What Is Truth?

"Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth"  (2 Tim. 2:15, ESV).  
"For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ" (John 1:17, ESV).   
"Truth does not change according to my ability to stomach it."  --Flannery O'Connor"

Pilate asked Jesus what truth was (as the title says) since this was not the reality of Rome--might makes right in their judgment!  Jesus had told him that he who is the truth listens to Him!  Obviously, Pilate wasn't of the truth!  But the essence of truth isn't just a philosophical question to pose, it's a matter of salvation.  Jesus came "to bear witness of the truth (cf. John 5:33)."  He is the very personification of it and claimed to be "the Truth" embodied, in the flesh.  Knowing truth is so vital to salvation that it's equated with being set free from the bondage of lies and the father of lies, Satan.  We shall know the truth and the truth shall set us free!  (Cf. John 8:32.)  John 2:21 says no lie is of the truth!  We must divorce truth from falsehood and error.  Searching for truth is linked to searching for God, for Augustine said (reiterated by Aquinas) that all truth is God's truth (and all truth meets at the top at that!).  Salvation is "through belief of the truth" to be saved (cf.  2 Thess. 2:13).

 If we know the truth we are equipped to detect the lie, just like knowing the real thing (money) protects us from being fooled by counterfeits.  Plato said that to live in reality, one must know what God is really like (for Jesus was "full of grace and truth," (cf. John 1:14)   "God is truth" and is also called "the Spirit of truth" in John 16:13 ).  The Dalai Lama is quoted as saying that "truth is the ultimate phenomenon." The classic definition (the correspondence theory of truth) is that truth is what reflects or corresponds to reality.  That is to say, that if we have a disconnect with reality, we don't know the truth, and if we don't know the truth we have a skewed orientation to reality.  The paradox is that if you're not aware of the truth and of reality, you don't know it!  Biblically speaking though, truth agrees with God and whatever He decrees!

As Christians knowing the truth, we are focused on truth and have our antennae sensitized.  We should be able to smell a lie or false doctrine a mile away, so to speak.  Doctrine is the sure foundation upon which our truth is based, and we must be anchored in the basics so as not to be led astray by every wind of doctrine and the lies of Satan. I'm not just admonishing people about telling the truth to one's fellow believer, but to stand up for the truth:  "... They are not valiant [stand up] for the truth on the earth." (Cf. Jer. 9:3, NKJV.)   Today, we have the same phenomenon:  Christians think it's unloving and old-fashioned to stand up for sound doctrine and the truth, and only want preachers that steer clear of all controversy and preach to the lowest common denominator.  Congregants go the path of least resistance and refuse to detect an error, mostly because they have become immune to it by the digestion of so much spiritual junk food as vaccination to the real thing and eat little solid food to sustain spiritual maturity and discernment.

Concerning morality, truth is knowable, absolute, and it's universal!  The teaching that it's relative (relativism) is bogus and a false premise, because that statement is self-defeating and contradicts itself, having no truth value.  The old catchphrase that something may be true for you but not for me is a copout and cannot be held philosophically without contradiction.  Something may work for you but not for me but that is not the measure of truth.  Pragmatists are not concerned with truth but only results--the ends justify the means!  The extreme worldview on truth is New Age or New Spirituality:  if it feels like the truth to you it is and you are in no position to judge someone else's truth!

There is no Truth with a capital T according to the prevalent, common worldview--it's true that there is no universal belief or Belief with a capital B, but there is absolute, universal truth for everyone for all time and everywhere for every situation.  The American mind is becoming a narrow, ignorant and closed mind immune concerning truth.  The only person who has the right and prerogative to proclaim absolute truth is God, who has incarnated Himself in the person of Jesus Christ. All knowledge except God's is contingent-- we must accept His truth to know anything (cf. Prov. 1:7 says knowledge begins in the fear of the LORD).  The suspicious hermeneutic of Postmodernism denies that you can know anything at all for certain--and they're sure!  Postmodern thought dodges the no-truth premise and says it's merely a "short-term contract!"  What they claim is that it's unknowable, personal, and cultural!  And if someone did know it, he couldn't communicate it adequately.

