What is Truth?

John 18:38: Pilate said to Him, "What is truth?"


What is truth? This is the formidable conundrum that has beguiled our generation, perhaps more so than for all other generations in the past. Are there any absolutes? Do we have any foundation, any solid ground to stand on and assert, "This thing is right, and there are no buts about that!" Without such an assurance to guide our actions, we cannot be certain of anything at all, perhaps even our own existence. Rather, we tend to rely on what "feels good to us" or "that's what my culture says, perhaps it's different but equally valid for yours." "It's your cup of tea, really - just not mine." While there is indeed room to differ on matters of opinion, truth is not something we can differ on. If there is no truth, then we have no business doing anything at all on this planet.

As a Christian who believes in absolutes, I am prepared to defend them to the utmost, because I believe that truth is ultimately centered in God. There is no truth without Him, and the Bible clearly shows that truth has its basis from His nature, which does not change. James 1:17 says, "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change" (emphasis mine). Likewise, Hebrews 13:8 observes: "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." There is a principle, called the law of non-contradiction, that can be inferred from such statements: God cannot be both God and not God at the same time. In Titus 1:2, Paul declares that God cannot lie; so, clearly, God deals with absolutes. Lying is wrong because in God's very nature it is wrong to utter falsehood. If truth does indeed come from God's standards, then it must follow that truth is not based upon what individuals decide to be true, or by what society decides to be true. It is based upon what an absolute God proclaims to be true. Since He is unchangeable in His nature, His absolutes will not change, and so what He declares to be true will not be shifting and arbitrary. It will be sure. This isn't dictatorial and autocratical; it's a great comfort to us fallible creatures to have such standards, because they give us guidance as to what is proper to do. Since sin has affected us all, it is necessary that such absolutes plainly exist.

Jesus Christ defines absolute truth. The famous John 14:6 verse declares, "I am the way, the TRUTH, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me." In this context, Jesus is emphasizing that He is the sole way to heaven, and the disciples are asking how they can follow Him to His Father's house. So, in this sense, He is the truth. "Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ" (John 1:17). Not only is Jesus the true way to salvation, but He is also the originator of truth, being God. Being God, He has also sent down revelation to us in the form of a book, the Bible. Later on in His discourse, Christ states, "Sanctify [Your disciples] in the truth; Your word is truth" (John 17:17). The Scriptures are truth because they come from the True One, Jesus Christ: "All Scripture is God-breathed and is profitable, etc...." (2 Timothy 3:16). So, both the Man and the Book are authoritative: they define what is right and proper for us created beings to do in this world. The Christian faith thus allows for no foundation of vagueness and relativity - it is True, because it is founded on the True One, through the True Book.

It makes for a woefully inconsistent world if we insist that truth does not exist. First of all, we are ourselves committing a common logical fallacy if we say "It is an absolute truth that there is no absolute truth." Like I said above, you cannot have it both ways. You cannot flat out deny truth, because in doing so, you admit that there is at least one truthful statement in this world - and it is that there is no truth! Furthermore, truth cannot be found through reason, because if we adopt a skeptical mindset that questions everything, even reason itself is questioned and perhaps our own existence is doubted as well (although skepticism itself leads to a dead end because we would "doubt that we doubt," which is also a logical fallacy). Besides, how can we say that we exist just because we think? Perhaps we are being deceived, or are dreaming? How can we, as limited creatures, adopt an absolute foundation of our own making? The "truth" is, whenever we look to ourselves for life's meaning, we will only see contradictions, incomplete data, and the morass of puzzling quirks that is so common to mankind in general.

Moreover, without absolute truth there is no longer any basis for law or for government, unless it be derived from a "majority opinion" of the particular society or culture in power - by vote or by force. "Organization" is thus only at the whim and passion of the people, and there is also no basis for any individual to adhere to the majority except by compulsion. The sentence of a judge in court is not morally binding. There is no justice. There are no criminals. There is no evil. There is no good. There is no murder - killing is simply something that happens. Even language itself would have no meaning, since anyone would be perfectly justified to make up whatever speech they wanted to utter. In short, chaos would predominate, and there would be no reason to live at all. Such is the fate of those who consistently hold to full-blown relativism. In my opinion, I would rather die than live in such a world.

Yet - we crave organization. We desire "justice" when our child is slaughtered in cold blood by another human being. We have rules to organize life - traffic signs and lights, a system of keeping time, building codes, economics and trade, and many other systems. Why is it that, even though postmodern relativism is the philosophical hallmark of this generation, we somehow still desire to have some semblance of order in society? This is a thing common to us all. I say - this is because deep inside, all of us believe in Truth and Order. We believe that there "ought" to be certain basic foundations in life, even though we deny them with our mouths. The Bible is clear about this: it is our human conscience within us reminding us that we are intelligent beings created by an Almighty God who is the foundation of absolute truth (Romans 1:18-25 is the classic passage). Ecclesiastes reminds us that God "has set eternity in our hearts" - we know there is more than this world, and that life does have a meaning. But if we do not turn to God as the source of all truth, then we are left without any good reason to believe the "truth" that we may hold to.

Practically speaking, for us Christians truth is of foundational importance. All of our doctrine is based on the Word of God, and is truth as far as it reflects the Word accurately. We are not afraid to make proclamations because we know Scripture backs us up. That does not mean that our theology is necessary infallible; the Bible is indeed unclear on some secondary matters, which accounts for the differences in opinion about topics like baptism, eschatology, and church organization. However, I refer mainly to the fundamentals of the faith when I speak of doctrinal truth - it is these that must be uncompromisingly upheld. The Christian faith is worthless without doctrine, without exact statements that describe what we believe. For example, the Resurrection is a doctrine; it emphasizes the absolute truth that Christ rose from the grave on the third day. Paul declares in 1 Corinthians 15 that our faith is worthless without that event. Therefore, the Resurrection is something every Christian must hold to; it is absolute. One who says Christ did not rise bodily from the dead is not a Christian, even if he or she claims the name of Christ. This is why the liberal denominations out there which claim Christ as a great moral example while denying His literal resurrection are false and Satanic. Is this narrow-minded? Not if God is the one setting the reasonable boundaries. God has set exclusive limits to certain things, and that is part of truth. We should thank Him for thus giving structure to the world and stop blaming Him for things which we do not understand.

I have spoken strongly on some of these matters because I am very zealous for the honor of God. Truth is a key attribute of God, and it hurts me very much to see it being thrown down across the whole world in light of such overwhelming evidence as to its existence. In this blog entry, I have mainly spoken of how important truth is to maintaining order in society and in comprehending God, because if truth does not exist then we cannot understand God at all. I also have made the point that we cannot separate truth from God, and that any real definition of truth must include the Creator and Lord in the mix. Overall, this article is just a brief overview of what truth really is; perhaps I will delve into some deeper questions about it in the future. Help me out by suggesting particular topics I can explore! And thanks for being patient and following my train of thought, as always. God bless.