little bit of both in this episode. And I promise I won't be too long in this one because it's been a while. I don't want to wear my welcome so early. So the first reason why, because the title of my episode, of course, the truth is it's all about truth. So it is the truth is it is about truth.

And I saw this quote from Denzel Washington in a movie. I think it was training day. And he said, it's not about what you know, it's about what you can prove. And I think sometimes we have to understand that if we can prove to people that what the truth is, hopefully there will be some who will say the light comes on. You know what? Wow. Thank you for showing me that. And I see that this is true, whether it's a Christian.

or someone who doesn't believe and hope he will come to the faith. So now, but this particular point, my first point I want to make is why is it so hard for people to accept truth, more specifically those who are not Christians? Let's talk about that one first. Well, possibly because they are blinded to the truth. Now, we have to understand that we

Kevin Toomer (07:07.574)
As Christians, we now have been brought into the light, as the scripture says. But we have to remember, that wasn't always the case. There was a case when we didn't know the truth, when we believed erratly, when we believe God a certain way, or we thought about God in a certain way, or we thought about ourselves in a certain way, or we thought about the church in a certain way. And based on that, we lived our lives on how we view God. But it wasn't until God Himself through

whatever means he chose to use a person and an event or just something to open our eyes to the truth. I love the story in Acts when Saul had his encounter with Christ. And what does it say when he got, he was struck by the light. He asked, he was blinded and that wasn't just blinded because he saw Jesus, which obviously that was the power of the Lord that literally blinded his eyes. But I think it's also somebody.

He was letting Paul or Saul at times know you're just as blind. Cause remember Saul was persecuting Christians. So he letting Saul see you're actually blind and you think you can see. So what happens afterwards? We know the story. God sends Ananias, Ananias prays, lays hands on him. And then the scales literally fell from his eyes and then he can see. But up until that point, he was blinded.

the truth and that goes both ways as I mentioned it could be for that person who's not a Christian the Enemy in the scripture I want to share in the second is want to bear that out tries to make them think You don't need Jesus or you don't need God or the church is full of hypocrites and the church is full of a bunch of Scandals and lies and people cheating on the wise and cheating on their husband every preacher and pastor is a thief or charlatan and everybody go to church is a fashion show

He gives you so many things and he tells you, why do you need God? You be your own God. You don't need somebody telling you what to do. You're the king or queen of your own castle. You're the one who determines what your life is. You don't need no God to tell you how to live a good life. And all of that, the enemies blinding them to the truth. And it works also the other way, like I mentioned earlier, when it comes to Christians. Sometimes,

Kevin Toomer (09:35.95)
like a soul who was living a life as a Pharisee, as someone who supposedly was following God, but was blind all along. Could it be that there may be moments in your life you have to check and see maybe there's some blind spots in your life and you're blinded to the truth and you're going to need someone to say, Hey, I know you've been believing in this fashion or you've been taught this way.

but maybe you need to learn the truth now. And it goes, if you look at scripture, another case of someone, Priscilla and Aquila teaching Apollos, this is someone who was going out preaching, but they realized you don't got the whole story. So scripture says and acts that they taught him the correct way, the fullness of the gospel, because he was missing the part about the Holy spirit.

So they had to show him even though he was already preaching. So what does that say? Any person, Christian or not, can possibly be blinded to the truth. So as a Christian, what do we do? We have to always be open to the possibility that there's more to learn to this Christian thing. You have to always, that's why I mentioned on many episodes, a Christian is a life long student. Regardless of what role you play in a church,

You are a student. If you are the senior pastor, you are a student. If you are the assistant pastor, you are a student. If you're the head deacon, if you're the head usher, if you're in the praise team, if you're the parking attendant, you are still a student. And that's how you stay open to the fact because there's so much more to God and to his word that we don't always see in

And God has to open our eyes to the truth. So the same way he opened our eyes to the truth of who he is, we receive Christ. He has to continue to open our eyes to see who he is as we grow in our faith. Because there's so much more to God. I can tell you this as a Christian, someone who teaches. when I read the Bible, I have my Bible and I highlight verses as I read through. And maybe you should do the same as well.

Kevin Toomer (11:59.134)
I'll go back and read the same chapter that I previously read and I highlight it. And I'm thinking what I highlighted that's pretty good. So pretty sure I got up my points because I highlighted stuff that I wanted to see. But let me read it again. And always there's something else I missed. I could have a whole bunch of orange or blue highlighted and it might be the next verse. like, man, how did I miss that the first time or the second time? So again, even as you grow,

God is still like Saul removing scales from our eyes so we can see the truth. But let me give you a scripture. This is such a powerful one. Second Corinthians chapter four, first four, one verse. And it says, Satan, who is the God of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don't believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the good news.