But the fact is that truth is knowable according to Jesus very words and we have rebelled against it, needing to be reoriented to reality and the truth. Finally, we must give our regards to the very assessment of truth itself in his priestly, intercessory prayer of John 17:  "Sanctify them by the truth; your Word is truth." (Cf. John 17:17, NIV.)  That is to say, truth doesn't just inform but transforms!   We have a right to our own beliefs and opinions, but not our own facts and truth!  Believing anything without evidence or a valid reason is blind faith, whether secular or spiritual.; it's sad that most people just believe what they agree with or fits their prejudices and opinions; note that you hold opinions, but convictions hold you!  Billy Graham tells us to beware lest we mistake our prejudices for our convictions.

Siddhartha Gautama pondered his Four Noble Truths under the bo-tree, but there is no alternative truth that compares with the truth of Christ.  You cannot save yourself no matter how many noble truths you conjure up.  Buddha was called the "Enlightened One" and saw salvation was merely a rescue or deliverance from ignorance and one must become enlightened.  He didn't believe God could help one achieve this state of bliss but must find it on one's own.  Christ opens our eyes and shows us the light of day by grace and we see Him with the eyes of our hearts to behold truth in Him.

Harvard University has the slogan The Truth Shall Set You Free, not differentiating spiritual and academic knowledge and spiritual and mental freedom. Today we see skeptics again (actually this philosophy of sophism originated in Greek antiquity) such as the Postmodernists who say you know nothing for certain.  They say, "I don't know anything!'  How do they know that?  Who told them?  Notice what nonsensical worldviews result from atheism and skepticism!  Scripture says that which is hidden belongs to God and what is revealed (by Him) belongs to us (cf. Deut. 29:29)!  We know something only because of the presupposition of an Ultimate Mind or God behind the cosmos known as the Logos or consciousness, logic, or expressed thought of God.

Those who rebel against the truth are condemned.  The lost hold the truth in unrighteousness, have exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and do not obey the truth (cf. Rom. 1:18,25; Gal. 3:1).  As for heretics and those who believe the lie, "perhaps God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth" (cf. 2 Tim. 2:25, NIV).  God will send strong delusion to the lost to make them believe the lie because they had pleasure in unrighteousness and refused to love the truth.

In the final analysis, no one will ever find the truth unless they admit they could be wrong and are ignorant; they must also be willing to go wherever the facts lead,--exploring all possibilities, even of the supernatural and miraculous!  (After eliminating the impossible, what's left is quite possible, no matter how implausible or unlikely.)   In sum, this means we need to love the truth without preconceived notions to ever find it and to be saved.         Soli Deo Gloria!

Are Christians Sabbatarians?

"If you want to kill Christianity, you must abolish Sunday."  --Voltaire   
"The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath" (Mark 2:27, HCSB).  

There are Christian Sabbatarians--that's not an oxymoron!  Once, I was almost fooled by the Seventh-day Adventists as a teen but studied Luther to be set free from their legalism.  Now I consider myself free from any form of legalistic interpretation.  Point in fact: No place in the New Testament are we admonished to keep the Sabbath--search for yourself!  It is the only one of the Ten Commandments not reinstated in the New Testament.  Do not live in the Old Testament!  To some believers, Paul says, every day is holy and for the others, we are not to judge them.

It is wrong to assume that Christians changed the Sabbath to Sunday, for they observed it early on by tradition and custom, and eventually dropped the practice.  The Lord's Day was strictly in tribute to the Resurrection.  Note that John said in the Book of Revelation:  "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day."  There is ample evidence of Christians meeting on the Lord's day early on; they even observed the Sabbath in addition at first--old traditions die hard!

