Apparently this warrants further explanation: Factual accuracy is a peculiar obsession with western culture. It is by no means a biblical emphasis.
It seems I’m often reminding folks that this world is a deception in the first place. Our “reality” is not real. This world does not matter except as a staging ground for human eternity, however many of us make it to eternity. It is utterly impossible for humans to fully perceive all the pertinent facts. Everything is guesswork. All we really have is our experiences and perceptions. That notion that every human experiences events the same way is a lie from Hell.
You should not trust everything you experience, in the sense that your five senses plus reason will give you the whole story. Perception is not trustworthy. Ever hear of the Mandela Effect? There is no such thing as objective facts. The Unseen Realm keeps reaching into our human existence and tweaking things, and very often you would never know. At other times, your memories may be left intact after Eternity has changed something. This is part of our mortal existence.
It’s not as if I’m suggesting that you can make up anything you want when talking to people. The problem is you simply may not be fully aware of all pertinent data, may not remember it clearly, and it simply may have shifted without you realizing it. The best you can do is report your impressions when it comes to that. Honesty is not a question of accuracy but of your intent.
The biblical viewpoint is that you should focus on the moral issues at all times, not the “objective facts”. The Hebrew people did not suffer from the western obsession with this world. The Hellenistic outlook of the West assumes there is no Spirit Realm, no moral truth. It is inherently materialistic, assuming that this world is all there is. If you insist on operating on that standard, then you have denied the Word of God. His Word is personal; it’s a Person. Christ Himself would snicker at the western obsession with “propositional truth” — it’s an oxymoron.
Thus, Jesus warned that there were people in His own nation who had twisted moral truth to the point that giving them an honest answer would provoke violence (“pearls before swine”) because they had no idea what to do with truth. It’s a sort of “tell them what they want to hear” if can’t avoid them. On a less confrontational level, you need to speak to people where you believe they are, in terms they can use. Only those closest to you in shared covenant faith are worthy of genuine blunt honesty. Everyone else gets a provisional answer to help them make decisions. That’s why Jesus didn’t answer Pilate’s queries directly, but gave him something he could work with.
Facts are not on the same level with sacred truth. Stop treating accuracy in data as somehow holy. You may not be able to perceive the data. You probably won’t remember it accurately. It’s unlikely you can convey that data accurately in every setting. Some people in this world are NPCs (non-playing characters) for your mission, and it doesn’t matter a great deal what you tell them. However, the real issue is your faithfulness in compassion, determined to do what you can to represent your Lord by loving His people. Along with all the rest of Creation, even NPCs warrant compassion.
That’s as close as we can get to ultimate truth in human language.
