“What is truth” (John 18:31).
Ironically, and perhaps, tragically, Pilate spoke these words to the very Person who could not only answer the question, but Who was Himself the embodiment of Truth!
The title of this website is “determinetruth” not because we have determined it, but because we seek to determine it.
It is my conviction that if Jesus is indeed the Truth (John 14:6), then it incumbent upon us to seek the truth at all times.
After all, all truth will ultimately point us to Christ.
Now, we must be honest with ourselves. We do not always like the truth. This is because the truth often points out our weaknesses, our flaws, our failures. This is the hard part.
It is one thing to have an ideal to pursue the truth. It is quite another to actually follow it!
Here is the beauty of it all:
if the truth points us to Christ, then by following it, we will become more like Him!
And is that not the goal of the Christian life? Paul says,
“We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ. For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me” (Col 1:28-29).
It is essential, then, that we acknowledge our sins—including sins of intellect—and seek to change, lest we continue to walk in error.
Integrity must be a central component of our lives. After all, are we more concerned with our pride, or with learning to walk in the likeness of Christ?
Is not the essence of following Christ, letting go of our pride, and taking up our crosses and following Him?
As Christians, we came to faith in Christ because we humbled ourselves and acknowledged our sins and recognized our inability to be righteous in and of ourselves. Consequently, we repented of our sins and confessed that Jesus Christ is Lord. And we accepted His forgiveness.
But we cannot stop there!
The Christian life must be characterized by daily repentance. As Luke says,
“If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me” (Luke 9:23).
And this daily repentance must include our intellectual wrongs!
We should learn from History
The Church has had some serious blemishes when it comes to holding on to some “sacred” truths. At one time, most of the Church rejected the notion that the Earth revolved around the Sun because of some notion that the Bible “says” that Earth was the center of creation.
Only after some time, and only after many grievous sins, and only after much public shame, did the Church come to recognize what the secular community had been saying for quite some time, “yeah, I guess, the Earth does revolve around the Sun.” “ya think!”
Do we question everything?
Of course, someone might be quick to say, “But, does this mean that we question everything?” “Is Jesus on the table?” “Do we doubt that Jesus existed?”
Such questions, which are excellent, could derail us to far afield. Allow me to give two brief responses:
- Yes, all matters of truth are on the table. As I said, our goal is to “determinetruth.” But, I am confident, as I said, that all truth will only lead us to Christ. There is nothing to fear. In fact, there is everything to gain! If, after all, the goal of the Christian life is to grow in the likeness of Christ (Col 1:28-29), then seeking truth is an important aspect of accomplishing that goal!
- At the same time, every aim for truth must have a starting point. Mine, and I assume yours as well, since you are reading a blog on an evangelical website, is Christ. My caution to you in this post is simply not to have too many starting points. That is, we agree that Christ lived, died, and rose again, and that He sits enthroned as the King of Kings. Let’s begin here and let everything else fall into place.
Information makes us stupid
There is a sad reality, but the fact is that oftentimes more information makes us stupid.
We have all had that encounter with someone who is trying to argue about something that is absurd. Yet, they will not back down. For every point you make they respond with something so outlandish you cannot believe what you are hearing.
Whether it is someone in the 21st century arguing that the world is flat, or they are defending another whose actions are indefensible in a given situation. If we are honest, we must admit that we have been that person ourselves.
No matter what you seem to say to this person the more facts and information you provide does not seem to matter. What is going on? Several things:
- There is a heart issue
Jeremiah 17:9, says, “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick.”
As readers of the Bible, however, we should know that things are not simple. After all, if Jesus walked about Galilee and Judea for three-plus years and taught the things as they are recorded in the Gospels and did the miracles that He did, then why didn’t everyone believe? They had all the information they needed! How could anyone not believe?
They didn’t believe it because information wasn’t the only thing that was lacking. There was a heart issue. The problem was that they looked at the information through their own lens.
Some simply saw Jesus the way they wanted to see Him. Some concluded that He was a blasphemer and an illegitimate child.
Jesus even confronted them with, “if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me” (John 5:46). It wasn’t just information they were lacking. It was a heart issue. They didn’t want to believe.
It is important to remember that we all have heart issues.
This is why it is essential that we recognize that this plagues us all and that repentance must be a daily part of the Christian life. And that repentance must include my sins of intellect!
- We often only look at information to reinforce what we already believe
The danger of living in the information age of the third decade of the 21st century is that we have become more entrenched in our positions.
There is a general conviction that all one needs to make a better decision is more information. But more information doesn’t necessarily override our hearts.
This goes back to the fact that we all have a heart issue. Christians must be careful to recognize that we too have heart issues just as much as everyone else. Just because we repented and asked Christ to forgive us doesn’t mean that we are exempt from heart issues.
In fact, the Scriptures are clear that the devil will increase his efforts to bring deception into the midst of God’s people!
This is why it is essential that we recognize that this plagues us all and that repentance must be a daily part of the Christian life. And that repentance must include my sins of intellect!
The fact is that we would love to believe that we all look at information objectively. But we don’t. And if as Christians we think we are better than others, then I would encourage you to read the Scriptures a little more carefully: “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick” (Jer 17:9).
Just because we have been redeemed does not make us exempt. In fact, research shows that evangelicals can be just as close-minded as anyone else.
To be continued . . .
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