Though I agree with the moral equivalent of having a day set aside for rest as observing the Sabbath, these are not the same.  There is simple morality, and then there is spirituality and religion or Sabbath observance.  Sabbath observance by no means is to be a litmus test of spiritual orthodoxy.  We have no right to judge our brother in regards to a Sabbath (cf. Col. 2:16i).  But experiments with this day have proven unsuccessful:  The USSR tried to alter the seven-day week for eleven years and it ended in failure.  We are just hard-wired for this cycle of work and rest and need to lay aside a day for R & R spiritually, mentally, and emotionally, as well as physically.

Jesus did say that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath (c. Mark 2:27) and that means not to let someone tell us what our day of rest should be used for.  The principle is so important to God that if we don't take due rest, He will give it to us anyway.  In principle, there is no hard-and-fast rule for what a Sabbath should require, or prohibits.  If you want to get technical, you shouldn't even go out to eat or buy fuel on the Sabbath because that requires others to work on your behalf.  The Spirit of the law prohibited the doing of business on this day of so-called rest--the Pharisees had redefined it with thirty-nine additional definitions of "work activities."

God promised that He would give us a permanent (spiritual) rest--we will work in heaven physically.  Israel kept the outward sign of the Sabbath but failed to enter into His rest, as noted in Hebrews 4:3, HCSB, as "... 'So I swore in My anger, they will never enter into My rest.'"  The important thing is that we rest for our labors as we rest in the Lord's and become empowered by the Spirit so as not to be working in the flesh or our own strength.

God condemns any work done in the energy of the flesh, no matter how good we deem it.  God said to Israel (if they would keep the covenant):  "My presence will go with you and I will give you rest."  Christians enter into this rest from their labors upon salvation and living by the power of the Spirit, not in the energy of the flesh.

The Sabbath command was a sign for Israel in Nehemiah 9:14, HCSB:  "You revealed Your holy Sabbath to them, and gave them commands, statutes, and instruction through Your servant Moses." God blessed the Sabbath and made it a special day for us too!  Note that it was given as a sign of His covenant forever.  Exodus 31: 13 says, "'Tell the Israelites:  You must observe My Sabbaths for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations so that you will know that I am Yahweh who sets you apart." Also, note Ezek. 20:12, 20, HCSB:  "I also gave them My Sabbaths to serve as a sign between Me and them so they will know that I am Yahweh who sets them apart as holy."  "Keep My Sabbaths holy, and they will be a sign between Me and you, so you may know that I am Yahweh your God."

What I am trying to point out, is that although there are applications to the general principle of  rest required for us and the way we are designed for it; however, its main intention was to be a sign for Israel to be a special nation, and it was so serious that there was a death penalty of stoning for violating the Sabbath.  As believers, we are not under the law (cf. Rom. 6:14) but under grace and are liberated from all demands of ceremonial custom and tradition and observe the Lord's day by the assembling together of ourselves (cf. Heb. 10:25).

We have liberty as Christian to hallow the Sabbath as stated in Romans 14:5-6, HCSB:  "One person considers one day to be above another day.  Someone else considers every day to be the same.  each one must be fully convinced in his own mind.  Whoever observes the day, observes it for the honor of the Lord...."   Above all, according to Col. 2:16, HCSB:  "...[D]on't let anyone judge ... in the matter of a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day. "

In other words, don't get legalistic about it and the faith you have, is to be kept to yourself (cf. Rom. 14:22), not to be used to spiritually bully others believers into your convictions, if you are free in the Lord, don't flaunt it, and if you are bound in the Lord, don't condemn.   There are always exceptions to the rule:  Necessity knows no law, as David exhibited by taking the shewbread in the temple to violate temple rules, and priests were allowed to "work" on the Sabbath.  Jesus asked the ultimate question:  Can we not do good  [works] on the Sabbath?  Christians are to be known by their love, not known by their Sabbaths like Jews:  Viva la difference!  

NB:  In 1929 the USSR exchanged the traditional seven-day week with a five-day one.  This experiment with a Sabbath lasted only eleven years before returning to normalcy!  In 1795, during the French Revolution, a new calendar was decreed with three ten-day weeks per month, eliminating Sundays and holidays, but after ten years it was terminated.  God's way is the best way!   Old traditions die hard!     Soli Deo Gloria!