His Followers asked him and said to him, “Do you want us to fast? How should we pray? What diet should we observe?”
Jesus said, “Do not lie, and do not do what you hate, because all things are disclosed before heaven. For there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed, and there is nothing covered that will remain undisclosed” (Gospel of Thomas, saying 6).
In Jesus’ formation of the “Golden Rule,” we have a negative formation: “Do not lie.” Assuming Boolean logic, we can deduce that the opposite is true: Do Tell the Truth. Truth consciousness is the foundation of an Immortal society. The next stage in human development will either be a world-wide agreement to stop hurting each other and be honest—even when it hurts your short-term interests or it will be necessary to have a world-wide holocaust with billions of people dying.
The following essay will offer my insights from the study of the Gospel of Thomas. Like all insights given by human beings, they are subject to corrections, emendations, and even a reversal of the stated position should new data arrive which would necessitate this shift in position.
1. The truth is a solid foundation to stand upon. Note that the truth seeker is interested is the truth—not whether his position is right or not. If I make an honest claim based upon the best information available and I am wrong, then this is great! I have just learned that my former understanding was mistaken. Anyone who gets attached to a position is not a truth seeker. His stance might be right in this particular instance, but the process by which he is arriving at the truth is flawed and thus he will often be in error but will be unaware of it.
2. The truth is there is no private-public self. The concept of privacy assumes you have the right to keep things hidden from others. This is contrary to what Jesus commands in saying 6 above. Once there is just one self and the public-private dichotomy is eliminated, you will be obeying Jesus. Otherwise, if you have something which you want to keep secret, then you are open to demonic influence.
3. Women only respect honorable men. Because as Jesus pointed out, females are not a living sprit (see saying 114), they are incapable of honor. Honor means doing something against your short-term interest in favor of other higher-order archetypes such as fairness, justice, and mercy.
Example: Say you are a cop and you know Mr. X has sexually abused 28 children. So you provide him with false documents, making it appear that the police have a video tape evidence of his misdeeds (in fact, the tape was contrived by actors in a studio). Mr. X collapses and confesses. You win the day!
…Except you just fucked up and lied! You are just as evil as he is because you have said by your actions lying is okay if it for a, b, c, d, e, f,…z reasons. So as long as you can come up with a justification for lying, it’s okay to lie. Those who study fallacies may say, “Oh, this is just a ‘slippery slope’ argument.” It is not! The moment you start saying lying is okay—for any reason—then there is no foundation for a civilized structure.
Note: The best response to Mr. X would be this: “Are you finally ready to tell the truth?” If this is said under God’s Spirit of Truth, you may be amazed at how many times people will go ahead and tell the truth!
4. The truth means if you fuck up, go ahead and admit it and then move on. “The cover-up is the crime!” as every student of Watergate knows. Some have speculated that if Nixon had admitted his guilt early on and burned the tapes on national television, he would be considered a great president today.
5. Truthful people can have poor memories. Conversely, liars need to have an excellent memory. This is one of the reasons liars usually get caught: They cannot keep up with all the lies they have told!
6. Silence is Golden. The truthful person always has the right to be silent. This is not a ploy or a game; it’s just following the dictum to “be as shrewd as snakes and innocent as doves” (saying 39). In the face of evil, one always has the right to remain silent.
7. Hurting people by telling them the truth is not the truth! Here we need a balance: There is no need to intentionally be cruel to others in the name of honesty. Believe me—the fat lady knows she is fat—you do not need to point this out to her.
8. Being truthful means your word is good. As the Wisdom in Proverbs 22:1 tells us: “A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches…”
9. Someone asked me, “How did you bring down an executive director of a nonprofit?” In June of 2015, I had a spiritual awakening and it became clear that in dealing with Jonathan Vernick, I would need to be strictly honest. All claims should be supported; all sources used should be confirmed; stay away from making misleading claims. In essence, Whatever I say must be truthful! By taking this position, my readers could (and did!) rely on my reporting. Then in the final two weeks between June 8, 2016 and June 22, 2016, readership support made it clear to the Baker Board of Directors and Barbara Garcia that it was time for new leadership at Baker.
10. So with God’s Holy Spirit of Truth and a blog…down came one Mr. Jonathan Vernick!
Summary: If the world today wishes to be a group of Physical Immortals, then there will need to be a collective agreement in honoring the truth. This is not some abstract concept. If you say, “I am going to go the office” and you really just want to get drunk with your mates, then say so; if a relationship is structured so that one feels the need to lie, then that relationship is fucked. The idea of privacy is a demonic one as it gives rise to the shadow self and lots of games because you want to keep things hidden from others. While modesty in speech and in dress are okay, if a society forces someone to be contrary to his true nature, then there will constant fights without end. As there is a dedication to the Truth, the activation of higher-ordered archetypes such as Honor, Courage, and Wisdom will also be activated.
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