Truth IV

Don: Last week we asked several questions about the truth about god. Does the truth about god require data to support it, as scientific truth does? Has the accumulation of data over time given modern Wo/Man a more complete truth about god than our ancestors had? Or is there something about the truth about god that is beyond data, something that our remote ancestors could also have known and that was just as valid as the truth we possess today about god? Is truth personal, or is it something that must be shared with and even imposed upon others? Is the truth about god to be had through argument, or only through faith?

Some of you mentioned last week that there is for everyone an unique and personal pathway to truth. It depends upon personality, background, culture, where one was born, who one’s parents were, what life experiences one has had, and so on. As new experiences and study add to one’s knowledge, something continues to evolve that leads one on a path toward truth.

But in 2 Timothy 7, Paul talked about learning the truth but never arriving at it. This suggests that there may be just one big, overarching, all-encompassing truth. If so, what is it? What would it be if you wanted to pass it on to your children, your students, the next generation of people seeking the truth about god? Something that would be true for all people, in all places, at all times?

That the one big truth cannot be captured in data alone can be illustrated by three illustrations from the bible. First, the temptation of Jesus (Matthew 4:5), in which the devil uses truth—quoting from scripture—to argue with Jesus:

Then the devil took Him into the holy city and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down; for it is written,

‘He will command His angels concerning You’;
and
‘On their hands they will bear You up,
So that You will not strike Your foot against a stone.’”

Jesus’ response (verse 6) suggests he holds a different concept about what the truth is; one that treats scriptural data points with some circumspection:

Jesus said to him, “On the other hand, it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

A second example, this time from 1 Samuel 16:1-5, presents another side to this picture. Whereas the temptation example suggests that a small truth can hide the bigger truth, Samuel shows that an untruth can reveal it. It shows that something that is not true may still be instrumental in showing a bigger picture of truth.

Now the Lord said to Samuel, “How long will you grieve over Saul, since I have rejected him from being king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and go; I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have selected a king for Myself among his sons.” But Samuel said, “How can I go? When Saul hears of it, he will kill me.” And the Lord said, “Take a heifer with you and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.’ You shall invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do; and you shall anoint for Me the one whom I designate to you.” So Samuel did what the Lord said, and came to Bethlehem. And the elders of the city came trembling to meet him and said, “Do you come in peace?” He said, “In peace; I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. Consecrate yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice.” He also consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.

Samuel then went on to anoint David. The bit about sacrificing to the Lord was a ruse, a lie, designed to hide the truth that he in fact was coming to anoint David. In hiding that small truth, God (who instigated this lie) was in fact demonstrating the bigger truth that he has a plan for his people.

And third: In 1 Hosea 1:2, the prophet Hosea receives the apparently preposterous instruction from god

…the Lord said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of harlotry and have children of harlotry; for the land commits flagrant harlotry, forsaking the Lord.”

Imagine how our pastor would be received if he announced that he was off to the red light district, on god’s instructions, to find a wife!

All these stories suggest that the small data points, the small truths and even untruths of scripture, the apparently simple cause and effect, are not the big truth.

1 Corinthians 8:1-9 makes a similar distinction. The small truth that one ought not to set a bad example by eating food that has been sacrificed to idols is overridden by the larger truth that there are no idols: There is only one god.

Now concerning things sacrificed to idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies. If anyone supposes that he knows anything, he has not yet known as he ought to know; but if anyone loves God, he is known by Him.

Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that there is no such thing as an idol in the world, and that there is no God but one. For even if there are so-called gods whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords, yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him.

However not all men have this knowledge; but some, being accustomed to the idol until now, eat food as if it were sacrificed to an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled. But food will not commend us to God; we are neither the worse if we do not eat, nor the better if we do eat. But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.

The story of Job emphasizes that the attribute of cause and effect, which Job and his friends attributed to god, is far from the whole truth about god. Job eventually recognized this and came to understand that there existed a greater truth, even though he could not grasp it.

