This is such a great topic because it seems to be confused today. Winston Churchill said, “The most valuable thing in the world is the truth, so valuable that it has often been barricaded by a bodyguard of lies.” Some of the most simple lies are difficult to spot because they have a bit of truth within them. There was a popular game back 20-30 years ago for children called Spot the Lie. Where kids would give three facts about themselves. Two of the facts would be true and the other a lie. The other kids playing would have to see if they could figure out which one was the lie. Sometimes children ended up picking a truth because they wanted what they knew was the lie, to be true. But they would lose the game. People are leaving the church in droves because they ask questions that are not being answered – they are not being given truth. People respond to the truth! But how can we know and understand what truth is?
When someone asks that question, or if truth is real or anything to do with truth, they assume that there is truth. Otherwise, there can be no true answer to the question! But let’s back up for a minute and grasp how to know a truth statement:
A statement is true if it matches up with reality. This is called the correspondence theory of truth. For example. If I tell you that I made it from Jacksonville, FL to San Diego, CA in less than 8 hours, you would be skeptical. Especially when I show you a picture of my car.
BUT, if I showed you a picture of an airplane…
I made it from Jacksonville, FL to San Diego, CA in less than 8 hours by airplane. That statement matches up with reality. As far as you know, that statement is true.
The problem is that for the majority of the population when you shift from normal topics to topics about religion or morality, this definition no longer applies.
From a purely Christian gospel perspective, if you view the definition of truth taken from Webster’s dictionary states Fidelity to an original or standard. Well, Jesus said that HE is TRUTH. He told his disciples, “If you abide in my Word, you are my disciples. You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” Later on, He explained that because they had seen Him, they had seen the father (fidelity to the original)… set free because of Jesus – the Truth.
