"What is truth?"

by qwerty 5 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  qwerty

  What is Truth?

  By Roger C. Palms
  When someone asks, “What is truth?” we can reply, “Let’s look at Jesus.”

  Salvation Army USA - He was grinning when he asked the question, but I knew he was serious. "What is truth?" he asked. We were in a men’s Bible class. I knew he really wanted to have an answer because He was facing that question at home. He has a teenage daughter and she wanted to know.

  Pilate asked that question too, when "the Jews led Jesus ... to the palace of the Roman governor. Pilate ... summoned Jesus and asked Him, ‘Are You the king of the Jews?’

  "Jesus answered, ‘You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to Me.’

  "‘What is truth?’ Pilate asked. With this he went out again to the Jews and said, ‘I find no basis for a charge against Him’" (John 18:28,33,37–38).

  Young people, those influenced by our post–enlightenment, post–modern environment, are wrestling with the same question, "What is truth?"

  We hear talk about "my truth" "your truth" and "truth is whatever I feel it is." If we point to what the biblical writers say, doubters will reply, "But that was their truth." If we stress "God is truth," they might agree but then ask how anyone can really know such truth that exceeds the limits of understanding. In our culture it is understood that we can know only what we experience or see from the perspective of where we are now.

  For many people, finding truth is like the ancient story of the blind men who touched a part of an elephant and tried to identify the entire creature. Your concept of the elephant depends on where you are standing and what you feel. Is an elephant like an ear, a tail, a trunk? What is your truth?

  Yet Jesus said clearly, "I am the way and the truth and the life" (John 14:6). It is critical that we know what that means.

  A Shift in Thinking about Truth

  What is truth? Is it only what I think it is? Can we prove truth? We can’t point to scientific truth as a satisfactory answer anymore. For the generation born before 1960, science was thought to hold all the answers. But since then there has been a paradigm shift. Just as there was a shift around the year 1500 from the pre–modern age to the modern age, we are now in a post–modern era in which all the arguments of the Enlightenment, the age of science, no longer hold for seekers of truth.

  But in the modern age we were too enamored by "scientific" answers about God’s truth anyway. Science can’t "prove" the truth of God. We can’t put God in a test tube or replicate creation. We can see the proofs of God all around us when we know Him and are alert to His hand in the world and on our lives. But truth is more than what can be measured or weighed or sensed by touch or smell or feeling or sight.

  Each person seeking truth experiences it as a longing for something real, vital, self–vindicating, meaningful. He or she already understands that a truth created by us does not work. Most have already discovered that the "find a faith that suits you" teachers are not making sense. People are beginning to see through the cafeteria of beliefs that put together a little new age, a little Eastern philosophy, like selections from a buffet table.

  Ultimately what people really want to know is our experience with truth. They want to know, "What is your story? Do God’s story and your story interact?" It isn’t so much the question "Is Christianity true?" that they want answered. They want to know, "Does Christian truth work?"

  Truth Is Freedom

  When we speak of truth to this generation we can talk about freedom. Jesus said, "You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (John 8:32). And then for emphasis Jesus added, "So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed" (8:36).

  Free from what? Legalism? Yes, that is attractive in our culture. From sin and its results? Some may not know what sin is. How could they know? The culture doesn’t use that word. But they understand guilt and they understand shame. Not because they have violated society’s standards but because they have violated their own. They have moved from "I do wrong," which doesn’t make sense in an age when each of us is the determiner of what is right and wrong, to

  "I am wrong." And that is what so many are feeling: "There’s something wrong with me."

  They want to be free from that kind of pain. Jesus sets us free because Jesus is truth. Truth is a Person, and that Person is the saving Son of God. That’s the answer to "What is truth?" It isn’t a what, it’s a Who.

  We can show that Jesus is not simply someone who knows truth; He is truth. When we meet Jesus we meet truth. We no longer have a problem with "whose truth are we talking about?" We are talking about Him—that same One who called Himself "the way and the truth and the life."

