Re: What is Truth?
March 16, 2007
Question 2: What is Truth?
[One reminder - we are trying to stick with short, succinct responses to the questions. I understand that this one was a bit more difficult than "What is the gospel?", but the goal is to be able to give answers that are no longer than 3-5 sentences]
I honestly wasn’t too sure what I would get with this question - apparently just by the number of comments, it seems to be a bit harder to nail down for some people than “what is the gospel?” I’m wondering how your answers would have been different if the question had been “What is truth” or “What is the Truth?” I actually was expecting to get lots of John 14.6 citations as comments: “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Or simply “Jesus” answers.
I am reading Christianity For the Rest of Us by Diana Butler Bass (great book!) and ran across this great quote:
“Truth is not some absolute and unchanging philosophical, moral, or political position. Rather, truth is a ‘living reality’ that everything exists in communion with God” (96-97).
I was interested by many of the comments. I thought the idea of Truth as something that comes through consensus very interesting. I wonder if that might play into the idea that many emergent folk are reflecting on, the idea of local theology, and of local communities being active in forming local theologies, and how together as a community we might come to Truth through the process of consensus. However, it’s clear that there have been many times in history that groups have agreed on something they believed to be “true” - and it was far from it (I’m thinking Kool-Aid, I’m thinking Hitler, I’m thinking South Africa).
It was interesting to see how many people wanted to parse Truth into a variety of categories: Scientifically proven Truth / Truth By Consensus, Eternal Truth / Temporal Truth and Our Truth / God’s Truth. I’m encouraged by this move - it seems to be a move backed by humility.
However, David hints that Truth is often used as propaganda perhaps, “Truth is what people claim when they don’t have facts.” Surely, not by this blogger though. I think this statement is problematic in that its assumption is that Truth necessitates facts. Does it? Does something need to have facts to be considered Truth? I’m hoping that’s not the case - otherwise, we would have to re-examine many of the things that we believe to be True as people of faith. Many (if not most) spiritual things don’t have “facts” that will “prove” either their existence or importance.
Nathan wrote, “Two conflicting ideas cannot simultaneously be true unless those ideas refer to something well outside the consistent reality we experience on a daily basis.” I guess he would say the things of God are things are well outside the consistent reality we experience on a daily basis? Because otherwise, we would have get rid of many of the claims of God and scripture that are contradictory. A professor of mine from college absolutely loved those paradoxes in scripture - he would call them Truth tensions. So it seems that there may in fact be things that are considered Truth that may be contradictory.
While (unless I read Nathan’s comment incorrectly) I disagree with his above statement, I do appreciate the thrust of his final statement: “Which raises the real question - how do we know that what we think is true is actually true, ie, that it actually corresponds to reality, to God? That I don’t know.” In the end, how are we to know? How are we to know if the things we believe, the things that we hold to be true, actually are true?
Let me state that I am no philosopher, no master of epistemologies. I trudged through my Intro to Philosophy course in undergrad, not really enjoying it much at the time. However, I think the question, “What is Truth” is still an important one. A few years ago, I would have thought it to be a pretty simple question with an even simpler answer: Jesus. I would have quoted John 14.6 - “Obviously, Jesus said ‘I am the way, THE TRUTH and the life…’ - so Jesus is Truth.” Yet, that does seem to be a somewhat easy way out.
Does that mean that Jesus ISN’T Truth? Not at all - the reality that God & Truth were incarnated into bodily flesh is at the core of the Christian faith. Does that mean that Truth is bigger perhaps, than even Jesus? I don’t know. I think that many things could be considered Truth: love, beauty, grace, justice - but no one of them encapsulates the full potential of meaning for Truth.
What is Truth? Truth is that which brings one closer to an encounter with the Divine One. Truth is beyond human comprehension, though we see shadows and glimpses of it in the world, in Others and uniquely in the Triune God.
Tags: Epistemology, Jesus, Truth
Posted in 
Adam Walker Cleaveland: I am a 28 yr old 
March 16th, 2007 at 12:48 pm
I have just begun reading “The Truth War: Fighting for Certainty in an Age of Deception” by MacArthur. It is beginning to look very relevant and from what I can see it should probably be on your reading list as well. The Emergent Movement and their view of “fuzzy” truth is a scary thing and the impacts are far reaching. They appear to be innoculating people to the gospel. The problem is that we are caught in a postmodern world and our society says that truth is what it is to you (sounds like christian science to me). Throughout time men have paid the ultimate price being martyred for their Savior (ie. 11 of the 12 apostles, Polycarp, etc.). They did this for “the truth” and for the gospel. If we are unwilling to believe that the Bible is inerrant and the only source of truth (and in the case of the Emergent, believe that truth as it is stated) then we should not be calling ourselves Christians because we are not. We are then at war with God.
Just my 2 Cents. Thanks for your time!
March 16th, 2007 at 12:51 pm
Sorry long-winded.
Will do better.
March 16th, 2007 at 6:12 pm
“‘Two conflicting ideas cannot simultaneously be true unless those ideas refer to something well outside the consistent reality we experience on a daily basis.’ I guess he would say the things of God are things are well outside the consistent reality we experience on a daily basis?”
