By Justin Gray
The Story of Truth
The Story of Truth
I believe that truth is ultimate reality- the eternal, absolute, powerful, personal, unyielding, relentless, immutable source.
Truth is the ground upon which our world consists and has existed since eternity past. By truth, the waters were gathered together with their sandy demarcations and the starry firmament established.
By truth, the amino acid waved its baton for the symphony of life to begin. It was by truth that grass grew slowly beneath the morning dew to satisfy the grazing beasts. And most marvelously, by truth, the masterful model called mankind was created.
By truth, rationality and the ability to choose was endowed unto mankind bearing with it the possibility of love; for love would not be possible for man unless the truth provided choice. It was by choice that mankind rejected the truth and consequently was separated from the ultimate source.
Despite rejection, by truth the ancient civilizations of the world developed, flourished, and produced greater civilizations. By truth, wise men of old spoke in diverse manners concerning ethics, morality, metaphysics, government, judgment, hope, and things which were yet to come. And by truth, human discontent and deep yearnings in every generation blossomed in anticipation of change.
By the existence of truth, the great religions of the world were born to make sense of this growing anticipation. In the fullness of time, the truth became incarnate and walked among men. The existence, purity and exploits of the truth were verified by contemporaries, both historians and commoners alike.
Most significant among these historical accounts was his sinless life, death, and resurrection which attested to the efficacious nature of his being. The truth incarnate is Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus made unique and extraordinary claims unlike anyone in history and his fulfillment of such claims is unprecedented.
The truth took upon the form of humanity, and in doing so reunited the creation with the Creator. Jesus said, "I am the way, [I am] the truth and [I am] the life" (John 14:6) In other words, Jesus is truth, truth is Jesus; God is truth and truth is God; Jesus is God and God is Jesus.
Truth and Modernism
During the 18th and 19th centuries the Modernist movement began to systematically supplant the truth as I have previously described. Both the Scientific and Industrial Revolutions spawned a new way of attempting to discover truth apart from any religious presuppositions or special revelation.
More and more, truth became a matter of empirical inquiry rather than faith. The governing presupposition that God exists, which inspired most of the early forms of scientific investigation was replaced by secular rationalism.
The effects of this shift in culture were also felt in the theological world, as a more materialistic perspective began to usurp the traditional ideas of a biblical worldview. Foundational principles such as God existing as a rational, personal, immanent and knowable being were rejected in favor of more obscure forms of deism and naturalism. The Bible became just another object of scrutiny and scientific evaluation.
By autonomous human reason, men pulled the carpet from under Jesus and watched him tumble down the stairs of history into mythology.
Jesus became irrelevant, because his very existence was unreasonable. The 'truth', in Modernist terms, could be defined by humans for humans with human advancement of reason as the end result. Modernists believed that through science and ingenuity mankind could force the answers of life from the environment and dominate the universe as pinnacles of the natural order.
During the 18th and 19th centuries the Modernist movement began to systematically supplant the truth as I have previously described. Both the Scientific and Industrial Revolutions spawned a new way of attempting to discover truth apart from any religious presuppositions or special revelation.
More and more, truth became a matter of empirical inquiry rather than faith. The governing presupposition that God exists, which inspired most of the early forms of scientific investigation was replaced by secular rationalism.
The effects of this shift in culture were also felt in the theological world, as a more materialistic perspective began to usurp the traditional ideas of a biblical worldview. Foundational principles such as God existing as a rational, personal, immanent and knowable being were rejected in favor of more obscure forms of deism and naturalism. The Bible became just another object of scrutiny and scientific evaluation.
By autonomous human reason, men pulled the carpet from under Jesus and watched him tumble down the stairs of history into mythology.
Jesus became irrelevant, because his very existence was unreasonable. The 'truth', in Modernist terms, could be defined by humans for humans with human advancement of reason as the end result. Modernists believed that through science and ingenuity mankind could force the answers of life from the environment and dominate the universe as pinnacles of the natural order.
Truth and Postmodernism
Over the last few decades our culture has drifted further and further from the sturdy harbor of moral truth and into the unceasing murkiness of relativism.
In this new world of postmodernism, every opinion is of equal value and equally true. Who would dare disrupt this equilibrium by calling these opinions into question? After all, don't we interact with reality from our own point of view? And doesn't our point of view entitle us to create for ourselves a reality most suitable for the lifestyle we choose?
Postmodernism seeks to eulogize the concept of truth.
Aristotle’s "Law of non-contradiction" is dismissed by deconstructionism. We are free to think and believe as we choose as long as our choices do not infringe upon the thoughts and beliefs of others. This philosophy would work out nicely if all claims weren’t truth claims.
There can only be one truth; and therefore, all those that claim to have defined truth for themselves have already discredited the truth of others. A society with no ultimate standard for truth is a society of complete ambiguity and lawlessness.
The truth of all matters, both material and immaterial, has appeared in the person of Jesus Christ. He is the ultimate reality- the eternal, absolute, powerful, personal, unyielding, relentless and immutable source.
Sire, James. The Universe Next Door. InterVarsity Press: 2009. Google Books file.
Packer, J. I. Knowing God. InterVarsity Press: 1993. Google Books file.
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