  Telling Our Story of Truth

  "How do you know?" is the question people are asking. Those who have lived the faith for many years have a better voice, at least a clearer one, than many others, because they have lasted. They have held steady through all the tough times of life.

  The truth they speak about is a truth that they have built their lives upon. These are the people who can say "Jesus is truth."

  We can tell people our story, our journey of faith with the True One, with this Jesus who lives to save, knowing full well that even as we are telling our story the Spirit of God is working in the life of the inquirer.

  The bottom line is that people want to know not so much "is it truth?" because it can be discussed as abstract philosophical thought, but rather "is it truth because it works? Does God really make a difference in your life?"

  We tell them our story and we listen to their story. As we do that we will find a merging story for the seeking, longing, questing, spiritually hungry person who has searched, checked out religion on the Internet, talked to a few friends and so far has come up empty. In the coming together of our stories they see where they have missed God and where they need God. The merging story is no longer just my story or your story; it becomes His story as God brings that seeking person into a relationship with Himself.

  We Live in the First Century

  In an age like ours—one that resembles the first century—people are very spiritual. When the Apostle Paul was in Athens he didn’t condemn the people for all their gods, including the unknown god—he simply saw their spirituality, listened to them and then said, "Let me tell you about the risen Christ."

  That’s still what we do. With Paul as our model, we do as he did, taking people from what they know to what they need to know. From where they are to where they need to be. Jesus did that in His teaching also; He started where people were. Jesus didn’t condemn seekers, only those who thought they had a corner on truth. He accepted people and moved them into the light—His light.

  We are still doing that today. When someone asks, as did my friend, "What is truth?" we can reply, "Let’s look at Jesus."

  Roger C. Palms, M.A., M. Div., D.D., was the editor of Decision magazine for nearly 22 years. He writes articles, columns and books and teaches writing in colleges, theological seminaries, writer’s conferences and at the Billy Graham Schools of Evangelism.
• 

  dungbeetle

  Totally unrelated.....but check this out ((((Querty))))

  * http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/forum/thread.asp?id=13022&site=3

  Dungbeetle...so much dung, so little time...
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  LoneWolf

  Hello, qwerty,

  I enjoyed your thoughts, as I too have been contemplating such matters. I posted the following here on the board some time back, but don't know if you saw it then, so am reposting it now just in case.

  I would like to claim that it is all original, but it is not. One Mike A. (the only name I know him by) is the professor of ethics that I mention in it, and others have added their thought too.

  I felt that the two articles complemented each other. Here !tis:

  “What Is Truth?”

  To my readers: This article is not for the purpose of “instructing” you in anything, but simply submitted in the hope that you can use some of these concepts or (especially desired) add to them. My thought is that we all use up too much time and effort fighting over our respective “truths” and completely overlook the marvelous opportunity to use other’s insights to advance the body of human knowledge beyond where it is now.

  Pontius Pilate’s question to Jesus, “What is truth?” (John 18:38) is as apropos now as it was then. Billions of people have pondered that question down over the milleniums.
  
  Ever since mankind has come into existence they have been gaining in knowledge. It was slow at first and gradually picked up speed until, in the past two centuries, it has literally exploded. That knowledge has turned much, if not most, of our ancestor's knowledge on its head.

  This steady advance in knowledge is normal, natural, and prophesied. It was mentioned numerous times in the Bible. 1 Corinthians 13: 9-12 is a good example, while 1 Peter 1: 11, 12 enlarges on it to the extent that even the angels themselves were looking forward to additional knowledge. Ezekiel's vision as recorded in Ezekiel 47: 1-6 is especially enlightening inasmuch as most authorities understand that the "water" spoken of here is a reference to knowledge and how it increases down through the centuries.

  Due to this factor, then, we function on the premise that everything is subject to examination and nothing and no one is too sacred to escape that examination.

