I have climbed highest mountains,
I have run through the fields,
Only to be with you.
Only to be with you.
I have run,
I have crawled.
I have scaled these city walls,
These city walls,
Only to be with you. —U2
Five Thoughts About TRUTH:
In this post, I’ll share the first two of five thoughts about truth. These thoughts form a compass that can provide us with guidance in a “post-truth” world.
1. Truth ORIGINATES with GOD.
According to the Bible, God is “the God of truth.” For instance, Psalm 31:5 and several other passages declare God as the God of truth.
Into Your hand I commit my spirit; You have redeemed me, O LORD God of truth. —Ps 31:5 NKJ / NAS / CSB / Holman Christians Standard
I love the way The Amplified Bible translates this verse.
Into Your hand I commit my spirit; You have redeemed me, O LORD, the God of truth and faithfulness. —Ps 31:5 AMP (Cf Deut 32:4; Isa 65:16 KJV / NKJV)
God is a God of “truth and faithfulness.”
Jesus — “full of grace and truth”
The Gospel of John describes Jesus as someone who was and is “full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). Think about the power of that combination!
Jesus wasn’t 50% grace and 50% truth! He was full on 100% GRACE and 100% TRUTH! The combination was irresistible! I firmly believe that the church doesn’t have to sacrifice truth in its desire to share grace. Together they form an unbeatable combo!
When Jesus described Himself, He said:
“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” —John 14:6 NLT
In that statement, Jesus was letting us know that ALL TRUTH ultimately gets defined by who He is and what He has done.
All truth gets defined by who Jesus is and
what He has done!
When Jesus described the Holy Spirit, He called the Holy Spirit, “the Spirit of truth” (14:17; 15:26; 16:13).
Finally, Jesus also defined and described the WORD of GOD as truth. In his great prayer, he prayed, “Sanctify them by your truth. Your Word is truth” —John 17:17
Early church fathers like Aquinas and Augustine believed that, “All truth is God’s truth.” While their statement has been misused and abused in recent times, what they were saying is that truth doesn’t originate with you and me. It originates with God.
Truth, wherever it is found, is truth; it is not hidden from God.
All truth is God’s truth. —Augustine of Hippo
Unfortunately, someone recently wrote that “the goal of human philosophy used to be truth without God.” But in this current cultural moment, people are more apt to want “God without truth.” [1] In other words, in today’s world, we create our own spiritual belief systems and personal “gods” that look and sound a lot like us, but don’t look anything at all like the God of the Bible or the truth He has established. [2]
But truth isn’t determined by opinion polls. It’s not discovered by taking a survey. It’s not an option to choose from on your social media dashboard.
Truth can only be known because God has chosen to make it known. It’s called divine revelation. God is the author, originator and source of all truth. Truth begins and ends with Him, and that’s why the evil one assaults it.
While I don’t always agree with John MacArthur, I do believe he nailed it when he wrote the following:
“The war against truth is nothing new… It began in the garden when the serpent said to the woman, “Has God indeed said . . . ?” (Genesis 3:1). A relentless battle has raged ever since—between truth and lies, good and evil, light and darkness, assurance and doubt, belief and skepticism, righteousness and sin. It is a savage spiritual conflict that literally spans all of human history…” —John MacArthur, The Truth War (p. 8). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition
John’s point? The evil one has targeted truth historically and has it in his crosshairs right now, because truth originates with God. He knows that if he can undermine it, then he can create confusion about who God is, what He has done in this world, who we are and what God’s plan and purpose is for our lives!
Truth originates with God.
2. Truth is ABSOLUTE.
Truth isn’t relative. There’s no such thing as, “Well, you have your truth and I have mine.”
Absolute truth is what Francis Schaeffer called “true Truth.” In other words, it’s not just truth for you or truth for me. It’s “true truth”. It’s something that is true at all times and in all places. It’s true whether we believe it, like it, agree with it, accept it or reject it.
Unfortunately, forty years ago Francis Schaeffer crushed it when he wrote:
“We should note this curious mark of our age: The only absolute allowed is the absolute insistence that there is no absolute.” — Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live? p 217.
Get this: Truth is not what I want it to be, think it should be or wish it to be. Truth is what it is.
Augustine was correct when he wrote:
If you believe what you like about the Gospel, and reject what you don’t like, it is not the Gospel you believe in, but yourself. —Saint Augustine
Augustine is describing so much of what’s going on, not only in the world, but even in the church, when it comes to truth.
