The Pursuit of Truth ...

People of all walks of life find themselves in the pursuit of truth. News reporters believe it to be their job. Men of science believe it is found in discovery, observation, and verification. Those who study philosophy and religion search for the deeper meanings of life. And the populous accept what most of these searchers assert as truth they can rely upon. You could define truth by saying it is an absolute. Truth remains constant no matter what perspective you look at it from. But I would suggest there is more to it than that. I believe that truth, just like science, is more of a process than a destination.

You could say for example that the sun in our solar system is yellowish red in color. This would be the truth, a fact if you will. But there is much more about our sun than one simple characteristic. Our sun is a certain size, certain composition, certain distance from our planet – it provides light during the day and is reflected off of our moon at night. Our sun could destroy our planet were it not for the atmosphere that wraps our earth like a blanket. All of these other facts do not diminish the original truth we stated; rather they provide more context, more details, more information, more character if you will. While the color of our sun is a truth, it is not the most important truth about our sun. A deeper study of our sun provides a much more thorough understanding of the central star in our solar system. In fact a study of other stars throughout the universe, and the life cycles they go through, reveals what kind of star our sun is, and why it is the color it is.

Science takes pride in providing truth about our physical world around us. However many of the scientific truths we assume are true are based on theories that have not been proved absolutely true, only based on the best knowledge we have to date. Science then, leaves open the idea, that over time as study methods become better, new information may affirm, alter, and completely obliterate old theories and accepted truths. No scientist is thrilled at this prospect, to be proved wrong that is, but all must be willing to accept it, or they can no longer consider themselves objective scientists.

When it comes to matters of religion, men have been much more rigid in their application of what is truth. Instead of looking at a truth as being capable of further study, of a deepened understanding, of being able to evolve as our knowledge increases; men have put boundaries around truth and decided it is limited to a singular interpretation where all others are wrong. And yet in matters of religion which often deal more with the non-physical matters of life such as motives, behavior, emotions, intentions, and classifications such as good and evil all of which are much harder to observe; we treat ideas like concrete that cannot be altered rather than sand that could fill entirely different shapes over time. Men of religion are even more reluctant than men of science to be proven wrong. They make no allowance for it. And the result is that truth becomes stagnant, confined to the box the searcher has created for it, and argued to the death it is right without ever trying to get a better understanding of what he may have initially come across. Men of science rightly criticize men of religion in this behavior.

So why are religious believers so much more adamant that their interpretation of truth is the only viable one to be had? It could be this is how they were raised. It could be this is how their particular church has presented any “truth” to them; that they must be on guard against alternative ideas about truth, that they must act defensively to preserve their truth or it will be destroyed by evil. But this type of paranoia seems less required by God’s truth than by His competitors. The priests sought to silence the message of Christ by killing Him - A lot of good that did, His resurrection only spread His message like wildfire throughout the world. The Catholic Church was responsible for trying to keep scripture away from the common people for more than 1200 years, they failed. The Bible was meticulously copied by Waldensians living in caves during this time, and completely liberated by the invention of the printing press. God’s truth simply cannot be destroyed by His enemies.

For some reason, religious men tend to believe that accepting any alternative ideas about the truths they hold to will somehow result in them losing their Salvation. As such they put a heavy penalty on any who challenge the least of the truths they espouse. They begin to equate behavior, and accepting everything the church states, as equivalent to Salvation itself. All truths become equally important in order to defend them all. But our simple analogy of the sun defeats this idea. Yes our sun is in fact yellowish red, but this is not the most important fact about the sun. Why it is this color may be entirely more important than the fact that it is. The same could be applied to most every doctrine of truth we hold in a given church. Most Christian churches teach the idea that God continues to want a tithe brought into His storehouse. This practice of tithing sets aside ten percent of a person’s increase as a freewill offering to the Lord. The practice of tithing is established throughout the Bible and could be considered a truth. However as with the sun analogy, “why” God established this practice may be entirely more important than the fact that He did. Determining why God set this up tells us more about His character and our own, than merely following what is proscribed without any further study on the matter. Determining “why” should not alter the original set of facts or truth, but may add an entirely new dimension to this practice than merely rote obedience.

It is unfortunate that human ego seems to be the reason why men are so reluctant to allow their versions of truth (i.e. the interpretations of scripture they espouse) to be challenged. If Christ is really to lead us, why would we fear engaging in discussion or debate when behind His banner. But therein lies the problem, we Christians charge out on to the battlefield attempting to prove only that we are right, and expecting that God is only on our side. Oops. This is not Christ leading, it is our pride, our arrogance and our ego. And it is folly. Turns out Christ was trying to lead us to a better understanding of His truth, and did not want us fighting on the battlefield in the first place. But how do we get this message when already engaged in battle? First we must stop fighting. Our truths should be self-evident, if they are not, then perhaps there is room to learn rather than to teach. We must stop approaching every discussion with paranoid ideas that the devil is behind all ideas different than our own. In this mindset, the Holy Spirit can show us nothing, as we simply won’t let Him.

Humility is the key to the discovery of truth. We must be willing to learn in order to learn. We must be willing to be led rather than always asserting our leadership on a topic. We must learn to discuss, and with it, truly learn to listen to what someone else has to say. Blanket disregard for the opinions of others should foretell how they will feel about what you have to say. If you tune out someone who disagrees with your position, they will in-turn tune you out. What results then is merely noise. Attempting to listen to someone means not only listening to the words, but to the meaning they are trying to convey. Often our choice of language is less than ideal. We speak harshly, defensively, or make rash statements we would rather take back. When trying to listen, we must learn to temper our anger, embrace patience, and search out meaning without accepting personal insult. In this effort we can finally begin a dialogue on truth.

Lest you think your version of Christianity needs no further leadership from Christ on a given point of doctrine, I would point you to the example of Peter. Peter was Jewish by descent and carried with him the natural inclination to discuss truth with only his fellow Jews. The he dreamed a dream of all manner of unclean animals and was bidden by the Lord to eat. He refused. He was bidden again. When he awoke he knew the meaning of his dream was meant to coax him out of his long accepted prejudice and embrace the freedom of the gospel to ALL men. But bottom line, Peter was wrong. Peter who had accepted Christ, been with Him the longest, was most famous among the twelve, and worked many miracles with the power of the Holy Spirit – was still wrong about how/who he shared the gospel with. His humanity still managed to interfere with the work of the Lord. And if an apostle of Christ could still be so deceived, do we really think ourselves above all reproof and correction?

Realizing that there are 38,000 Christian churches and only one Christ says that many of us must be mistaken about views we hold to be true. We simply cannot all be right about everything. It would be arrogance to think that only I am right in the face of 38,000 other competing views. This does not mean we are all wrong about everything either. This puts us in the perfect position of seeking truth. The time to sort out what is correct, reverse what is incorrect, and come to a deeper understanding of what remains is upon us. We are in a perfect position to allow Christ to begin leading us once again. We can in humility open the word of God without pretense or prejudice, but to try to understand what He would have us understand. Our ideas of truth can now finally evolve with our depth of understanding. It begins and ends with humility, and in humility we can finally begin.