1. What is the truth?
2. Is there something like ultimate truth?
3. What is the difference between truth and something true?
We are constantly bombarded by the media, social websites and a culture of education that are brainwashing this generation about alternative truth. We constantly hear from young people that the “new thing” or “fad” is to deconstruct what they use to believe is the truth, for many their truth is what makes them feel good. I am meeting with young people that believe that for them nature is what is the truth. For others, it is the feeling of feeling safe to express their sexuality. One comment I heard was: Ever since I came out, I have felt God so near.
Is truth relative? We must answer a few questions first.
What is the truth?
Truth is not your denomination, your affiliation or even your experience. Truth is not a set of believes because you can change what you believe. Truth cannot be nature, because nature can be destroyed. Truth cannot be your experience, because experiences change. So what is the truth?
John 8:32. You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.
John 8:36. Whom the Son sets free is free indeed.
John 14:6. I am the Way, the Truth, the Life. No one comes to the Father but by Me.
Truth is a person. His name is Jesus. Truth is not something you believe, it is someone you know. The problem with most evangelism in the past was that it converted people to a set of believes. That is called religion. We were not saved to be a part of a denomination, God saves people to be a part of His family. You must be converted to a place of relationship with the Father – John 17:3.
Is there something like ultimate truth?
Emphatically YES!
Every scientific experiment is conducted by having a constant. You must have a measurable to compare your findings against, otherwise your experiments will be unprovable. Without that constant none of your results are definable and tested as correct. The same is true in math. You have a mathematical formula that helps you determine the correct answer. Nature functions on a set of laws or constants that never changes. The same is true for the spiritual. If we don’t have an ultimate truth, everything becomes suspect and can masquerade as truth when it is not. So how will you find the truth if you have nothing to test it against? We must have an ultimate truth.
When Jesus claims that He is the only way, truth, and the life, He is not making a statement of ultimate truth, that excludes people. Ultimate truth only excludes things that want to pose as the truth and mislead people. This together is the most inclusive and exclusive statement anybody can make. Buddha, Mohammed or nobody else ever claimed to be the only way. Jesus is the only one that claims this to be the truth. His invitation still stands to all men, that whoever wants to come to him, are welcome. Exclusive in revoking the right for anything else to claim to be the truth, inclusive as all men are invited to come and find the truth.
Truth does not exclude people because they see it different, truth is patient and waits until people find the way to it. This generation needs to find the only constant that never changes. God is the same yesterday, today and forever – Heb 13:8.
What is the difference between truth and something that is true?
What you experience is true. We can never deny people the right to think that what they are experiencing is not real. Being sick is real. Being rejected is real. Feeling judged is real. All these things are true, but it might not be the truth. Truth is the way God sees things. I am sick, that is true, but by His tripe’s I am healed, that is the truth. I can not make my experience the truth as truth is a person, not an experience.
For too long we have allowed the music culture to define truth for us. It was based on emotions and how people feel. What they felt was true, just not the truth. Truth is established through the “Word” and not through worship or anything else.
There were two Trees in the Garden. The Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil. Only the Tree of Life brings life. We have been eating from the wrong tree for too long. On the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil, there are good things. It still produces death and not life. The good things can make you feel good but still kill you. Your experience is real but you must hold it up against the Word of God.
Psalm 119:160. The sum of your word is the truth and every one of your righteous rules endures forever.
We must be able to help them see that God has a different perspective than what they are experiencing. Tell me what you think?
