WHAT IS TRUTH?
Dr. Walter Thomas
I define truth as whatever God says and whatever God knows. God is the source of all truth. The Omniscient One is the Repository of all truth and the Arbiter of all truth claims. Everything else is merely a truth-claim at best, waiting to see if it agrees with what God has revealed to us as His truth.
Obviously, God’s knowledge and wisdom, from which God’s revealed Truth comes, is limitless. However, God chooses to share with His created ones, the truth messages that He deems we need and from which we can benefit. It is way more than we need or grasp. In comparison, the Bible says the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight ( Corinthians 3:19).
The study of truth is called epistemology in philosophy. I don’t think of myself as an epistemologist or philosopher. I’m just one man who is committed to my Lord and God as the source of all truth, all righteousness, all beauty, all meaning and all value. To some of the wise of this world, that makes me a quack.
God’s truth comes to us through revelation, which is what God says, what God demonstrates and what God creates. God shows us His incomparable truths through what He says and what He does. God’s revelation comes to us in four ways:
1. God has revealed His truth through His written Word, the Bible. He has spoken to us through His prophets, apostles and Messiah in the Old and New Testament Scriptures. This is the written and inspired “logos” Word. Truth is Torah and contains God’s decrees, instructions and expectations for those who would seek Him, who would know His Truth, and who would obey Him. We are told that if we seek God with all there is of us, He will let us find and discover Him.
2. God has revealed His truth through His only begotten Son, Yeshua the Jewish Messiah. Christ is the Word in person, and He said that He speaks nothing that His Father has not told Him to speak. As Messiah, Jesus Christ spoke prophetically and in teaching, preaching and in demonstrations of Kingdom Power and Truth. He said, “I am the “truth.” John 1:1 describes the Word who created all things and that the Word is God and came from God the Father. Christ is Logos Word personally sent from God to tell us what the Father wants us to know.
3. God has revealed His truth through creation, because He spoke it into existence and His words are truth. Truth, the Word, is in every created thing. Paul (Romans 1:19-20) declares, “For what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities, His eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood from His workmanship, so that men are without excuse.” If scientists are fair and objective, they will discover embedded Truth in all of the natural creation, and the tools of the physical and biological sciences will always lead to Truth and corroborate what Truth has already revealed in every atom, every molecule, and in every system in the universe. Science will never disagree with God’s truth, but many scientists will disagree with the Lord of the Universe because of deception, ignorance and unbelief; sometimes after it is all said and done, some will not believe because of their personal rebellion against God. It is hard to find a molecular biologist or an astrophysicist that doesn’t admit to an infinite mind of a Creator somewhere. It is too big or it is too complex to have come into existence by any other means than an infinite creative mind with infinite creative power. It is also too complex to be sustained on its own. Creation screams its own source and power dependence.
4. God has revealed His truth through His Holy Spirit, whom Jesus called the “Spirit of Truth”, who will bring to mind any and everything Jesus taught us. The Spirit of Truth will bring information to us and make it spiritually alive to us, and it becomes personally revealed Truth. The Spirit speaks and we are given Truth. The Spirit of God dwells within us, and serves as a computer cursor that points us to God and to His truth. The Spirit of God actually speaks to us for helping us discover the Truth of God. Even when you are reading the Holy Scriptures, the Spirit of Truth will “quicken” the words read, and make them to “come alive” to you in your spirit at that moment. This is referred to as “rhema” (Gr) word in Scripture (two words translated "word" in the Bible: logos and rhema).
I don’t look to science or medicine or the government for truth. Good science will discover the truth that God has already built into the natural order. Bad science will violate God’s truth and often explain it in a less credible way. Anyone who declares a belief that is contrary to what God has revealed is not telling the truth and is only making a “Truth-Claim” that will be refuted or corroborated by revealed Truth. Paul said, “Let God be true and every man is a liar” (Romans 3:4). If a man does not believe in God or believe in what God has revealed, that does not change the fact that God is absolutely true, and His absolute truth is not dependent upon my recognizing it as so. When the light goes on, the cockroaches scatter, and when Truth is proclaimed, lies and deception are exposed.
TRUTH ON TRIAL
The Apostle John shares an interesting story about truth as Jesus was being brought before Pilot by the leaders of the Jews and the Roman authorities prior to His death and crucifixion. You will find this story in John 18:37-38,
“Then you are a king!” Pilate said. “You say that I am a king,” Jesus answered. “For this reason I was born and for this reason have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to My voice.” “What is truth?” Pilate asked.”
