When the historical Jesus (God incarnate) was on trial before Pilate, he said “…I have come into this world, to bear witness to the truth…” And Pilate said to him, “What is truth?” (John 18:37-38)

What is truth?  Good question.  We live in an age of relativism, where the current (predominant?) ideology is that there is no absolute truth; truth is self-defined.  “What may be true for you, may not be true for me.”  Could this not have been behind Pilate’s question?  I suspect he held to the notion that truth is whatever one says it is; that there is no absolute truth, truth that is true for all people, at all times, and in all places.

Is there such a thing as truth?  Absolute truth for all people, at all times and in all places?  I say there is.

What is truth?  Webster’s Dictionary defines truth as: the true or actual state of a matter, conformity with fact or reality; fundamental reality apart from the transcending perceived experience; agreement with a standard or origin.

Interesting.  The Greek word for truth (alethia) literally means “reality.”  Not someone’s “perceived” experience or “feelings”, but “reality.”

The idea that there are absolutely no absolutes is a contradiction.  To reject all absolutes is to make an absolute statement, which is not only contradictory, but also logically false.  Or, to claim that truth is relative – whatever one believes to be true, and is ever-changing – is simply not reality.

There was a time years ago, when someone became upset with me, and said “You are no longer a part of my reality.”  Really?  Did I cease to exist?  As two human beings, living on planet earth at the same time, how could I no longer be a part of their reality, or reality in and of itself?  To claim differing “realities” is also then a contradiction, simply because “reality” or “truth” must conform to fact; thus, plurality of “realities” is by definition an impossibility.

Truth is, by definition, exclusive.  The pilot landing a packed 747 has but one option  — the narrow flight path that leads to life.  Deviation from that path will bring destruction.  A question on a multiple-choice test has one correct answer, no matter how many possible answers are listed.  If I take my 357 revolver and shove into my mouth and pull the trigger, there is no other outcome but one.  That’s truth, that’s reality, that’s fact, no matter what I may think or feel.

Years ago I had a conversation with a woman who claimed truth is whatever one believes truth to be for themselves.  I answered, “What would you say if your daughter came home from school one day, and said her teacher taught the class that 1+1=3?”  (which is actually happening in many of our schools today!)  The woman said, “I would be okay with that.  If the teacher sincerely believes that 1+1=3, that’s fine with me.  Who am I to say she’s wrong?”  I’d like to think that most of us would see the “reality” here, the absolute truth, that 1+1 does not equal 3, but 2.  There is such a thing as absolute truth, truth that is true for all people, in all places, at all times.

Truth must also have a standard, some origin.  Truth is not non-existent; nor did it just appear out of nowhere.  Truth has a source, an origin, a standard, which is true for all people, in all places, at all times; otherwise it would cease to be true, but something that is not real.

The origin and standard of truth, I argue, is the God revealed in the Bible.  There is no other (true) Sovereign Being.  God is truth and there is no falsehood in Him.  Therefore, (what He says in) His Word is truth (John 17:17), and all that He says proves true (Psalm 18:30).  He is a God who cannot lie (Titus 1:2).  Therefore, let God be true (Romans 3:4).  Jesus is the embodiment of truth (John 1:1, 14).  His claim is “I am the…truth” (John 14:6).

Truth is not a matter of feeling or opinion, but fact and reality.  Take the transgender ideology running rampant these days.  To claim to be born in the wrong body is simply untrue.  Maleness and femaleness is determined by the chromosomes one receives at the time of conception.  We are conceived with either XY chromosomes (male) or XX chromosomes (female).  This is fact, this is reality.  And there is nothing that can change that.  No amount of “affirming” counsel, no amount of hormonal injections, no amount of transitional surgery can ever change one’s chromosomal makeup.  We are conceived either male or female.  Changing the outward appearance and what we may think or feel, cannot alter maleness or femaleness determined by the chromosomes received in conception.  To think otherwise is to live contrary to truth and reality.

The Bible says that God made us…male and female (Genesis 1:27).  Science proves this true.  Absolutely true, for all people, in all places, and for all time.

Someone might counter: “Yeah, but Greg, your standard or origin of truth is simply a matter of faith, just simply your opinion.”  Yes, but for good reason and overwhelming evidence.

In his book Be Intolerant, Ryan Dobson lays out such evidence (chapter 4).  Bible scholars identify 332 Old Testament prophecies concerning Jesus, all of which proved true.  What are the odds of that?  Dobson then sites scientist Peter Stoner, who in 1958, wrote a book entitled Science Speaks, in which he tackled that very question.  Stoner looked at the probability that just 8 of the 332 predictions of Christ could have been coincidentally or accidentally fulfilled in one man.  He looked at the probability of each of the eight individually, and then added up the probabilities for all eight.

His mathematical conclusion, verified by the American Scientific Affiliation, was that the chance of all eight being accidentally fulfilled in one man was 1 in 10 to the 17^th power.  That is 1 in 100,000,000,000,000 chance of it being coincidental.  Now, multiply that by 332 Old Testament predictions that were precisely fulfilled in Christ, and what do you have?  I don’t know about you, but I have pretty convincing evidence that what the Bible (God’s Word, the Word made flesh, Jesus) says is true.  Absolutely true.  The reliable standard of truth.  All truth then, is God’s truth.  And all truth is absolute.

It’s not a matter of my truth versus your truth.  If the source of what is proclaimed or believed is of the Bible, it is God’s truth, and therefore absolute.  It is unchanging truth for all people, at all times, and in all places.  This is reality

What is truth?  Pilate wanted to know.  Jesus said he came to bear witness to “the” truth; not a truth, or one of many varying truths.  One truth, “the” truth.

What is truth?  Truth is reality.  Truth is fact.  Truth is absolute.  Truth is unchanging.  Truth’s standard and origin is God and His Holy Word.

 

Pastor Greg Schram
2 Kingdoms Ministry