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What's It All About? What Do I Believe and Why? PART O NE - TRUTH
T
he mere mention of the word “Truth” causes some offence these days. Actually, not just these days, but all through time, I’m sure. We live in a world that’s filled to overflowing with contradiction – not because life and “things” don’t make sense, but because, by and large, so many people don’t LET or WANT things to have to make sense. Discussing the subject of Truth is not the easiest task because, in any debate, both sides should ideally present a logical argument for why they believe what they believe. But if anyone strays from logic or reason (take your pick), then how are we to come to a fair conclusion? If there is no standard by which we are to think and reason our way through this world, then we are adrift on very murky waters. It’s interesting how the same people who argue that there is no such thing as Absolute Truth will be quick to tell you that acts of rape and paedophilia are, without question, wrong – if not evil. But if that’s the case, where do we draw the line? How do we decide when to apply Truth and when to ignore it? Either paedophilia is evil or it isn’t. Now, whilst the entire world will pretty much agree that it IS evil, it’s necessary to go a little further and question WHY we believe so. Is it because of the nature of the act? Is it because we don’t “like” it? Whether we like or dislike something is neither here nor there. What child LIKES discipline? What criminal LIKES being locked away? When it comes to truth, opinion is just that – opinion. The nature of Truth itself dictates that there MUST BE an “outside decider” – someone other than me who states what is True. I don’t decide what is true, but instead respond to it. I can accept it or deny it, throw all of my opinions at whoever I like, but all of that has absolutely no bearing on the Truth itself. Now, of course, there are things in life that are not so “black and white”. For example, whether or not a song, book or movie are “good” (as in, enjoyable) is purely subjective – only you can determine what you find enjoyable, what makes you want to dance or tap your feet. That comes down to personal tastes, and there are as many of those as there are listeners, readers and viewers. But the determiner of whether something is MORALLY good should have nothing at all to do with taste or opinion. If we think it does, then again, we are adrift on very murky waters indeed. Who is right and who is wrong? We can’t ALL be right – that’s absolutely ludicrous, because the very nature of what many individuals believe states that in order for that thing to be “right” or true, something else has to be “wrong” or false. An act cannot be both evil and good at the same time – or ANY time.
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I’ll use the example of Yahweh (the God of the Bible) and Allah (of the Qur’an). I’ve heard people say that they are one in the same. But if you know anything about either (that is, their nature and characteristics, and what each book claims about them), then you’ll see plainly that they cannot be the same Being. They stand in opposition to each other. You cannot discuss who God is with a “rose by any other name” approach. WE (mankind) don’t simply decide who He is like the tossing of a coin, but rather, decide from revealed Truth who He is. Is He the God of the Bible, the Qur’an, or neither? So, once we have decided if the existence of a “God” (which, remember, is a TITLE, not a name) is a reasonable approach as to why we are alive and why there is a commonly accepted viewpoint that there is such a thing as “good and evil”, we must then go on to decide WHO IS THIS GOD? Now, just a quick mention of Evolution, although it is by no means a quick or easy subject to discuss. Yes, there is scientific evidence that people say supports Evolution, to the extent that these people will say that it is no longer a theory but “fact”. However, as with drawing conclusions from ANY socalled evidence, a fair and thorough investigation needs to be done. It’s all well and good to make the claim that a theory is supported by certain evidence, however, when other (contradictory) evidence is blatantly - or otherwise – ignored, then it becomes a case of pick-and-choose-what-suitsyou, and this cannot be how we approach Truth. So, yes, there would appear to be good arguments for Evolution, but there are also very good arguments to show that it fails to tick some very necessary boxes – scientific and otherwise. So, back to God. We have so many options, it seems. Some say there are many roads, but they all end up at the same destination. But as I’ve said before, this approach is flawed. Just because I could get to a specific destination in London by means of a number of routes doesn’t mean that I can take such a principle and apply it to anything and everything else. God is not a destination, reachable by a wide variety of routes. But, using our God-given reasoning skills, we can start to cross certain “Gods” of the “List of Possible Gods”. For example, if God wants me to strap a bomb to myself and murder a bunch of people – not to mention killing myself! – then either there IS such a God, and he is right to expect that of me, or there isn’t, and there is something else at work (delusion and/or another spiritual entity posing as THE God). For me, it’s easy to cross that “God” off my “List of Possible Gods”. All it takes is looking at what’s going on around us, and thinking logically. And if we arrive at Yahweh, the God of Love, of Justice and Truth (and much more), then we are on good footing. But even so, it’s still necessary – perhaps even more so – to not forget that there is still Truth and Error, even in Christendom. We cannot be lazy and think that we can fly on auto-pilot because we’ve decided that:
God exists and that His name is Yahweh
He inspired certain people to write what is now the Bible
Jesus Christ is the “Messiah”, God’s Son - the Last Adam (1 Corinthians 15, verse 45), who has made it possible to have salvation because of his life of obedience to God, his Father, and his consequential resurrection from the dead
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Jesus is now exalted and is at the “right hand” of God, exercising the power and authority given to him by God as a reward for his obedience (Luke 22, verse 69 and others)
The Adversary (the Father of Lies, Satan) has been on the prowl for a very long time, seeking to steal, kill and destroy, as the Bible says in John 10, verse 10. He seeks to contradict what Yahweh says, to cause confusion and to divide and weaken, and he has done a very good (as in, well-performed) job. And I’m talking about WITHIN Christendom (or Christianity, if you prefer) as well as otherwise. Don’t be fooled. We cannot think that being a Christian means we suddenly have the Truth downloaded into our minds and hearts. Yes, Jesus is “the Way, the Truth and the Life” (John 14, verse 6), and we do “have” him, but that’s only PART of living as a Christian. We still need to LEARN Truth, thus improving the spiritual quality of our lives (and sometimes even the normal, everyday quality too). And in the same way that we need to be wary of errors and lies in this world, we need to stand guard against those arrows of the Adversary, being careful not to simply follow tradition or believe something that is not supported by the full scope of Scripture. If we can agree that there is indeed something called “Truth”, then we must also agree that the Bible must make sense and be logical in order for the everyday man to stand by it (not t mention UNDERSTAND it). What we believe as Christians MUST be supported by it, or, if you prefer, not CONTRADICTED by it. Otherwise, there is a danger that we’ll believe traditions and/or myths which bring little or no good, and can in fact be quite dangerous.