They don't understand this message about the glory of Christ who is the exact likeness of God. Wow. So you see right there, the enemy is doing his part as well. Now I want to focus a little bit on the non-Christians. So we're seeing that the enemy is trying to make them not see who Jesus is. And that's a point we need to emphasize because a lot of people like Saul, they're saying, well, I believe in God or

I believe in a higher power or I'm spiritual or these things. You know, I believe in God, but you don't have to go to church to be a Christian. You can just worship from home. All these little sayings that we use to kind of placate the fact that we're still blinded and we're seeing here the enemy doesn't want the average person to not just believe in God, but believe in Jesus. Now, why is that important? Christian, how we say

because of who Jesus is. We're saying because of his sacrifice, because of putting him in his proper place. And we're going to talk about that a little bit later. So you're seeing here, the enemy is blinding people to the truth. So that's why it's imperative for you and I, Christian, to be seeing our dog, so to speak, when it comes to Christianity. We have to take that person by the hand.

Kevin Toomer (14:23.062)
and lead them to the light, to the truth. Cause they don't realize that they're stumbling around in the dark, but we can help the blinders to be removed just the same way it was removed from us. Think about this. This just came to me. We know the story of the man at the pool, right? He was at the pool for all those years. He was the lame, invalid man at the pool.

except by the pool for 38 years, I believe it was. And he told Jesus, you know what? Every time the water stirred up, no one is here to help me. We know a story. Jesus says, pick up and get up, know, pick up your mat. Right. But this stands out to me. He got helped. Right. And he went and told the people cause they knew he was been there for 30 years. So it's obviously talked about Jesus's healing power. But also I would like to think he would have come back.

to help someone else to get healed because he got healed. Granted, it was more than just the healing. Jesus made sure they know he was him that did it. But you get my point. He is now healed in full, in whole. We should be doing the same thing because Jesus told us to pick up our proverbial mat and now walk with him. So now why don't we go back to that pool, i.e. the pool of the world and tell people, hey,

You too can pick up your mat like me. You remember I used to be sitting right next to you. I know what it's like to be in this position. I was there too. And look at me now. Look at how clean I am now. But guess what? It wasn't me. It was him. But guess what? He wants to do it for you too. But the people have been blinded and we are those who are walking in the light should be bringing the people who are blinded to the light. But it can be hard because we have to understand

that they're blinded by the enemy. And the enemy does his part and he uses the things that they don't know to blind them. So sometimes people don't come to the truth because they're blind to the truth. That's the first thing. The second reason why I think, you know, the truth is it's always about truth, but sometimes people don't receive it. It's because they're maybe blinded to the truth. But then once you and I

Kevin Toomer (16:44.814)
present the truth, here's the second thing. There is a denial of the truth. Now this is where it really gets hard for us as Christians and as non-Christians alike, right? Because I've always said this on a bunch of episodes, the biggest problem with being a Christian or becoming Christian, rather, me rephrase this a little, one of the biggest struggles in becoming a Christian

is accepting that you are wrong, accepting that you are messed up, accepting that maybe I've been wrong. Who runs to the front of the line and says, my bad? Usually people run to the back of the line. Now they want to yell real loud and says, look at me, what I've done versus look at me, I was wrong or I've messed up.

or I'll hear this Christian, I've been taught wrong. I've believed wrong. I've been misinformed. And this is the key. We just, we just discussed, right? The enemies blinded people. So a lot of it isn't their truth and their fault initially, but God still holds us accountable because he wants to make sure everyone receives the truth so they can stand before him and say, maybe, you know what, Jesus, you didn't tell me that you was Lord.

Maybe if a Christian came to me and preached to me, maybe if someone invited me to church, maybe if somebody took me to Bible study, maybe if somebody explained the scripture, maybe I would have become a Christian, but you didn't send nobody. So it ain't my fault. Cause remember the enemy blinded me. But you see how good God is. He said, no, no, no, I'm going to send people. I'm going to, first of all, I'm going to tell you.

Because God still has access to every person through their consciousness. He can tell you some things that you know you should do. We have an inherent way of knowing right and wrong. We have this, what I call an internal factory installed GPS to lead us to Christ. But we either follow it or we don't. So none of us are off the hook. But what happens is, he will send people places and things to us and we can be presented with the truth, but then now we ought to make a decision.

Kevin Toomer (19:08.994)
So the denial of the truth is really because we made a decision. Because we've said, here's this information. Do I believe it? Do I trust that this is true? Or do I want the truth more than I want the comfort of living in untruth? That's where the rubber really meets the road. Because sometimes it's not so much that you don't believe it's true.

