When I started preparing for “The Big Story,” our current 40-day Bible campaign at BCC I thought our primary problem was that we didn’t know the Bible very well. There are the famous “Bible” verses people spout that aren’t actually in the Bible. “God helps those who helps themselves.” Someone quoted the Bible as saying, “If it’s going to be, it’s up to me.” Mother to child, “The Bible says, Cleanliness is next to godliness.” My all time favorite, “every tub sets on its on bottom.” Some people think Joan of Arc was Noah’s wife, an epistle is the spouse of an apostle, and Matthew, Mark, George and Ringo wrote the four gospels.
All this would be just laughable if our opinion on the reliability of the scripture was not the single most important decision we have to make in life. Our greatest barrier for the American and Western European mind is that we are clinging to the idea that truth is conditional and contingent upon something else; this is called relativism. There are several forms of relativism and most of us have our favorite applications. A simple example of relativism is “don’t steal if it hurts anybody.” The doctrine of absolute truth says, “Don’t steal…period.” Absolute truth doesn’t change with time, place or opinion.
Well the Bible says stuff like, “this is the way walk ye in it.” King David went on and on about how much he delighted in God’s “commands.” God gave to Moses Ten Commandments, not ten suggestions. Who or what created the world is not a multiple-choice question. My contention is that we don’t just need to read our Bibles more, we need to re-examine our view of truth. Can truth actually be a social construct and a personal choice? Is anything actually just true other than natural facts like, “the sun rises in the east.”
So to the relativist it’s admirable that Tim Tebow is saving himself for marriage, he is living out his moral truth. However, that’s not a rule for everybody to follow. Tim, no doubt would quote Bible verses like, “thou shalt not commit adultery” and “abstain from fornication.” The relativist would probably ignore that and say, “Tim’s just living out a truth that’s been socially constructed for him by his parents and the conservative church group he belongs to.” “We’re glad it works for him, you go Tebow!”
Since, I’m writing a blog and not a book, I have to wrap it up here. But this is serious stuff. It is causing so much instability in our great institutions, including the Church. The words of the prophet Isaiah could have so easily been written in 2013. “Truth has stumbled in the streets, honesty cannot enter.” Isaiah 59:14 (NIV)
The correct view of truth is that truth is objective and not determined by our opinions. Truth is statements that match reality. If you say, “Barak Obama is the president of the United States” you have matched belief with reality. If you say any other name you have failed to match belief with reality no matter how much you feel it or how well it “works for you.” Doug Groothuis, a Biblical apologists, said, “So when God reveals himself in the scripture to his people he reveals himself for who he is. It’s not that this community has constructed some idea of God, but that God has revealed truth in the Scripture and also in nature and conscious and personally and supremely in the person of Jesus Christ.”
Let me give you four steps out of the spiritual impasse that most of us, even veteran church goers find ourselves in.
1) Redefine truth as the absolute knowledge of the facts and principles upon which all things operate.
2) Become a lover of truth who submits to its wisdom even when it pains or inconveniences you.
3) Become informed by becoming a seeker of truth, not just ideas.
4) Keep reading my blog, I’m just getting started on this subject.
