Whose Truth?
"What is truth?"
"You can't handle the truth!"
"The truth shall set you free."
How many truth quotes do you know? And is the statement of Epimenides the Cretan true, "Cretans are always liars."? (Titus 1.12).
Truth is increasingly cancelled out these days in favour of the views of whichever dominant voices shout the loudest. Does this matter? Can ideas become accepted by the old fashioned method of warfare. Whoever is loudest and strongest wins? It does seem so.
It is part of the idealogical battle being fought in western countries at the moment. A battle that unsettles many because, just like a civil war, one always has to be on one's toes to see how the battle is going and which side to side with. This is made worse by the continuing changes in the issues that the battles seem to be about.
For the battle is not just about any one issue. It seems to be a battle about unsettling all claims to truth, and even personal opinion, in favour of a culture dominated by an unstable Mind. Or a destabilising Mind.
The battle takes away the foundations of reason and truth in favour of a free-floating opinion world. It hijacks important social questions and cancels out any rational or civil discussion of them. It uses loud shouting that makes people feel guilty without the opportunity to a fair hearing. It is a slave society.
Christians on the other hand know true truth from Jesus. We know his gospel as freedom that sets people really free. How do such claims to truth survive in a culture that rejects truth? They survive and have power because of the Creator.
The world we live in has been made by the Creator with a purpose. It has been made for humans to live in and enjoy. We have been made to be friends with the Creator.
So we expect that when things go the way the Creator intended, life will be better and happier. And when the Creator’s purposes and ways of living are rejected then life will be unhappy and messed up.
When the truth shines into the messed up place, it makes sense because it fits the world God created. The undermining of rationality doesn’t change the real world. The truth of Jesus fits the world in a way that the unstable culture doesn’t.
So we don’t need to be afraid, or uncertain, about the gospel. It makes sense because it brings people to know the one whom God has made the ruler of this world. It is an exact fit for people who live in the real world.
Becoming disciples of Jesus is the start of true life.
Dale