Pilot’s skeptical question, WHAT IS TRUTH?, is the question that every person in the world is asking. It appeared that Jesus was on trial for His life, but Jesus reframed the trial, and says that “Truth is on trial” and that He came to testify on truth’s behalf. If you were called to give testimony or be a witness, you would know it would likely be a court trial. Jesus is the chief witness whom the Father sent to the world, as the world declares truth to be a defendant. Jesus admits that He is on trial, but He knows that HE IS TRUTH. The world declares that God’s truth is false and that man’s truth-claims are true. Jesus clearly states there are two sides to this truth battle, those who are for it and those who are against it. He says only those on the side of truth listen to Him and His witness. Jesus declares, “For this reason I was born and have come in the world, to testify of the truth.” Many will say He came to save men from their sins. But Jesus came to bear witness to God’s truth, and that when men know the Kingdom truth, the truth of the Gospel of the Kingdom will set them free (John 8:32). The battle for truth is the battleground for the mind and soul of mankind. If the Truth of God can set us free, it sets us free from the bondage of the “world’s truth”, which is deception and seduction from the Evil One, the antichrist and the anti-Truther. Jesus said that Satan is a liar, that that is His middle name, and that no truth abides with Satan. He is the Deceiver as much as Jesus is the Truth-teller and Truth-Demonstrator. You can’t have Jesus as Savior unless Jesus is also Lord of your mind, your thinker and your will.
The Gospel of John is a legal brief and a witness to the Truth of God. Check how many times you will see these words in John’s brief: truth, testify, witness, and testimony. Jesus often says, “Verily, verily, I say unto you”, which is saying “Truly, truly, I am speaking truth to you. You can take it to the bank.”
WORLDVIEW IS A COLLECTION OF ONE’S TRUTH-CLAIMS
Every worldview, philosophy of life and existence, has core beliefs about what is true (and therefore, what is false). That is what a belief is: a truth-claim. A belief is a proposition I hold about existence. If I propose that all people are created equal, as part of my worldview, I’m making a truth-claim about how people exist. We call this an existential belief, which of course, is what every belief is: a belief about how things/people/gods exist. My beliefs can be about the physical and material world, about the human and social world, and about God and the spiritual world. These three dimensions of existence are addressed in every worldview. If I believe the evil spirit that lives in the tree at the edge of town is responsible for what happens to me, then I’m going to have supporting spiritual beliefs about how I can please or anger the tree-spirit, and I will do and say things that I believe are existentially true about my good or bad relationship to the tree-spirit and what I may do to appease that spirit or displease that spirit. Every world-view has assumptions and propositions about existence, and whether those things are true or false (belief), good or bad (values), right or wrong (values), beautiful or ugly (values) or ok or not ok (value judgements). Values are standards of what one holds as desirable (and therefore, undesirable). Our attitudes are how we act out our beliefs and values. An attitude is acceptance or rejection of something or someone based on my beliefs and values. We learn our worldview, our beliefs-values-attitudes-behavior from the same people and experiences that teach us our native language.
People-groups will often be those who share similar worldviews. This is culture. Culture includes all of the beliefs and values, and subsequent sanctions, rules and enforcement of beliefs-values-behavior within the people group.
Our modern culture makes a lot of fuss about multiculturalism, diversity, racism, prejudice, white supremacy and the like. And in a diverse society, it is good to look at diversity and cultural differences. I’m writing this paper specifically because I’m teaching a graduate-level counselor-education course at a Christian university on the topic, “Multiculturalism and Counseling”, in which the counselor is taught to be sensitive to cultural differences between counselor and client. It is a required course for our students to be licensed in most states. Our text is far from Biblical in its worldview and instruction, and as I read our text I realized it is a religious reference work for multiculturalism. I disagree with many things taught in that secular, humanistic text. I was displeased with the weak statement on truth offered by my university in the curricular materials, so yesterday I decided to make my case, and here it is. I want to challenge my students to think outside the multicultural box! I disdain “group think” that blindly declares that “position neutrality” is the evidence of a scholar. No, position-neutrality on everything is blind folly. It is a commitment to not commit!
Multiculturalism is recognizing and valuing the differences (it is called diversity) among cultures and people-groups. It is appreciating individual and cultural differences, and not discounting the beliefs and values of one culture in favor of those of another. This is position neutrality and cultural relativism.
However, multiculturalism authorities and political correctness gurus have now gone beyond the study of cultures and people groups. They now mandate compliance to a new religion with sanctions and sin well defined. The words “Multicultural” and “Diversity” have become sacred words in the catechism of humanism. Multiculturalism has become a religion and a dogma. Multiculturalism goes far astray of cultural studies, when its proponents make existential “super-truth-claims”, like the top-ten points of the multiculturalism manifesto:
1. No culture is better or worse than another culture
2. All cultures are equal in value and truth.
3. No two people or two cultures, like any two snowflakes, are alike.
4. Diversity is beautiful in and of itself
5. Truth and value are relative to the particular culture or person making the truth-claim. Truth is whatever you or I believe it to be.
6. There is no absolute truth and no absolute value; it is all relative to the people and situation.
7. There is no superior culture since there are no superior beliefs or truths.
8. There are no superior values or morals, since there are no superior values (moral or otherwise)
9. All religions are culturally defined, and are only relative to the people who want to believe it.
10. There is no supreme God or spiritual being, since all gods are the creation of those people and cultures who choose to believe it.
Let me be clear, I believe all ten points have things about them that I can prove are untrue, because they don’t agree with God’s Word and revelation. I have explained these positions in other teachings and writings.