Jesus said (John 3:2): “But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.” So capital T Truth brings us into something more than understanding. That something is Light. It is human nature to be influenced heavily by the scientific method. We seek data-based truth that will enable us to draw conclusions. We especially value data that we can see, hear, smell, taste, and touch. Could it be that the truth about god is only accessible through a sixth sense, not necessarily independent of sensory and other data but cognizant of the limitations of such data?

In religion, it seems to me, we try to establish data points and then, through logic and reasoning and argument, we try to get others to see the same data points and to draw from them the same conclusions, the same understanding, that we have derived from the same small truths.

Is there a big Truth? If so, what is it?

Harry: I think there is. I think it is selfless love, as exemplified by Jesus. But the problem is that we tend to capitalize the t of the small truths. We quickly fail at selfless love when others challenge our truths. We can’t prove the existence of god, but we all can point to something that resonates inside us, the greater Truth that point to his existence.

Alice: Data points are supposed to lead us to the absolute Truth. They are not misleading in themselves but can be misleading if we misuse them. If they do not point us to the Truth then our data points have no value. For instance, Jesus said that he is the end of the law, he is the Truth, so we need to follow the data points in order to get to the meaning and the benefit of knowing god.

Unfortunately, we sometimes get stuck in the data points, arguing about their finer points and forgetting the main point they are leading us toward.

Sylvester: People argue the finer points because they think they have arrived at Truth through them, so they must necessarily therefore (they believe) be correct.

Alice: If one really knew the Truth, one would have no need to argue! One is left only to love. It is hard, but it is also a blessing, to stay silent when people start arguing preposterous points. Jesus talked to the Pharisees as though he were answering different questions to the ones they asked him. It sometimes seems to make no sense. But in fact he is countering their truths with his Truth.

Robin: The truth about god is more in our action and our attitudes than in our knowledge. 2 Timothy 2:20-25 contrasts different ways to bear or recognize truth:

Now in a large house there are not only gold and silver vessels, but also vessels of wood and of earthenware, and some to honor and some to dishonor. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work. Now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. But refuse foolish and ignorant speculations, knowing that they produce quarrels. The Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth,…

This reminds me of a 35-year-old man I know with Down syndrome. He has the purest heart I have ever known, though his knowledge—his data points—are underdeveloped. He does not worry about who may be right or wrong; he sees value in everyone and cares about everyone. One wonders whether it is that he has an extra chromosome or that the rest of us are lacking one.

Charles: Through scripture dating back to the Fall, through our own life experiences, and through the life of Jesus, I think that god points us to the Truth that he—the Spirit—exists; and that this is where grace is to be found and where we can transcend our earthly, fleshly, impermanent truths and physical death. It shows up again and again, from taking that bite of the apple through the bible stories of suffering consequent upon the Fall, to the transience and ultimate failure and death of our physical senses and our intellectual capabilities.

In contrast, the I Am, the Being, the Consciousness of the Spirit sits above all that. If we truly examine scripture, our own experience, and above all the life of Jesus, we see it. The mortal Jesus did not escape his mortality, but he pointed to a Truth—the existence of god—that transcends mortal suffering, impermanence and truths. It is precisely when faced with the stark reality of our suffering and impermanence and mortality that we turn to god, to the Spirit, for reassurance.

Kiran: Seventh Day Adventist church founder Ellen White wrote this about truth:

The fact that certain doctrines have been held as truth for many years by our people, is not a proof that our ideas are infallible. Age will not make error into truth, and truth can afford to be fair. No true doctrine will lose anything by close investigation. (Ellen G. White, Counsels to Writers and Editors, p. 35)

We have many lessons to learn, and many, many to unlearn. God and heaven alone are infallible. Those who think that they will never have to give up a cherished view, never have occasion to change an opinion, will be disappointed. As long as we hold to our own ideas and opinions with determined persistency, we cannot have the unity for which Christ prayed. (Ellen G. White, Counsels to Writers and Editors, p. 35)

Let no one come to the conclusion that there is no more truth to be revealed. The diligent, prayerful seeker for truth will find precious rays of light yet to shine forth from the word of God.” Counsels on Sabbath School Work, p. 34

Sylvester: Do we have consensus about what we mean by Truth? I’ve heard some of us that it is Love, Jesus, god himself, and other definitions.