  The Three Kinds of Truth

  A learned friend of mind, a professor of ethics in an eastern university, divided truth into these three categories:

  1. Absolute Truth --- That truth which corresponds to absolute reality, and is usually known only to our heavenly creator and to those whom he decides to give it. The term "absolute reality" refers to the totality of knowledge that exists on any given subject as viewed through His eyes.

  2. Relative Truth --- The progress that we imperfect humans make toward gaining "Absolute Truth", but never quite reach in spite of our best efforts. There is always more to learn.

  3. Relative Truth Believed Absolutely --- A "Relative Truth" that we have gained such confidence in that we refuse to consider any further evidence concerning it.”

  I find this concept fascinating in that it is a way to structure knowledge and emphasize to all regardless of our education or intelligence, that there is a whole world of “truth” out there that is as yet untouched. To those who understand it, it tends to reduce conflict and encourage the sharing of viewpoints without ego interfering with our helping one another to advance. It is a way to sharpen one another’s “face”, as the scripture says. (Prov. 27:17) It’s a whole new frontier where everyone can explore and be thrilled by their part in it.

  It also clearly depicts a danger that we are all prone to make.

  Expanded Thinking

  We might view it in this manner:

  Truth is much like an artichoke. It has many leaves and each leaf has a small amount of nutrient under it. Most people will pull off a few leaves, be satisfied with what they’ve found, and never think that it would be advantageous to pull off a few more to see what is under them too.

  To illustrate: Most of us know that 1+1=2. It becomes to many a “relative truth believed absolutely’ that they ‘know’ and won’t question. However, is it always?

  What if we are dealing in the binary base where the only numbers used are “0” and “1”? Then it isn’t 2, it’s 10. At one time, such a concept would have been considered a silly mind game, but now that principle is the very heart of the computer world. They wouldn’t work without it. Who would have believed a century ago that the binary base would come to have such importance in the world now?

  Or what if we are in the world of biology? There 1+1 can equal 2, or 200, or 2,000, or 2,000,000. It all depends upon how long the 1 has been with the other 1. Look at the rabbits in Australia and all of the environmental damage they’ve caused.

  Please note that neither of these “expanded” concepts contradicts the original. They merely add to the standard body of “Truth”.

  Another example of the different layers of truth would be a riddle I’ll bet you’ve heard. It’s about a bear hunter and goes like this:

  The hunter woke up in the morning, ate breakfast, grabbed his rifle and left camp looking for bears. After walking one mile due south, he spotted a bear to the east. Heading due east, he caught up to the bear and shot and killed it at a point exactly one mile from where he first saw it. After skinning it out, he packed the hide exactly one mile due north, which brought him back to his camp, only to discover that another bear had raided the camp.

  Now, what was the color of the bear that raided the camp?

  Most people will say that the problem is impossible in the first place, as if one were to go one mile south, one mile east, and one mile north, he won’t be back at his camp. He’ll still be one mile east of camp.

  Others, though, will feel good about themselves as they’ve recognized that the clues are in the directions. They can see that if the camp was set up exactly on the North Pole, you would end up right back where you started. The eastern leg would be merely an arc going around the pole. From there the answer is obvious. The bear was white.

  However, we can take this one step further. There is an infinity of other places upon the earth where we can follow the same directions and still get back to the same place. Can you tell me the general locale where they exist, and what the route will look like?

  It is this “expanded thinking” that can be extremely valuable. It is from there that we gain new knowledge and add to our ‘”relative truths”. Just like wandering through an unexplored wilderness, one never knows what will be discovered.

  Identifying Those “Leaves”

  One way to discover new knowledge is to search for commonalties or “patterns” in things that are seemingly unrelated.

  An excellent example of one would be the experience of Dmitri I. Mendeleev and the way he came to formulate his Periodic Table of Elements. He noticed that some of the various elements had similar qualities, and that they appeared on a predictable basis in relationship to their atomic weight. (For further information, please check him out in the encyclopedia.)

