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!