Where Do We Find the Truth?

Where Do We Find the Truth? This is an excellent question one which has been posed by many influential thinkers throughout history. This blog will discern how to discuss this topic with the non-Christian and the Christian.

Non-Christians is such a broad category that it really requires defining for the purpose of this article. Non-Christian will be defined here as anyone who does not espouse in some way that the man Jesus Christ has a moderate to high level of impact on their beliefs and/or morals. This paper is in no way attempting to determine which groups are "Christian" and which are not. A much simpler way to say this may be simply, anyone who by their own definition would call themselves a Christian, would not belong to the non-Christian category.

In turn then, Christians will be defined as any group who by their own definition would claim to be a follower of the human being Jesus Christ and would use the bible as an authority for at least some of their beliefs. One caveat to this definition is groups who claim to follow a human being on earth today who claims to be Jesus Christ or some type of reincarnated/reintroduced version of Jesus Christ would not be considered a Christian for the sake of this paper. The reason for this is that we are focusing on the Jesus Christ of biblical narration and not some guy from Florida who smokes two packs a day.

Definitions out of the way, how might a non-Christian answer this question? Unfortunately there would not be a standardized answer, much in the same way that not all Christians would provide the same answer either. The Mohammedan might say Mohammed the prophet, followers of Judaism might claim the Torah or the Tanak. Some eastern religions may claim that since God is apart of all things that there is truth in all things as well. At any rate, the answer at least in part comes down to this; it is a personal understanding. Most Mohammedans are not suicide bombers, yet most suicide bombers claim to follow the teaching of the Mohammed in the Koran, "properly" understood of course. Judaism had factions even in Jesus' time about where to find truth. Some claimed just the Torah was God's source of Truth such as the Sadducees, while others believed in the Septuagint and a binding oral tradition such as the Pharisees. This seems puzzling at best since most all people would agree that if they were objectively honest with themselves they'd admit to one universal fact. That they more they know, the more they realize how little they actually know. In other words, the more they learn, the more they realize how undependable they are to know what the truth is. A sixteen year old child knows everything while a 70 year old man knows and understands how little he knows. Therefore, at least on the surface, the non-Christian position appears that truth is either unattainable or at least completely subjective.

Many would argue that when faced with a difficult question of this sort, finding a statement which appears the most absurd and simple conclusion is the best place to start scrutinizing. In the course of human history, many people have claimed to know the Truth or at least to know much of the Truth. Yet only one person has claimed to be the Truth and to have a such a large following of believers as that of Jesus Christ. It is the most arrogant of all the assertions in the whole of human history, that a human being, namely Christ Jesus, can not only know the Truth, but actually himself, be the Truth. (John 14:6). Either Christ is mentally insane or what he says is true. There is no room for middle ground. It is precisely this lack of middle ground whch makes Christianity so appealing as a first choice to thoroughly scrutinize. It either true or completely absurd. Additionally, most all Christians also claim that their learning and knowledge of Christ is being guided by God himself. God is literally helping them to know the Truth.

Yet it seems very easy for the non-Christian to counter the argument that Christ is the Truth. If there is only one Truth and one God, and that one Truth is Jesus and God leads man to knowing Jesus, then God leads man to Truth. Written as a syllogism the Christian argument may appear like this.

There is only one Truth and there is only one God
That one Truth is Christ, and through Christ God has made the Truth known to man
therefore the Truth is made known by God to man in the person of Jesus Christ

