Do You Really Believe the Truth?

09 Oct Do You Really Believe the Truth?

TRUTH IS WHAT GOD SAYS IT IS, REGARDLESS OF WHAT WE THINK, BELIEVE OR FEEL

I one time filled a jigsaw puzzle box with Cheezits.  Then, I held the puzzle box up, shook it, and asked a group of people what they thought was in the box.   They all thought a puzzle was in the box.

I opened the box and revealed that it was full of Cheezits.

Then, I asked the question, “Did what you think was in the box have any effect on what was actually in the box?”

Answer:  of course not.

What we think of something has no bearing on whether or not it is actually true.  Truth is true, regardless of what we think, believe or feel.

In another example, have you ever heard a radio announcer and gotten an image in your mind of what that person looked like… only to see the announcer, who looked nothing like what you thought he would look like?

Did what you thought the announcer looked like have any effect on what he or she actually did look like? Of course not! What we think about something has no effect on whether or not it’s true.

Daniel Moynihan, former senator from New York, once famously said, “Everyone is entitled his own opinions, but everyone is not entitled to his own facts.”

Truth is one of the fundamentals of life.  If we do not base our lives on truth, we cast ourselves adrift at sea in strong winds with full sail and no rudder.  We end up going wherever the cultural winds take us.

A rejection of absolute truth is becoming one of the hallmark values of modern western culture. 

Alan Bloom, in The Closing of the American Mind, wrote that the single most agreed-upon truth on the American college campus today is that truth is relative. That is, there is no such thing as absolute truth. Instead, each person is free to determine what is true for him or herself. Therefore, I may believe one thing, and you believe the opposite, but that’s okay because each thing is true to the one who believes it.

As a result, feelings have replaced facts as the basis for making decisions, often with disastrous results.

This has potentially catastrophic consequences, both temporal and eternal.

The temporal consequences include making self-defeating and even self-destructive decisions that bring significant pain into our lives, because the decision flies in the face of reality.

We might marry someone who is not a good choice because we are so emotionally bonded with them, only to have the relationship fail because he/she was not able to sustain a permanent healthy relationship.

Or we may buy more house or car than we can afford because of an emotional fixation on “shiny things,” only to suffer oppressive or calamitous financial consequences.

Or perhaps we choose a college major without thinking through the implications, and we end up tens of thousands of dollars in debt and no realistic hope of employment in that field.

These examples are why Solomon said, “Buy truth and do not sell it; get wisdom and instruction and understanding” (Proverbs 23:23).   It does no good to argue with reality.  It makes much more sense to get in touch with reality.

Then, beyond temporal consequences, we may bring eternal catastrophe on ourselves because we reject the true God, based on our subjective assumption that it doesn’t matter what we believe as long as we are sincere.

Christians must resist the subtle lure of this relativism

Someone has said that we get our values the same way we get the measles… by being around others who have them.  As a result, it is all-too-common for Christians to say that they believe in absolute truth, and yet make decisions based on feelings.

Polling results indicate that Christians are increasingly embracing the same relative values as the world, in spite of the fact that we claim to embrace absolute truth.

Jesus said, “you shall know the truth, and the truth will make you free” (John 8:32). He also said, in a prayer to God the Father for his disciples, “Sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth” (John 17:17).

By putting these two passages together, we see that if the truth will set us free, and if God’s word is truth, then we will be set free by studying and carefully following the Bible.

A robust Christian life is not given as a reward, like a lollipop, for claiming Christianity. Robust Christianity comes from learning and doing the truth.

Do yourself a favor. Be serious about mastering the Bible. Faithfully attend a Bible-teaching church.  Get involved in a Bible study.  Memorize and regularly review memorized Bible verses.

It is when we begin to master the Bible that our life takes on the purpose and power we hope for.

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