Daily Encouragement: Day 251

From Handbook to Wisdom, Day 251

TRUTH IS NOT DETERMINED
BY A MAJORITY VOTE

You revealed Yourself to Moses as
“I AM WHO I AM.”
(Exodus 3:14)

You are the Lord, and there is no other;
apart from You there is no God.
From the rising to the setting of the sun,
we know there is none besides You.
You are the Lord, and there is no other.
(Isaiah 45:5–6)

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
(Hebrews 13:8)

Harry Truman once commented on the importance of polls to leadership with the following insight: “I wonder how far Moses would have gone if he’d taken a poll in Egypt? What would Jesus Christ have preached if he’d taken a poll in Israel? Where would the Reformation have gone if Martin Luther had taken a poll? It isn’t the polls or public opinion of the moment that counts. It is right and wrong and leadership—men with fortitude, honesty, and a belief in the right—that makes epochs in the history of the world.”

In an age of growing relativism, it is noteworthy that there has been a growing trend in the media and on the internet to solicit public opinion on virtually every topic. There is a vicious circle in which the media influence public opinion, while changing public opinion influences the media.

A bumper sticker reads, “Don’t follow me. I’m lost too”—echoing the message of Matthew 15:14: “If a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit.” We do well to remember that neither truth nor virtue can be determined by a majority vote. These are not embedded in subjective and vacillating human opinion, but in the unchanging and revealed Word from the Creator of the cosmos.