THE THEOLOGY OF TRUE THANKSGIVING

By Dr. M. R. Dowler

Thanksgiving is this Thursday. Most of us know the basic facts of the origin of the first Thanksgiving; you know, the Pilgrims, the Indians, the food, etc, etc. But whereas our modern Thanksgiving observance bears little resemblance to the original, for Christians there is an element of thanksgiving that is often neglected----the “truth” within the context of our expressions of praise. I call this missing element the Theology of True Thanksgiving.

This past week the UK Oxford University Press issued its annual international word of the year; a new word to be added to their Oxford University Dictionary. The new word for 2016 is---post-truth, defined as “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion or personal belief.” The reason for Oxford’s selection of post-truth is the nearly 2,000 percent increase of its usage since 2015 (mostly by the media), selected to capture the mood of our modern culture.

Humanity has been searching for truth from the beginning. The scriptures tell us a Roman Governor named Pilate once asked Jesus to define truth (John 18:38). So where can we find this elusive set of standards called truth? Certainly not on talk radio or in our dictionaries or philosophy textbooks. The ultimate expression of truth is provided by the Lord Jesus Christ when He described Himself as “the way, the truth and the life” (John 14:6). Truth is not emotion; it is logic, a cognitive knowledge of facts. All truth comes from God as found in the Bible.

Worship is not optional to the believer; we are commanded to worship our God (Psalm 95:6; 96:9; 100:1-5). The Theology of True Thanksgiving is all about worship “in truth” (John 4:24). Doctrine is not a glamorous subject, but it is essential to our expressions of praise, gratitude and thanksgiving. Simply stated, worship involves more than our emotions (2 Samuel 6:15-16); or as theologian Millard Erickson explained, “Unless we have accurate knowledge of the God we worship, there is no genuine worship in truth.” Anything less is just worthless platitudes (Matthew 15:8). Think about it and Happy Thanksgiving.