You just don't want it to be true because you don't want to stop living in the untrue. Sometimes we can get comfortable in dirt that we don't want to get clean because the dirt we know sometimes is better than the cleanliness that we don't Because now if I have to get clean, that means I have to change. And if I have to change, that means there's some things I have to give up. And sometimes

You and I can be so ingrained in something, even if it's wrong, we're used to it. And it's the bad stuff that we're just accustomed to. And sometimes it's just that denial of the truth. Like I mentioned in the beginning of the episode, you can present it well. But now let's flip it. Not just to a person who's not a Christian. And this is something I've been coming to a lot as a teacher in churches. For Christians.

Because I've come into a lot of Christians, again, one of my pet peeves is people who use scripture out of context. And I've seen it on social media. I've seen it in places. And I know that certain people, if you're a new Christian, I'm not expecting you to have all the context and know everything. You're still learning this thing. But I've been around Christians who've been saved for 15, 20 years, been in church 15, 20 years and still believe stuff about the Bible, about God, about church.

That's just not true. And I've gone to them privately. It's not like I went out and embarrassed them. You don't know what you're talking about. You wrong. No. I did it privately. And I went to them as a brother in Christ. And I said, hey, let me show you what this scripture really means. Yeah, you know, I know this is a common phrase we hear in church. And I know there's something churches do. But let me give you the truth about this thing so you can...

Kevin Toomer (21:33.922)
really see what it actually means. I want you to operate in truth because sometimes we limit our walk with Christ because we don't realize there's more available because we're living in limitations of thinking it's just this. But we have so much more in the word. So I said that to say again, even with some Christians, you can present them with evidence that maybe the scripture has been out of context.

or maybe the way you viewed this particular practice has been maybe incorrect. And they'll look me in my face and tell me, I hear you, Kevin, but that's just how I was raised. You know what? You make sense, Kevin. I feel you, I'm going go. I was raised out, but I grew up Baptist. I grew up Methodist. I grew up, know, Denomination X. As if.

That has any bearing on whether something is true or not. So again, denial of truth. So this goes on both facets. Whether the person is a Christian or whether the person is not even a Christian at all, confronted with truth at the end of it all, this still happens. Truth is presented. A decision is not required. And you and I have to either determine whether I'm

take this information and believe it's true and then make the necessary changes because I see the truth or continue to live in untruth. Let me give you another scripture. I love this scripture too. I love all of them. But this particular one, Isaiah chapter six, verse five, is a very famous scripture. This is where, let me set this up. This is when Isaiah came into the temple.

at the king as I die and he saw the trail of God's robe in the temple. So he walks in and he sees the trail of God filling the temple. Isaiah chapter six, verse five, it says, woe to me, I cried, I am ruined for I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips and my eyes have seen the king, the Lord Almighty. So let's look at the context again. He sees

Kevin Toomer (23:57.314)
trail of God and now he realizes, my goodness, who am I to have seen this? Right? So it's denial of the truth, in a sense of now he's presented with who he is and he has to realize, man, I'm messed up, man, I'm a sinner because this is how most people

Thank you. Holy spirit. This is how most people would have responded to that particular incident. Most people in 2026, if they would have went to church and they saw the trail of the Lord, feel the temple, you know what they would have did? They would have prayed, got on their phone and told everybody how blessed they are because they was able to see that man. You know what? And then they would have called himself apostle and overseer because

Obviously, God loves me so much that he allowed me to see that. So that must mean I'm special because he didn't show everybody. So that must mean you got to listen to me because obviously I have a high position in the Lord. I heard this phrase years ago and it really bothered me. My rank in the spirit is such that God let me see that. First of all, there's nothing in the scripture that says anything about a rank in the

Again, one of those blinded to the truth because we just believe stuff because we hear it. Right. But again, if someone saw that now, they will be going around bragging to everybody they know about how special they are because I saw the trailer the Lord in the temple. And that's why I think and I mean, my friend and I were talking about this a couple of weeks ago, why God only shows certain things to certain people.

He can't show this kind of stuff to everyone. He has to show it to the person he trusts to respond the right way. Because again, someone else would have been proudful and going around bragging about what they saw. Paul said that he was taken up to heaven and saw so many so great things, but he says things I can't say. Because he realized, first of all, I'm not in position to say that, right? Because I know who I am. And that because he saw what he saw.

Kevin Toomer (26:23.064)
The Lord gave him a thorn in his flesh, right? But let's go back to Isaiah again. He recognized who he was. He recognized I'm a man of unclean lips and I hang around dirty people. Let's be honest. That's what he's saying about Isaiah. And he could say the same thing about us. He said, man, I am messed up. I have fallen short. I do not do well. And remember Isaiah was a believer.

all accounts up until this point before he was called. There's no scripture that says he was going around living a life contrary to the Lord, but just seeing the Lord's trail of his gown was enough to confront him about who he really

And maybe that's a problem with some of us too. Not just the non-Christian, but maybe every now and then Christian. You and I need to have an Isaiah moment. Because we can get to the point till we deny the truth that we are still works in progress. We can deny the truth that yeah, you saved, but God's still working on you. You ain't fully sanctified yet. Sanctification is a process. Yeah, you go to Bible study.