For this to be true, that all Christians are being guided by God in some manner to know Truth which is Christ, then, the non-Christian would argue why don't Christians agree even remotely about who Christ is and what His teachings are? Is God confused or is He purposely guiding people into different Truths? Is He leading the Baptist to a different Truth than He is leading the Seventh Day Adventist? If the Christian answers yes, that God is leading people into different Truths, then God contradicts Himself since Christians believe so many different things and therefore God cannot be inerrant, infallible, perfect, or infinite. If the Christian answers no, that God is not leading different denominations into different truths, then the non-Christian says, how do you know with certainty that what you believe is the Truth? After all, all humans can make mistakes and believe that what they believe is true, when it is not. And, the non-Christian continues, if you can't tell me with certainty that what you believe is the Truth, then why should I believe you instead of what I believe for myself? After all, if we can both be wrong, why should I accept your beliefs and reject my own? Perhaps you might say that I should I believe you because you are smarter than me? If so, how do we judge how smart you are compared to me or how smart you are compared to the rest of the people in the world with whom you disagree with? After all, if we strictly go by intelligence value, or any other value alone, aren't the odds extremely high that we will find someone who is in turn even smarter, or have an higher amount of any other value in them than that value exists in you? Why should I believe you instead of them? Furthermore, what does it matter if we found the smartest or wisest or greatest man in the entirety of all of human history, would this guarantee us that we would know the Truth with certainty? After all, all finite creatures, which all humans are, are still capable of committing errors. Why should we believe even that person with certainty?

This is a crippling argument for the Christian. God is either contradicting Himself or not all Christians are being guided by God into the Truth. Which leads us back to our original question; where do we find the Truth?

Most Christians answer this simply, the bible is where we find Truth. It's the sole, definitive, authoritative, God-breathed, Word of God, end of discussion, end of list. I can't pretend my sample size is all that large, but in my limited experience I have never met a Christian that when they were asked this question, they didn't provide "the bible" as their answer.

For those readers who are Christians, if someone asked you right now, what is the pillar and ground of the Truth, what would your answer be? Take time to pause and really consider the question. There is no greater question than this. It may even be advantageous to you to take the time to ask your pastor or other religious/spiritual adviser what they believe the answer to this question is. It only makes sense that those individuals who choose to teach the Christian faith would be easily able to answer a question as simple as where do we find Truth? After all, if they can't correctly answer a question so simple and so foundational, why should we trust them in any matter pertaining to their teaching of our faith? More importantly, if they don't know where to find the Truth, why are we accepting their teachings?

Let's begin with the assumption that the bible is the pillar and ground of the Truth? This obviously begs the question; does the bible anywhere claim for itself to be the sole source of Truth? If the bible is the definitive source for truth, then it necessarily follows that the bible would have to make this claim for itself or it would not be true.

The bible does tell us what the pillar and ground of the Truth is, but it is not the bible. What does scripture say the pillar and ground of the Truth is? Let's find out using the KJV:

But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. (1Tim 3:15)

Paul is very clear here that the church of the living God is the pillar and ground of the Truth, not the bible. What is the function of a pillar? It supports weight. When the pillar falls, what happens to that which is supported by it? It crumbles to the ground. According to Strong's Bible Concordance, the word in Greek translated for ground can also be translated as basis or foundation. What happens to a house which is built with no foundation when the winds blow and the waters rise. It collapses. In other words, what Paul is saying here is simple, much like you can't have a house without a foundation, you can't have the Truth without the church. For the bible "only" believing Christian, this may be an earth shattering revelation. The bible clearly teaches something which wholly contradicts bible only believing denominations. At first glance it may appear as though it is not possible for the church to be the pillar and ground of the Truth. One could argue that this is because many of us forget what the church and the Truth are. The church is the Body of Christ (Eph 1:22-23) (Col 1:24) and the Truth is Jesus Christ (John 14:6). Said again in this light, The Body of Christ is the pillar and ground of Jesus Christ. Surely no Christian would disagree with that statement. How then, could any bible believing Christian disagree with the former in 1 Tim 3:15 that the church is the pillar and ground of the Truth?

This is not meant in any way to attack any particular individual who may believe the idea that the bible alone is the sole definitive source for Christian faith and morals. The purpose of this blog is simple, to encourage all peoples to discuss the differences in their faith systems so that we can be a united community striving for that which is true, good, and beautiful. If we are going to succeed in becoming more united in our faith and we currently disagree on many of our beliefs, then many of us, if not all of us, believe certain things which simply are not true. We shouldn't fear that what we believe is not the Truth, but we should fear that when we find out what we believe is not true, that we refuse to change our beliefs to conform to that which is the Truth.

It necessarily follows then for any Christian who claims the bible is the infallible, authoritative, inerrant, God-breathed Word of God, the question of what the church is becomes critical to knowing whether or not what he/she believes is the Truth or if it is error. So the question now is obvious. What is the church?