Que Es Veritas?

~Defining Truth in a Postmodern Culture~

Pilate stood before Jesus, and he wondered who was really on trial here. “Are you a king then?” he demanded. Jesus’ reply was calm and quiet, “You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” Pilate shook his head and turned away, then turned, and asked, “What is truth?”
What is truth? That must be one of the single most important questions, not just of our time, but of all time. What is it?
Webster’s 1828 Dictionary defines truth as: “Conformity to fact or reality; exact accordance with that which is, or has been, or shall be. The truth of history constitutes its whole value. We rely on the truth of the scriptural prophecies.” This is a straightforward and clear definition.
This definition, however, has been trifled with.
A new ‘truth’ has entered our postmodern world on the heels of the New Age movement. Simple, absolute, and transcendent truth simply does not meld well with a worldview that sets the heart as the foundation. Feelings cannot be the ultimate authority where absolute truth reigns, but instead of making God the authority, the definition of truth was changed. What was once based upon God and His Word is now based on feeling, and experience. Here is what we call ‘relative truth’.
However, the culture did more than just alter the meaning of a word when they redefined truth. In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (Emphasis mine.)
Jesus is the truth! In redefining truth as based upon us and our feelings, we essentially took God out of the picture, and placed ourselves where He should be. Theologian R.C. Sproul put it this way, “He knows the truth, He is the truth, He’s the fountainhead of truth. All truth comes from Him.” Os Guinness, another theologian said, “Truth is fundamentally about who God is.” In changing what culture’s view of truth is, relativists effectually changed what culture’s view of God is.

In a postmodern world, truth is not a set of absolutes, but an ever moving and adjusting idea, that changes, or is changed, according to situation and person. This is amply demonstrated by the commonly heard phrase; “What is true for you may not be true for me.” The idea of relative truth is, on the surface, a pleasant one. One may set one’s own standard, unhindered by someone else’s opinion or set of beliefs. After all; “Can’t we all just get along?” You can just believe what you want to believe, and I will believe what I want to believe, and as long as I do not infringe on you, we will all be happy.

Brad Bright, author of God is the Issue: Recapturing the Cultural Initiative, put it simply and clearly when he pointed out;

In a relativistic culture, “Thou shalt not…,” cannot compete with “Just do it!” Even the Bible is clear that sin is pleasurable for a time (Hebrews 11:25) Why would people deny themselves a single pleasure when, from their perspective, the God of the Bible really does not exist or is irrelevant to everyday life? (Bill Bright, Recapturing the Cultural Initiative, pg. 28)

But surely I exaggerate the situation. Things have not changed all that much, have they? I recently watched a DVD series put out by Focus on the Family, called “Truth Project”, by Del Tackett. In it, Tackett digs deep into the question, ‘What is truth?’ to show us how to evaluate our culture through a biblical worldview lense. In this series, random people were asked about the meaning of truth. The answers were stunning.

People spanning from a shoe-clerk in England, to an engineer in the US, had the same answer. Truth is honesty. Truth is fact. My truth is different from your truth. The only people with a different answer were those who were Christians, and said truth was based upon God. And while it all may sound nice, where it will logically end is anywhere but pleasant.

Bill Jack, of Worldview Academy, witnessed a chilling example of where relativism leads in a graduate level course classroom he had been invited to speak, and wrote about it in his article, “The Four Duties of a Good Christian Soldier”.

[I] began by asking, "How do you determine right from wrong? For the way you do so will determine how you do science. After all, Hitler had brilliant scientists who performed atrocities on human beings because of their philosophy of right and wrong."

The students yawned but did not respond. I do not like apathy in students, so I leaned on them. I pointed to one student and asked him directly, "Was Hitler wrong in what he did to the Jews?"

He shifted in his seat, stared blankly at me and muttered, "In my opinion he was wrong."

Puzzled, I explained, "I'm not asking your opinion. Who cares about your opinion? Who cares about my opinion? Opinions are like warts. We've all had them, and we all want to show them off, but no one else really cares to see them. What I'm asking is if Hitler was right or wrong in what he did to the Jews?" and I pointed to another student. I could not get a single student in either of two sections of that course to tell me Hitler was wrong.

They all responded, "In my opinion he was wrong."

Finally, in desperation I asked, "Are there any Jewish students here?" A girl raised her hand. "Was Hitler wrong in what he did to the Jews?" I again asked.

And again came the reply, "In my opinion he was."

And again I asked, "Your opinion may be triggered by a bit of undigested cheese from last night's meal. I don't care about your opinion. Can you point me to an absolute that tells me Hitler was wrong?"

She replied, "There are no absolutes."

To which I queried, "Are you absolutely certain?"

To which she replied, "Yes, there are no absolutes." (Bill Jack, “The Four Duties of a Good Christian Soldier”)

Scared yet? The consequences of relativism are drastic, and terrible. If we continue to smear and blur the lines between right and wrong, fact and opinion, truth and lie, it will not take very long for our culture to go places that most of us would rather not think about.

Del Tackett said, “I am convinced… that every sin that besets us… can be traced back fundamentally to the belief in a lie.”

If we continue to deny the reality of absolute truth, and base an entire culture’s worldview on a lie, who can tell what sins will beset us?

While all the professors and philosophers convince our country that truth is relative; a little boy of thirteen identified only as Kyle sits in his wheelchair, suffering from cerebral palsy. When asked by the “Truth Project” crew what truth is, he answers in a simple and straightforward way, “There has to be fixed truth, in my opinion, for the universe to function properly.”

Let us turn now to the One who keeps the universe functioning properly, directs the course of history, and is Himself truth. He is the only one who can show us truth.

It is time to ask God, “What is truth?”

(I wrote this for American Literature last school year. Isn't the painting cool?)