What is Truth????????

This past Sunday, in the World Religions class I am leading at church, the topic was the politically correct culture of today which has led to the vast acceptance of moral and ethical relativity.  This has led me over the past week to really think about truth and what it means.

 We have been led to believe in the schools and the media today that truth is relative to who you are, your culture, and your personal moral convictions.  The culture today does not allow anyone to put forward a standard, lest someone feel left out, convicted, or expected to change.  What is right for you is right for you, just don’t tell me it is right for me.  You believe that abortion is wrong?  That is fine for you, but don’t tell me I’m wrong and don’t tell me what to do!  But the problem is that it is either right or it is wrong, it cannot be both.

How is it that we have gotten so mired in intellectual infancy that we are able to say that opposing points of view are true, when they are diametrically opposed to one another?  The reason is that as soon as we affirm that there is in fact truth, we have to ask the question, “Who gets to define truth?”  Does the culture get to define truth?  If 51% of the members of a given culture are in favor of a practice or belief, does that make it true.  I believe the flaws in this point of view are obvious.  While it can be argued that the majority of the population of Germany in the 30s and 40s did not know or necessarily approve of the extermination of the Jews, it is undeniable that, at a minimum, the majority at the time approved of the discrimination towards the Jewish people.  Was this acceptable at the time since the Jews were in the minority?  There are numerous examples of this throughout time and across national and ethnic borders.  So if truth is culturally based, then we have no grounds upon which to say these atrocities were wrong.  They were simply a product of a different time and a different culture.

While I am not in line with much of his theology, Thomas Merton (a Trappist monk from Kentucky) coined the phrase, “No man is an island.”  This is so true.  What we believe affects what we do, and what we do affects others.  We cannot completely withdraw from the world and become an island buffered by vast emptiness which insulates us from the thoughts, beliefs and morals of others.  The truth which we hold to has an impact upon the lives of others.

So the question remains, if there is truth, who defines it?  Do I say what is true for me, and you say what is true for you?  We hear this so many times in our culture, “Well, that may be true for you, but…”  The problem comes when my truth and your truth are in conflict.  If my truth allows me to take your property because you should be sharing with me anyway, as soon as I do so, the immediate response is going to be, “You can’t do that!”  The problem that this poses to the one who says that truth and morals are relative to the individual is that they have in that instant judged my morals incorrect and theirs to be the ultimate standard.  So they have then become the definer of truth, something their beliefs don’t allow them to do and be intellectually honest.

The fact of the matter is that truth leads us to the divine.  I cannot define truth.  You cannot define truth.  Ghandi cannot define truth.  No matter how good we think we are, we are fallen, flawed, sinful, and selfish.  But if there is truth to be had, some would argue that we have no way of knowing it.  They would argue that all religions are flawed and all have some elements of truth, so you have to just pick and choose from the myriad in existence.  But if there is a divine being that defines truth, this being must be good or evil.  If this divine being is good, he would surely reveal to us what truth is and what the standard is we are expected to meet.  Only an evil god would leave us living in fear and doubt as to how we should live, what is expected of us, and how we can meet that expectation.

This is why outside of Christianity, what we see is doubt and insecurity.  Within Islam, no one knows if they have met the standard and what their standing is with god.  In Hinduism, one can only hope they have done enough to break out of the cycle of reincarnation, if that is even possible.  This stands in stark contrast with the God of the Bible who tells us that He does have a standard, and His standard is nothing less than perfection.  But God in His infinite wisdom and goodness knew there was no way we, as fallen and depraved human beings, could ever meet this standard.  We could never do enough or be good enough to reach perfection.  So He provided a means of escape from the cycle of sin and death.  It was only through the perfect blood of His one and only Son that we are made clean.

So do I as a Christian get to define truth?  Absolutely not!  But I do have truth and know where to find truth.  We have a loving God who has not only revealed much of Himself to us, He has revealed truth to us as well.  It is only by following His truth, which leads us to the cleansing blood of His Son, Jesus Christ, that we are redeemed, and it is only by following the truth He has revealed to us in the Bible that we are sanctified.