Yes, that is exactly what I was saying - God is obviously outside, or rather very well hidden, our day to day reality. Within that very mundane realm two conflicting ideas cannot both be true. But move out/up into God and yes, conflicting ideas become possible to hold in tension and both still be true. The most obvious example of this is Christ as fully man and fully God - how can a single thing be fully 2 different things? It can only happen in God or through God, or however you want to put it.
But just because God can be a bit difficult to pin down, doesn’t mean our everyday reality is.
March 16th, 2007 at 7:58 pm
Truth is not a proposition, nor is it an existential, or philosophical attitude toward the world, or “reality” (however some, such as Nathan, might define it). Truth is the person and work of Jesus, crucified and risen. Indeed, Jesus’ silence in the face of Pilate’s seemingly rhetorical question in the Fourth Gospel shows us much, as Jesus’ words concerning himself as the Truth also appear in that Gospel.
I am inclined toward Richard Rorty’s view that the question of “truth” is both irrelevant and uninteresting because there is no meta-philosophical, meta-lingusitic way to determine beforehand what all would agree the word “truth” would refer to. Much more interesting, at least for me, are the tortured, question-begging ways people went about answering your question, Adam. I was not being facetious when I answered your question as simply as I did. To say Jesus is the truth is to surrender the human hubris that sees our intellect as somehow plugged into some way of determining the way the world “really” is, and giving our lives over to God, and God’s will for our lives. Surrendering to Jesus Christ as the Truth is surrender any pretensions we might have that we human beings are in any way special outside the grace of God manifest in Jesus.
April 2nd, 2007 at 7:02 pm
Truth is never in the eye of the beholder unless they are beholding the written word of God. Truth in His word shows Jesus was actually named Yahshua, a Hebrew word for Yah or God is my Salvation. He was Hebrew and His disciples and tens of thousands of believers after them were all Hebrew. We as gentiles must be extremely thankful to be grafted into their family by the blood shed for all of us. Truth is found from Genesis through Revelation. Oral teachings and traditions can sometimes be good for teaching as long as they do not add to or take away from, or distort His written Words for Life. Those seeking truth already have it, written down. Just READ it directly, no adding in your interpretations as to meanings of certain scriptures, just read it…but remember Hebrews wrote it so you must look at it through Hebrew eyes, so to speak, in order to get what is being said…and NEVER read just a verse or two…ALWAYS read the whole section in context, so the Truth is your truth, and not just another truth.
April 9th, 2007 at 1:10 pm
The search of Truth and not of the word “true,” is to be concidered. When it comes to truth it deals with the eternal. The things that are true today may not be true tommorow. Given to time and space is also revalent. It can be true to say we have food abundantly here is this country but is it also true in other countries? The truth is all mankind hungers. If this country experiences drought or plagues of some nature and our food resources deplete than we have to say today it is not true what was said earlier.
All mankind laughs and cries, lives and dies and that is the truth. What causes his laughter and sorrow, lively hood and death are true in their life at such a given time and space.
April 28th, 2007 at 3:03 pm
Searcher: “How can I know if what you tell me is true?”
Wisdom: “Friend, unless it exists, you cannot know the Truth. For if there is no Objective Truth, then why be deluded? Better try instead to enjoy the brief time left to your pointless existence! But what if a deeper reality actually exists? To be real, the Truth must stand alone; everything contradicting it must be counterfeit!” ~ Anonymous
Romans 1:19 ¶ For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.
20 Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse;
21 for although they knew God they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their senseless minds were darkened.
22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools,
23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man or birds or animals or reptiles.
…the invisible attributes of God are clearly seen in creation. Creation is made up of a trinity of trinities: time, space, and matter. Everything humans physically perceive exist within these three dimensions.
Time is past, present, and future. Each “part” is different, yet they are all of the same nature: time.
Space is height, width, and breadth. Each “part” is different, yet they are all of the same nature: space.
Matter is solid, liquid, and gas. Each “part” is different, yet they are all of the same nature: matter.
The fingerprints of the Creator are clearly seen in every part of the creation.
December 24th, 2007 at 4:30 pm
The Jews had lost their way, and the truth had been lost. Jesus came to bear witness to the truth. Paul, in his letter tothe Galatians complained that there were those who were teaching a different gospel and it contradictced his teachings. Who were those others who were teaching a different gospel. It was the disciples. For example:In Ephesians 2:15; Paul said this about Jesus: “He abolished the law with its commandments and its ordinances.” Matthew 5:19 tells a different story as to what Jesus had said on this subject: “Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets. I have come NOT to abolish thembut to fulfill them.”
Another: Paul taught that the man, created in the image and after the likeness of God was all humanity and the first man was Adam. Jesus taught that God is spirit. Therefore, if God is spirit then the man created in his image and afte his likeness is a spiritual being, not human. Man was created in the beginning from the dust of the ground, in the generations of creations. Adam was a son of God, born of he will of God in the generations of Adam.