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When Truths Collide-Part 4

by William Ryzek  
8/10/2009 / Christian Living

When Truths Collide-Part 4

When truths collide, we must remember this principle: we don't create truth, we only discover it. Truth was established before the making of the worlds; it cannot be diminished nor added to. All truth is God's truth and is found in two forms. The first is 'natural' truth discovered through the senses and the scientific method. It is natural truth because it is found in nature and the universe. The second is 'revealed' truth given to us by divine revelation and cannot be discerned by reason or the senses alone. We can discover through our natural senses and rational minds that God exists by the creation He has made but His purposes and plans for that creation cannot be disclosed by natural means alone. We discover that God is a Lawgiver and Judge by the conscience He has given us but the foundation and implementation of salvation is beyond finding out except it is revealed to us. Truths collide when claims are made about the natural world (from stars to Starbucks) and the supernatural world (from heaven to hell) that suggest ideas like "God doesn't exist" or that "the material universe is inherently evil", both of which are patently false.

You will recall the Enlightenment and Romanticism from the last article; these movements arose during a time when religious authority and guardianship of truth were called into question. Up to this time both natural and revealed truths were under the authority of the Roman Catholic Church and what didn't fit the current religious dogma was rejected. When even more scientific errors of the church were disclosed the great chasm we witness today between sacred and secular was begun. One quite famous instance of this was the debate between Galileo and the Catholic church over whether the earth or the sun was the center of the solar system. Of course, Galileo was right and the gradual opinion that religious truth is mere superstition and irrational gained popularity first among the intelligentsia and eventually to the average person. Moreover, this is the apologetic challenge we face today in making our case for the truth of Christianity against what is essentially secular humanism and scientism. In every case, revelation must take precedence over natural science and humanism with everything from the Big Bang theory to Darwin to Freud scrutinized by God's revelation to His creatures.

The most important means we have for discerning the truth when truths collide is the Bible. It represents, of course, the revelatory aspect of truth. Some would probably make this the first, second, third and so on and left out the others we've discussed. However, reason, intuition and experience are necessary to 'get at' what the scripture is teaching us because the truth of the scripture, must be interpreted, applied to our lives and presented to those who have yet to hear the truth of God's kingdom.

I have referred to in other places the significance of the term logos and its use in John 1:1. Just as the Word became incarnate in human flesh, so the Word is present in the words of scripture. The Bible is the Word of God because God's Spirit empowered the minds of the writers who put God's words to parchment. He also makes the ink and words imprinted on the paper of our Bibles revelatory to us who read them. We call this "inspiration" which means "God breathed" (2 Tim 3:16) and Paul refers to the scripture as "the word of truth" (2 Tim 2:15). It is true because its source is God and the, therefore, the standard by which all other truth is measured.

One important aspect of this passage is its emphasis on matters of character and the scripture's "profitability" in the making of "a man of God". The so-called 'progress' of humanity has had little to do with character, morality or holiness (except where the influences of Christianity have been felt) and most to do with ingenuity and gadgets. The truth of this passage and all of scripture suggests that the moral state of human beings is far more important than their cleverness at manipulating the natural world with technology. This is why the Bible has little to say in purely scientific terms about the operations of nature except telling us where it all came from.

No matter the controversies or the confusion when truths collide concerning the natural and supernatural realms, we have the promise of God that His Spirit will guide us into all truth (John 16:13). We must also understand that the Bible is about God's redemptive plan for fallen humanity, not physics, paleontology, geology etc.
The temptation when we all face the barrage of scientific discovery is to take it all too seriously. The truth is that science operates as much by faith as Christianity; it is the object of faith that is different. What is required of us is a humble, teachable mind and heart receptive to the counsels of the Lord and, of course, be ardent students of the Bible. Therefore, whatever the truth is concerning the natural world, the true state of humanities moral character and right standing before the World Maker takes precedence and so we preach the message of God's salvation to a culture that is worshipping itself and its clever inventions.

However, it must be pointed out that all of this applies as well to other religions that claim their sacred texts contain the same kind of truth as the Bible. This is especially challenging to Christians surrounded by the modern philosophy that no absolute truth exists. This essentially places all religious truth-claims on equal footing and saying Christianity is the only truth and Jesus is the only Way makes us out to be intolerant, closed minded and dogmatic. Guilty as charged. But no more so than, say, Islam. We will see the longer and harder we hold the line against the opinion that all truth from all sources has the same status, the more unpopular we will become. The longer and harder we maintain that the Bible is God's truth for all people, everywhere and for all time, the more resistance we will feel from society, and other religions, who seek to assimilate us into the homogenous, and therefore impotent and manageable, religious milieu of postmodernism. And, interestingly enough, we all know this to be the case because the Bible tells us of these things as we move further along into the last days.

However, as with science, maintaining that all truth is God's truth allows us to study and appreciate what other religions say without falling into the trap of thinking them a substitute for Christianity. Gautama Buddha's teaching, for example, that inordinate desire for material existence is the problem with humanity, although not correct, is certainly in line with Jesus' teaching that we "cannot serve God and mammon" and gaining the whole world is of no value if the soul is lost. We know that sin is the problem with humanity and it is sin that warps a human beings desire away from the Creator to the creation and this is the truth of the matter over and against Buddhism. Not even among Christians is uniform belief about everything but we can still appreciate the opposing views of, say, Armenius and Calvin over divine election.

And this last point brings us to a different issue: what happens when truths collide among Christians using the Bible as their source of authority? How are we to decide then the truth of the matter? This will be taken up in the next article.

William Ryzek, PhD has been both a pastor and academic for several years. He has published articles in various magazines and newspapers. He can be reached at [email protected]

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