WHAT IS TRUTH?: ABSOLUTE TRUTH
(Message by Tanny Keng)
1. What Is Truth?
a) Pilate asked the question, “What is truth?” It's an easy question to ask, especially in the spirit in which Pilate asked it. But what is the answer?
John 18:37-38
37 Therefore Pilate said to Him, “So You are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” 38 Pilate said to Him, “What is truth?” And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews and *said to them, “I find no guilt in Him.
2. Absolute Truth
a) If you've got a coat on, and I haven't, I might say, “It's cold”, and you might say, “It's not.” Both statements are true, mine for me and yours for you, because truth is relative and subjective in this case.
b) But when I say, “There is a God”, you might say, “No there isn't”. These statements are not both true, because they deal with something objective and exterior to what we feel or think. The statement “There is a God” is either true or false absolutely.
c) Don't quibble about this by asking questions like, "How do you define God?" or "Where is God?" because you are trying to make God subjective, an artifact of each person’s own mind. You've changed the proposition from “There is a God” to “I am a god” — which I deny.
d) In Plato’s Protagoras, Protagoras (paraphrased) says to Socrates, “What is true for you is true for you, and what is true for me is true for me.” This pagan notion, that truth is always personal and relative to self, is widespread today.
e) Jesus believed in absolute truth and made it the fundamental of life. He prayed to his Father for his disciples: "Make them holy in the truth; your word is truth" (John 17:17).
f) He also said, "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." (John 8:32).
The End ...
1. What Is Truth?a) Pilate asked the question, “What is truth?” It's an easy question to ask, especially in the spirit in which Pilate asked it. But what is the answer?
John 18:37-38
37 Therefore Pilate said to Him, “So You are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” 38 Pilate said to Him, “What is truth?” And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews and *said to them, “I find no guilt in Him.
2. Absolute Truth
a) If you've got a coat on, and I haven't, I might say, “It's cold”, and you might say, “It's not.” Both statements are true, mine for me and yours for you, because truth is relative and subjective in this case.
b) But when I say, “There is a God”, you might say, “No there isn't”. These statements are not both true, because they deal with something objective and exterior to what we feel or think. The statement “There is a God” is either true or false absolutely.
c) Don't quibble about this by asking questions like, "How do you define God?" or "Where is God?" because you are trying to make God subjective, an artifact of each person’s own mind. You've changed the proposition from “There is a God” to “I am a god” — which I deny.
d) In Plato’s Protagoras, Protagoras (paraphrased) says to Socrates, “What is true for you is true for you, and what is true for me is true for me.” This pagan notion, that truth is always personal and relative to self, is widespread today.
e) Jesus believed in absolute truth and made it the fundamental of life. He prayed to his Father for his disciples: "Make them holy in the truth; your word is truth" (John 17:17).
f) He also said, "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." (John 8:32).
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