  But let’s look an example in another subject. The need for love, peace, kindness, honesty, integrity, and a host of other qualities are yearned for by people of all races, languages, and eras. The laws as set forth by Genghis Khan reflect an astonishingly similar value system as that of the laws given to Israel, even though the man was neither Christian or Jewish nor familiar with either. That these same feelings are found in all peoples is de facto evidence that this is the way that Jehovah designed us, as well as a witness to His qualities.

  I would say in regard to the ‘heavenly court case’ that is going on right now between Jehovah and Satan, that a good attorney could make a beautiful ‘closing argument’ on the basis of that one commonality alone. Satan keeps maintaining that all humans prefer his ways of doing things, but when humans strive to get as close to Jehovah’s ways as possible even when they are unaware of them, it makes Satan look like a fool.

  It has been said that much can be told about an artist by examining his works. If even the stones can bear a witness (Luke 19:40), how much more can a living thing? This is why I have always laughed at the concept of removing all windows from Kingdom Halls, ostensibly for the reason that the young will be less distracted from the proceedings under way. If the truth was known, the average tree can give a better witness to Jehovah’s qualities than the average elder. One just has to know how to “read” the language.

  Of course, both are valuable, each in its own unique way. They compliment each other.

  Another Valuable Resource

  There are those who frown on reading or dealing with contrary thought. Those who do, appear to have forgotten a few things. In 1 Cor. 9:19-20, Paul speaks of how he strove to become different things to different people in order that “ . . . I may become a sharer of it (the good news) with others.” To do that means becoming familiar with what and how they believe. At times it is necessary to know their beliefs even better than they do.

  Of course, that by no means indicates that we should become exactly what they are, even as the passage points out more than once. Rather, he’s saying that it is necessary to know their thought processes. In a very real way it is like learning another language, it’s just that the two languages happen to use the same words.

  Then too, we might just ask ourselves these questions: Is truth weaker than falsehood? If not, then why are we afraid?

  Here are some other advantages to knowing contrary thought:

  a. Contrary thought provides the questions that need answered.

  b. Most advances spring from unusual, independent, or heretical thinking. Even if an idea is totally crazy, it may trigger a good one in someone else’s mind.

  c. In looking over our work, we can contrast it with the old and see the advantages for ourselves.

  d. So that we will have the tools and freedom necessary to make a decision for ourselves, and glory in that freedom, which incidentally, is the only way to formulate the type of answer that Jehovah requests of us.

  A Matter of Perspective

  We need to keep in mind that the “truth” we possess right now is miniscule in comparison to everything that can be learned. Look at it this way:

  If, in the 1600's, we would have walked across the room, flicked a switch on the wall and a bright light suddenly appeared in the ceiling, we would have probably been hung for witchcraft.

  Or, to use another example, picture two of the most intelligent men of their age, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, trying to understand and fix one of today's computers when it was broken down.

  When we look into the past and compare our knowledge now with what they had then, we appear to be light years ahead of them. That makes us feel good and flatters our egos. But in the process we tend to forget that there is far more yet to learn; many more “leaves” to discover on our “truths”.

  We could say that we are like a sand flea on the beach in Alaska. Every evening at dusk they migrate down to the water line and every dawn go right back up to the vegetation line to sleep during the day. All we are is like the one who decided to go a little farther, climbed the 15 foot bank above the shore and looked out at the magnificent view that no other sand flea in history ever saw.

  He would be quite proud of himself, wouldn't he? He may even wish to lord it over his fellows and claim to have all knowledge. But what he doesn't realize is that a few miles further inland, there is a mountain that goes up another 20,305 feet. That rather dwarfs his measly 15 feet, doesn't it? How are we any different?

  How foolish we are to allow any of our "truths" to become "relative truths believed absolutely"!
• 

  LoneWolf

  Hi again. Thought I'd add this item:

  My daughter married a young man of Mescalero Apache descent. He is a recognized "story-teller" of his tribe, one who recounts the ancient legends to the younger generations during their pow-wows.