His point? Just like God, who is the author of truth, truth transcends us. We are subject to it. It’s not subject to us. Trust doesn’t bend to me. I bend to it or end up broken by it and destined to live a lie.
Truth isn’t necessarily what makes you feel good.
Sometimes, bad news can be true.
The doctor who refuses to notify his patient of a life-threatening condition because he doesn’t want to “hurt their feelings” or “make them feel bad about themselves” isn’t being kind, that doctor is being cruel.
Kindness isn’t the 11th commandment…
Kindness has become the “eleventh” and only valuable commandment in 2021. But kindness doesn’t mean ignoring reality. Kindness isn’t flattery. Recently, I read a description of kindness as “usefulness.” In other words, kindness is any attitude or act that is actually useful to another person, regardless of how big or small. The failure to share truth is never useful to anyone, regardless of how “white” the lie is believed to be. Sometimes the failure to share truth has devastating consequences.
Truth isn’t what the majority decides.
For instance, think about the following example. By the way, this isn’t a trick question. Do you a believe a woman should have the right to vote?
I would venture that the overwhelming and likely unanimous response of readers would respond, “Yes! Most definitely.”
Do you realize that there was a time when the majority disagreed?
Were they wrong?
On top of that, do you realize that there are places in the world today, where the rights of women are severely restricted?
Do you think you’re somehow morally superior just because you happen to live in a country that has a different opinion when it comes to the rights of women?
What gives you the audacity to believe that just because the majority of this country believes a woman should have equal rights and protections as men that it should be so?
Is it simply because that’s what the majority in our country has determined? Or, is it because long before this country acknowledged the right of a woman to vote, God’s Word described the equality of men and women in passages like Galatians 3:28?
In Christ’s family there can be no division into Jew and non-Jew, slave and free, male and female. Among us you are all equal. That is, we are all in a common relationship with Jesus Christ. —Gal 3:28 MSG
My point? Truth is absolute! It’s not based on what the majority decides, current political trends or conventional wisdom!
My Truth or My Opinion
Almost weekly some celebrity, sports figure or entertainer is applauded and affirmed for making some announcement about some aspect of their personal life — usually involving their “discovery” of some aspect related to gender or sexuality. Quite frankly, it’s difficult to keep up. But the moment it happens, the media immediately signals to us that we should applaud and affirm their discovery. Usually, they cue our response by saying something to the effect, “It’s so good that they are finally living their truth.”
While it’s not politically correct to write this, the reality is, there’s no such thing as “my truth” and “your truth.” There’s “my opinion” and “your opinion,” but truth is truth regardless of what I believe or what you believe.
The problem with relativism
Whenever someone starts writing or talking like this, someone is likely to look at them with one of those condescending snarls and say something like: “Are you kidding me? Are you one of those?”
“Those what?” we reply.
“You know, those Christians? The kind that believes in absolute truth?”
“Absolutely,” we counter. “I don’t believe everything is relative, and I do believe that there are some things we can know.”
“Really?” they respond, “You? It seems to me that anyone who believes in absolute truth is an arrogant, egotistical, stuck-up, close-minded, oppressive, intolerant, self-righteous and bigoted know-it-all…”
At this point, I hope you’ll respond something like this:
“Wow. That’s interesting. Are you absolutely sure?”
Let the last sentence sit there for a few moments.
Here’s the point: relativism doesn’t have legs. It never has. It can’t stand up under the weight of simple logic.
Truth is absolute, which means it is not relative. And, truth can only be absolute if it originates with God.
Without God, there can’t be any absolutes. If there are no absolutes, that means there can’t be anything such as objective, universal truth.
Without objective, universal truth, truth becomes subjective, relative or pragmatic (whatever works).
And, if truth becomes subjective, relative and pragmatic, that means we’re at the mercy of personal or cultural preferences.
Where does that leave us when your personal preferences and my personal preferences come crashing into one another? More importantly, the danger of what’s possible and what has happened historically when people are led by personal and cultural preferences, with no standard of absolute truth, is tragic and abhorrent.
Paul described the problem that arises when relativism rules and truth is not absolute in Romans 1:25.
They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. 26 That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires… —Rom 1:25-26
The first two absolutes when it comes to truth are:
- Truth originates with God, and,
- Truth is absolute.
Where do you land on these two thoughts?
In the next post, we’ll share three additional thoughts about truth.
[1] MacArthur, John F.. The Truth War (p. 8). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.
[2] MacArthur, John F.. The Truth War (p. 8). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.