Defining Truth in a Post-Everything Culture

This is a dialogue that I had with different posters on THE OOZE message boards. It was regarding the nature of truth and how the postmodern view is in contrast, not agreement with biblical definition of truth.

I think we are getting to the crux of the issue. It is an issue of truth. I won’t get into an epistemological tyrade just yet though I look forward to that conversation.

Ok….Although the Bible doesn’t present a carefully nuanced philosophical discussion of the nature of truth, it does offer a unified prespective on the matter of truth and falsity that flatly opposes the postmodernist orientation. It speaks authoritatively not only on what things are true but on the nature of truth itself. The biblical view of the nature of truth (which frankly is all I care about) was common in the cultures for which it was originally written, and its ability to defend itself against postmodern claims, or any other for that matter, is readily seen if one simply inquires within the pages of Holy writ.

The Scriptures repeatedly use the Hebrew and Greek words for truth and their derivatives without embarassment. The meaning of the Hebrew term ‘emet is at the root of the great majority of the Hebrew words related to truth and involves the ideas of “support” and “stability.” From this root flows the twofold notion of truth as faithfulness and conformity to fact.

God is true (or faithful) to his word in his activites and attitudes: God is the God of truth. So, David prays, “Into your hands I commit my spirit; redeem me, O Lord, the God of truth” (Psalm 31:5). God declares through Isaiah, “I, the LORD, speak the truth; I declare what is right” (Isaiah 45:19). Likewise people respond to the God of truth in truth: “The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth” (Psalm 145:18).

The Hebrew ‘emet can also represent “that which is confromity to reality in contrast to anything which would be erroneous or deceitful.” Roger Nicole explains that the faithfulness and conformity to fact are:

“converging lines of meaning in the Old Testament. Neither is reducible to the other, yet they are not mutually conflicting. It is because truth is conformity to fact that confidence may be placed in it or in the one who asserts it, and it is because a person is faithful that he or she would be careful to make statements that are true.”

There is no indication that truth in the Hebrew Bible is another word for belief or mere social customs, since belief can be false and customs can be opposed to God’s will. “The LORD detests lying lips, but he delights in those who are truthful” (Proverbs 12:22).

The New Testament word aletheia and its derivations retain the Hebrew idea of “conformity to fact” expressed in ‘emet. The Gospel of John (which we are preaching through) uses this word for truth and related words very frequently in a variety of settings. John uses truth in a sense of veracity/genuineness/opposite of false, but also develops his own particular meaning, where truth refers to the reality of God the Father revealed in Jesus the Son. John’s understanding of truth presupposes a correspondence view of truth, but it also builds this foundation theologically by adding specific content concerning the manisfestation of truth in Jesus Christ (John 7:28; 8:16).

The Biblical view of truth collides with postmodern notions of the social construction of reality and the relativity of truth. Biblical truth involves factuality, faithfulness, and completeness. The Bible does not present truth as a cultural creation of the ancient Jews or the early Christians. They received truth from the God who speaks truth to his creatures, and they were expected by this God to conform themselves to this truth.

A few points for clarity:

1-Truth is revealed by God. It is not constructed or invented by individuals or communities. Various beliefs may be the result of human invention and group construction, but truth comes from the disclosure of a personal and moral God who makes himself known. As the beloved Schaeffer put it “God is there and is not silent.” Paul in writing to the Romans, tells us that GOd has made his existence known through both creation and human consience, so that all people are without excuse before their Creator and Lawgiver (Romans 2:14-15). Those who suppressed this revealed truth created idols and wickedness (1:18) instead of worshipping the only TRUE God. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie (1:25). Lies become idols, and every idol obscures the truth. Why? Because idols are unrealities in deceptive dress, untruths and shabby social constructions of the supposed sacred.

2-Objective truth exists and is knowable. The claim that God has revealed himself to us presupposes objective truth as the cognitive content of revelation. God is the source of objective truth about himself and his creation. Objective truth is truth that is not dependent on any creature’s subjective feelings, desires or beliefs (as I am happy to see fern agrees with ) Let God be true and every man a liar! (Romans 3:3-4). God’s truth is not dependent upon any individual’s or group’s experiences or interpretations (much to the dismay of the wanna be derridian christians), however strongly felt or culturally entrenched they may be.

3-Christian truth is absolute in nature. This is such a bold claim within the post-modern context, I am surprised anyone would disagree that this is not common. Fern seemed to think this was not the view of many pomo’s, yet all one must do is scour the boards and tape some conversations and you will quickly determine that absolute truth is not accepted as a legitimate premise upon which to operate ones life. All that absolute truth means is that God’s truth is invariant. It is true without exception or exemption. Neither is God’s truth relative, shifting or revisable! The weather may change, but God will not. An example from from physics might help drive this point home. According to Einstein’s theory of relativity, the speed of light is an absolute limit it physics; nothing can travel faster. For this reason, Einstein almost called his model the “theory of invariance.” He named it “the theory of relativity” not because everything is relative but because things are relative to what is invariant or absolute, namely, the speed of light.

When Jesus proclaimed “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). There is no exception or exemption from this claim: there is only one way to the Father-Jesus himself. The truth of the Gospel is not subject to any human veto or democratic procedures. Jesus was not elected Lord by humans but was chosen by God. Nor can he be dethroned by any human effort or opinion. This issue, as Drew and I have seen, is a massive stumbling block for postmoderns (given their absolute abhorrence of the absolute), but it can’t be softened or avoided if believers are to remain faithful to the truth of God.

4-Truth is Universal. It is everywhere, to engage everything, and to exclude nothing. The Gospel or God’s law is not hindered by cultural conditions or geographic locations.

5-The truth of God is eternal. In postmodern times, our sensory environments are saturated with bright images, intrusive words and blaring sounds-all competing for our attention. Yet in God there lies “the Rock of ages.” Beyond the fragility of shifiting tastes in coffee or candles. “The grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of God stands forever.” (Isaiah 40:8). “Your word, O LORD, is eternal, it stands firm in the heavens” (Psalm 119:89). God declares to his rebelling people, which needs to be shouted today “I the LORD do not change” (Malachi 3:6) . God’s truth is grounded in His eternal being. It has no expiration date and needs no image makeovers. And yes, God’s eternal truth involves the metanarrative of divine Providence.

Lastly…

6-Truth is exclusive, specific and antithetical. For every theological yes, there are a million no’s. What is true excludes all that opposes it. This is why God declares, “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3). If there is but one God, all other claimants are imposters. Truth is exact and precise, and the slightest departure from truth is the substitution of falsity for truth.

I believe as I mentioned earlier that this discussion will swing around to epistemology. It almost always does, and it is important for us to consider (biblically mind you) how we come to know what we know. I have a healthy disdain for modernism and all its arrogance in the intellect of man. But we don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. To swing so far to the other direction to then worship our subjective opinion, perception, or experience over that which God has called true or false, is nothing more than making the same unbiblical error of focusing on self as the ultimate reference point to whatever truth we assume (whether that be empirical, or emotional). The reference point is always God. We receive revealed truth from Him. We don’t create it or maintain it. It is without our help, and will be after our existence. We can know these truths if God reveals them to us, otherwise, it is as futile as you have articulated.

Two excellent books on the Biblical view of truth would be “He is there and He is not silent” by Dr. Francis Schaeffer, and “Truth Decay” by Douglas Groothius. Much of my Biblical definition of truth was borrowed from Groothius.

David

The entire discussion can be read by clicking here