In Defense Of Truth

 "Truth forever on the scaffold; wrong forever on the throne."  (James Russell Lowell, 1844, The Present Crisis). 

PART I

Notice what kind of Savior we have.  Jesus didn't just say that He would tell the truth, or that He had discovered it, or that He knew it, but that He was the truth itself.  This is important because He also said, "You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free."  He's speaking of Himself and the fact that truth is not unknowable but can be found in Him, all we need to know of it.  Jesus never footnoted His sayings or appealed to some authority figure as one would say, "So and so Rabbi says....." But He said, audaciously: "But I say unto you...." No man ever spoke like this man! (cf. Mark 1:22: Matt. 7:29).  He didn't speak like the scribes and Pharisees! 

We believe in the God of truth and Jesus as the epitome, personification, or embodiment of truth itself.  Everything we need to know of truth can be found in Jesus; "For the truth is in Jesus." A sign of a true believer is a love for the truth itself: "... They perish because they did not accept a love of the truth and so be saved," (cf. 2 Thess 2;10).  Sometimes the truth hurts and can be difficult to accept or admit to others.  But we must not only believe it and admit it but be willing to stand up for it at any cost: " They were not valiant for the truth! (cf. Jer. 9:3).  We must be willing to show and declare our Chrisitan colors and not only that but be able to defend the truth and know why we believe it.

It can be defended in the open marketplace of ideas and on the public square if we do not concede this territory to Secularism..... "Lies and not faithfulness prevail in the land ... they do not take Me into account...." (cf. Jer. 9:3, HCSB). We must be willing to acknowledge our God publically and not be ashamed of our Lord even when it costs and when it's risky. This may involve speaking up for the truth and expressing our point of view openly. 

When we realize how much damage lies from the father of lies can do and how destructive they are we will wage war for the truth and be engaged in truth-finding missions and do our homework to make sure of our convictions When we have a foundation of true and orthodox doctrine, we can readily discern truth from error and fiction or theory.  Certain half-truths will not ring true!  We will also grow less tolerant of error, heresy, and discord, especially among brethren.   We must heed the advice of Polonius in Hamlet: "To thy own self be true!"  If we are dishonest with ourselves, we may not even be living in reality and lose touch with society and be in our own world. 

Jesus called His Father the "only true God."  This should be indicative of our relationship with God as one who knows us and the truth about us; we can not hide our clay of feet or flaws from God who sees us for who we really are and even knows us better than we do ourselves.  Lies about others, our world, and God can wreak havoc on the social and spiritual order of things and we have no right to destroy God's foundations. "When the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? (cf. Psalm 11:3).

Instead, we are to rejoice in the truth and let honesty be our policy ("Speak nothing but the truth," --2 Chron. 18:15) to discern the spirit of truth and not succumb to the spirit of error.  A true sign of an unbeliever is that he rejects the truth or that he suppresses it (cf. Romans 2;8)  They exchanged the truth of God for a lie (cf. Romans 1:25).  It may be a challenge to speak up and make our voice and opinion count at times.  

But we must have the attitude:   Let the chips fall where they may, I'm on the side of the God of truth.  And similarly, when the chips are down, we are not to give up on the truth and its power to accomplish God's will. If we are not honest with God, who can we expect Him to be on our side and defend us?  We must not become lax in our treatment of truth and in our commitment to it and lacking in nor wavering from its free expression.  

PART II
By definition, truth is that which corresponds with reality (The correspondence theory of truth articulated by John Locke), or more directly that which God decrees or is concordant with Him.

"I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth" (1 John 2:21, NIV).
"All truth is God's truth." (Augustine) and "All truth meets at the top."(cf. Aquinas).



There comes a time in our testimony that we must stand up for the truth and be counted as a test of our faithfulness. Jesus is the epitome of truth and all truth is God's truth, Jesus revealed Himself as its ultimate source. The trouble with truth is that no one person has a monopoly on it and we all need each other to arrive at truth per se (not abstract, but personified in Christ)--no one's cornered the market. What's wrong with cults is that they have just enough truth to be dangerous; they have an element of truth and inoculate people from the real thing, because of having error mixed with the truth so as to deceive. There's no such thing as pure evil--it's just a perversion or distortion of truth and good.

People go by what rings true for them personally for basically four reasons: it's true because it's believable or they believe it; it's true because their fellowship or group believes it; it's true because they want to believe it, and it's true because they have a vested interest in it. This is due to our bias and everyone has a bias; there's no such thing as perfect objectivity outside God. We all need to examine our motives and check facts because our faith is fact-based and our God is fact-based.

We must not dodge the "no-truth-premise" by insisting truth is only relative either. This is a "self-refuting statement" and cannot possibly be true or it contradicts itself--is that statement relative too? To the Postmodern, truth is but a "short-term contract." But Christians are hungry for the truth and love the truth; it's the rejection and hatred of truth that marks the unbeliever (cf. Rom. 2:8; 2 Thess. 2:10). One sure sign of a believer is his devotion to truth. Remember, Jesus promised the truth will set us free from this confusion (cf. John 8:32). There is Truth with a capital T! Truth, according to the Bible, is absolute, universal, and objective, meaning it applies to all, all the time, everywhere, and is true regardless of whether believed or not!

It is said that we cannot know the truth, and this would be true had not Jesus revealed it, the trouble is not in knowing truth, but that we have rebelled from it and are seeking rationalization to justify ourselves. Differing worldviews all posit certain "truths" and make truth claims that only their truths are true--they are all unified that Christianity is a lie. "No lie is of the truth," according to 1 John 2:21. However, there is a reliable truth that we all can put faith in.

The catchphrase of Postmodernism that something "may be true for you but not me" is also fallacious; is that statement true for everyone? Some people refuse to accept truth in essence because they think it gives others power over them, and they claim no one's in a position to know what's true for them. People claim that our Christian claims are irrelevant, but God's truth marches on and is vindicated. Why do they all despise our truth? We all act like there's truth, because there is truth! All Christians ought to devote themselves to the pursuit of truth with a passion. We all ought to be known as lie detectors and purveyors of truth!

As Christians, we are ambassadors for truth because we belong to the truth" (cf. 1 John 3:19) for Christ came to bear witness of the truth, and grace and truth came through Him, being full of grace and truth (cf. John 1:7), and all who hear Him are of the truth. And the church is known as the "pillar and ground of truth (cf. 1 Tim. 3:15). When they insist that it's merely our interpretation, we insist that truth is absolute and universal and can be communicated. Zechariah 8:19 exhorts us: "... Therefore love truth and peace.'" Soli Deo Gloria!