  One of those legends has a sentiment very similar to some of the things Palms wrote. I thought you would be interested in comparing them.

  As you read it, picture an older man sitting on a rock, with the fire light flickering across his face, as the young of the tribe gather quietly around and listen raptly to his words, for that is exactly the way it happened for more generations than we can know. Here it is, in his own words:

  THE ORIGIN OF STRIFE

  “Long time ago, in a time before time, when men and women lived deep in the center of the earth in the Point of Origin, there they lived with Creator, and they were learning all that they needed to know.

  “Soon the time came for people to go out into the new world that Creator was making. Creator brought everyone to the Counsel Fire, and told them of Creator’s plan. ‘You will go off, each of you in your tribes and in your bands, and you will go off to the four corners of the earth; to the north, to the south, to the east, and to the west, and with you, you will take the Truth of the Light and of the Fire. You are to be caretakers of this truth and this light. As you travel and as you journey, and when you meet others like you, you will take your truth and you will share it with the people that you meet along the way, for when you are able to share your truth with other people, and when you are able to listen to the truth that lives in another’s heart, I will again be with you, and all will be at peace.’

  “So the Truth was divided and given to the different tribes and the different bands, and so the different tribes and the different bands emerged from the Point of Origin and stretched out across the new world and traveled great distances to the north and to the south and to the east and to the west and for many people it was a long, hard journey, and it had been a long time since they had seen anyone else from the Point of Origin. They grew lonely, and from their loneliness came anger.

  How soon they had forgotten what Creator had told them! They believed that they had the only One Truth and that somehow everyone else had been fools. They became defenders of their truth. And they fought for their truth. And one day they began to kill for their truth.

  “They had forgotten what Creator had told them about sharing and about listening and about coming together. That is why people still fight today. And so my gift to you all, is to share the Truth of the Light that lives within me, and as I tell this story, I stretch out my hand to you, in the hopes that you will tell me your family stories, and that soon together we can all be at peace.”

  I like those sentiments.

  LoneWolf
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  qwerty

  Dungbeetle, thanks interesting reading.

  Lonewolf, [q]1. Absolute Truth --- That truth which corresponds to absolute reality, and is usually known only to our heavenly creator and to those whom he decides to give it. The term "absolute reality" refers to the totality of knowledge that exists on any given subject as viewed through His eyes.[q/] Trouble is JW's believe everything they receive comes from Jehovah.

  [q]2. Relative Truth --- The progress that we imperfect humans make toward gaining "Absolute Truth", but never quite reach in spite of our best efforts. There is always more to learn.

  3. Relative Truth Believed Absolutely --- A "Relative Truth" that we have gained such confidence in that we refuse to consider any further evidence concerning it.” [q/]

  [q]Here are some other advantages to knowing contrary thought:

  a. Contrary thought provides the questions that need answered.

  b. Most advances spring from unusual, independent, or heretical thinking. Even if an idea is totally crazy, it may trigger a good one in someone else’s mind.

  c. In looking over our work, we can contrast it with the old and see the advantages for ourselves.

  d. So that we will have the tools and freedom necessary to make a decision for ourselves, and glory in that freedom, which incidentally, is the only way to formulate the type of answer that Jehovah requests of us.[q/]

  Very interesting stuff thanks.

  qwerty
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  LittleToe

  I've got to say that this thread already contains some fascinating material.

  Dungbeetle:
  I'd take that walk, but I'm the wrong side of the pond.
  It won't stop me conjuring it up in my mind, though.

  Lonewolf:
  >>Relative Truth Believed Absolutely<<
  Now there is the problem.
  Like it or not, we are all susceptable to prefering our conclusions and closing our minds to other points of view.
  No-one has the monopoly on that attitude, not JW's, atheist's, Fundamentalist's, etc., etc., etc.
  I especially liked the apache slant. Sad, but true.

  Thanks guys. So far, so good.

  LT