Yeah, you have a podcast. Yeah, you preaching the church. Yes, you sing in the choir and God is pleased with them things, but you still got a dirty mouth. You still go places, think things, act in certain ways that are contrary to God, even with all your Christian-y stuff you do. So every now and then I believe God has to confront us with the truth because we sometimes as Christians are in denial.

that we're not as holy as we think we are. And it also works again for the non-Christian, for the non-Christian to come to the grips with the fact that I am a bad person and God does not abide by sin. And I need someone to save me because God is just. And just because he loves me doesn't mean he's going to be unjust and let a sinful person get into his heaven.

Kevin Toomer (28:42.338)
just because he loves them. So there's a denial of truth sometimes when it comes to why people, Christian and non, have a problem with truth. And then here's the last thing, and this is kind of like the good news. Hopefully there's a denial of truth and there's obviously, they're blinded to the truth. But hopefully after that, hopefully there will be an acceptance of

Now that's a part where again, non-Christian or Christian, it applies because as a non-Christian, now maybe can self, you know what? I need to, I need Jesus. And now I'm ready to accept Jesus as my Lord and savior. Now I'm ready to take my, now I'm ready to give my life to Christ. You know what? All these years I have been hearing, I know the Lord has been calling.

You know, ever since I was 10 years old, my grandmama used to be praying for me. I used to hear her praying and I knew that God was calling me, but I want to do what I want to do. But you know what? Now I got to stop running. Now I become, you know what? The truth is overwhelming. The facts are just too insurmountable. The Lord has made it clear. I got to accept the truth and I want to come home to the Lord. So hopefully

because God is so consistent and hopefully there are Christians like you and I who are obedient and are planting seeds. So it may not happen tomorrow, next next month. It may take years, but hopefully there's going to be that time when that person accepts the truth. You know what? It's time to stop running. It's time to come home. And that's for the non-Christian, but also for the Christian.

Maybe you have to accept the truth that you know what, I have fallen short. You know what, Lord? Yeah, I believe, but my faith hasn't been where it should be. Yes, I believe, but I've been derelict in reading my scriptures. Yes, I believe, but I know I still have unforgiveness in my heart. And I have to accept the truth that God, I need help in this area. God, I'm struggling in this area. I'm struggling in my faith. I'm struggling.

Kevin Toomer (31:04.992)
in my prayer time. I'm struggling in being consistent in ministry. I'm struggling in my belief. Lord, I want to believe, but I have these moments where I don't know if I hear you. I have those moments when things happen. I look out into the world and I wonder, Lord, are you really there for me? These are things you have to accept that's true. Like, know what, Lord? I still need work. I still need your presence. Because again,

A lot of times people as Christians believe my job is to accept Christ and just wait for him to come back. And this is just me in the proverbial earthly waiting room until we get to heaven. No, we have work to do here. And if we're doing the work, we have an adversary and we have our own misgivings. It's going to make it hard for us to navigate through this world. And even with that, we are still works in progress.

When you and I got saved, we did not stop sinning. God and I remove every sin and every desire to sin from us when we receive them. So there's an acceptance of the truth. For the non-Christian, I need Jesus to save me. For the Christian, I need Jesus to continue saving. So in either case, it's still about truth. One more scripture and we're going to wrap it up.

This is obviously for the non-Christian. This is one of the basic Christian one-on-one scriptures. Romans 10, 9. And it says, you declare with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe your heart that God raised her from the dead, you will be saved. And for the non-Christian, Jesus made it clear. He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. So no one can come to God except through.

But we're seeing here, regardless of what you may believe in terms of whether you're a non-Christian or a Christian, there's still a thing when it comes to accepting the truth, either who Jesus is or how much you fall short when it comes to Christ. So hopefully this episode was something that helped you in some form of fashion. Because I believe again, if you're a non-Christian,

Kevin Toomer (33:27.598)
This gives you something to consider. And if you're a Christian, it still gives you something to consider because contrary to popular belief, truth is not relative. Truth is absolute. And when it comes to Jesus, every one of us needs him. None of us can live without him. So I pray that we have to accept this truth as a new Christian or continue to seek truth.

as a Christian, but either way, truth is always the most important thing. All right. That's it for this week's episode. I thank you for watching and listening. I pray this bless you. Make sure you like, share, and subscribe. I know it's been a while since I've done an episode, but hopefully I have more coming soon. thank you again so much for watching and listening. Pray this bless you. And as I always say, ensure your life shines brightest for the Lord Jesus Christ beyond the benediction. Until next time.