Jason: I think the big Truth is Love. David describes it as Goodness, but I think we are talking essentially the same thing. The stumbling block is that we want to set Truth up on a foundation of knowledge. Even Ellen White seems to do this in the quotes Kiran supplied. It’s not that such a foundation is false; it’s that it is not enough. Truth has to be timeless, cross-cultural, and so on. Yet we want to test it, to judge it, to prove it. Two pieces of scripture address this point:

First, 1 Peter 1:22:

Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart,…

In other words, love—unconditional love—is a direct and inescapable expression of Truth.

Second, 1 John 3:18:

Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.

In other words, Truth is not something to know; it is something to show. It is not in your knowledge or intellect. It is in your actions. Our actions show whether we are in the Truth. Turn the other cheek. Give up your cloak. Go to the back of the line. This is the test and the proof of Truth.

Sylvester: I can accept that intellectually, though it is hard to practice. It begs the question: Is god, is church, necessary? Cannot atheists accept and practice the same lesson as well as the Christian?

Heaven: We often wax eloquent about the Truth, but in fact we find it hard to pin down. Christians know god is love. We believe we were created in god’s image yet have not lived up to it. So why do we need to know the Truth?

Being in the image of god is key. 2 Corinthians 3:18:

But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.

Jesus said he is the way, the truth, and the life. God is love. God and Jesus are one. The data points should be opening our eyes more to this Truth about who god really is. They can put us again back in the position of of being in god’s image, as Paul said. With the Truth, nasty people turn nice. The Truth is god.

God never intended for us to die. If we had not Fallen, we would be reflecting god’s image for eternity. We can be restored to that state, but we have to live the Truth. It’s not an intellectual exercise.

In Ephesians 3:14-19, Paul says:

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.

You need to be grounded in love to know the Truth.

David: The Truth is that god, defined as “goodness” (which scripture does a lot, though there is no etymological link between the two word) exists. There may be dangers in separating the words god and goodness. Before he became Pope Benedict, Cardinal Ratzinger wrote that Marxism professed many Christian virtues: It served the oppressed, let the first be last, etc. Some have opined that Jesus was Marxist, in that sense. But Marxism led to the very ills it was established to abolish, and sowed the seeds of its own destruction.

So practicing “goodness” cannot work alone. It mus be accompanied by belief in god. The existence of god seems to be the big Truth.

Chris: The Pharisees and the Sadducees had the data points—the little truths which, if you accepted them, would lead you to the Truth. But Jesus turned everything upside down. Their truths, he said, were not enough to get them to god. To me, as an Adventist, the truth of the Sabbath is very dear. The Sabbath brings me rest, gives me precious time with my family, and prepares me for the week ahead. But if I try to impose my Sabbath on others in order for me to get closer to god, is it no longer a truth but merely an arbitrary data point, a doctrine? If the underlying message is not Love, then is it truly a truth?

Kiran: No matter how much we may think we love others, the fact is we love ourselves more. What gives the greatest comfort to me is that god loves us nevertheless. Such an expression of his grace has helped me establish a relationship with god which in turn motivates, encourages and enables me to try to love others as god loves me.

Robin: God allows himself to be defined and revealed as Love. If I claim to be capable of love while denying the existence of god, am I therefore justified in rejecting that definition and that revelation?

In Ephesians 4:11-16, Paul wrote:

And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

Charles: All things point us to the truth that god exists. All our life experience and our data points merely serve to teach us that ultimately we are not in control of our physical world, but the good news is that god has given us the mental and physical faculties to understand the world and the free will to choose to trust and worship it or to trust the will of god. Whether through scripture, Jesus, or our own experience, we can learn that transcendence and the fruits of the spirit are to be found in surrender to the will of god.

Don: In Romans 1, the truth about god is contrasted with the lie about god.

For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

What does this mean? We will discuss this next week.

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