The above top-ten truth-claims are gospel truth in the religion of humanism and multiculturalism. To disagree is egregious sin and one must be coerced into compliance (if you want to work here or if you want to attend our universities, or to avoid liberal bullying). Multicultural evangelists will become the demons of outrage if you dare to challenge their newly minted religious faith. They must have “safe places” so they don’t have to deal with differing worldviews or the conflicts that are inevitable when you become a liberal fundamentalist with a dogmatic and closed belief system. If you challenge their dogmatism, they will attack you, dox you, slander you, bully you, fire you, hurt you, block your social media account, cancel your speaking engagement, have a congressional investigation, and the like. Why? Because the ends always justifies the means when you are absolutely right. The “open-minded” fundamentalist is sometimes like one who has lost their objectives and redoubled their efforts. They say to those with a commitment to a Judeo-Christian worldview, “You are free to have your weird beliefs and worldview, but please keep your religion to yourself. Please keep your religious bigotry out of the public square because you are too intolerant and closed-minded to enter the sanctuaries of the new progressive elites!”
The multiculturalist has one response to every intellectual, moral or spiritual dilemma: “It all depends.”
Humanism, relativism, multiculturalism and atheism do not accept or realize the fact, they are embracing a “superior religion and worldview” by saying “all cultures are equal”. They are placing themselves above God and above all cultures and above all religions. They are pronouncing that nothing is superior to anything else, ironically, while taking a superiority position in their proclamation of nothing being superior or true or beautiful, in its self! A perfect picture of self-deception and arrogance. That is a religion! Their faith in relativism is a far greater amount of faith than the faith that many people have in their God. It takes a lot of faith in your own self-importance, arrogance and omniscience to declare nothing is really true and that God is a cultural myth. It takes enormous faith in one’s own divinity and superiority, to deconstruct the Truth revealed by God in everything. They must revise and rewrite a lot of history to get away with it. Their lofty faith is expressed in the all-encompassing existential belief: WHATEVER! A sad skepticism when nothing is really true or really beautiful any more.
IS TRUTH PERSONAL PROPERTY?
A graduate student at a public university said to me in class discussion one day, “But Dr. Thomas, that is your truth. I have my own truth. There is no absolute truth but only the truth that I can experience.” I asked her, “How certain are you about that?” She answered, “I’m absolutely sure!” I then said, “Let me see if I understand what you are saying. Are you saying that you are absolutely sure that truth is relative?” There was silence as the irony of her statement began to sink in.
She declared a new “truth” that day: Truth has become personal property. I learned that truth is no longer solely owned by the All-Knowing and All-Wise God! The humanists and multiculturalists had put this graduate student in bondage to the idea that truth is all relative and up to each of us to decide what is true in the privacy of our own mind. They had taught this student that what is right and wrong, or good and bad, or beautiful and ugly, is up to her to decide in the inner-sanctuary of her own heart. Truth is now personal property, like owning my own car or piece of jewelry. Of course, this is the same as saying, “I’m my own God and whatever I claim to be true is true; and whatever I claim to be right, is right.” Do you see the arrogance in this narcissistic truth-claim? It says, “I am the wisest, the best, the most beautiful and the truest!” When the humanists believe their own truth will set them free, they don’t realize they are now in the greatest bondage of all: the bondage of their personal whims, caprice and impulse! Is that free or what? When you choose the beginning of a road, you have chosen the end of that road, whether or not you can’t read the street sign. When you choose relativism and multicultural truths and values, you end up a self-god and a false witness in the court of truth. A person who does their own truth lawyering has a fool for a client. Humility, not self-worship, is the beginning of all wisdom (Proverbs 11:2).
A BIBLICAL WORLDVIEW
Those people who believe in the one true God of Israel and in the sovereign Creator of the Universe, also believe in the truth once revealed to all mankind in the four ways described early in this paper. When Yeshua (Jesus) makes the amazing claim, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No man can come to the Father (YHWY) except through me” (John 14:6), He is violating all of the 10 assumptions (listed in the previous section) as held by the humanist-relativist-multiculturalist-atheist. He is making a truth-claim above all lesser claims. History, science, philosophy and theology, all attest to an absolute God who is all-knowing, all-wise, holy, loving and perfect in all His ways. This is a superior spiritual reality and religion that trumps the truth-claims of the multiculturalists. There is a superior culture above all cultures, and that is one in whose people know and obey the One True God, who love him with all their being, who follow His ways, and who obey His commands. In fact, that “culture” will prevail because it is superior. Every knee will bow to God’s chosen Messiah and He shall reign for a thousand years from Jerusalem right here on earth. That will be a superior culture for sure. Then the end will come, and earth will be done away with (as we have known it to be) and a new heaven and a new earth will come to replace it all, and we will dwell with Him forever in a superior “culture” with a superior faith, a superior worldview, and superior Supreme God of All Creation. So much for multiculturalism, because the last chapter has already been written. Amen.
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(Note: The author has written papers and articles related to many of the subjects of this paper. The author is a pastor/rabbi at two Messianic congregations in Mesa and Chandler, AZ, and a professor at Liberty University, Lynchburg, VA.
