Valiant for the Truth!

After reading Phil Johnson's post on How Can I Be Sure? and the many other post around the blog world on the topic of the Emergent Church and the battle over the "Truth War" and recently I heard an interview on Way of The Master Radio with Doug Pagitt and Doug refused to let Todd Friel quote Psalms and I wondered why he would do that, so I decided to do a search for the word "Truth" in the bible and found that Psalms is so full of truth claims (imagine that) which is exactly what Mr. Pagitt tries to avoid. In my search of the word "Truth" in scripture I have compiled a summery of my thoughts in line with what the bible reveals concerning truth, I hope and pray it sheds some light on the false notion that as Christians we must embrace ambiguity and reject absolute truth.

The God of the Bible is the "God of Truth" (Deuteronomy 32:4, Psalm 31:5, Isaiah 65:16), God "lives, in truth" (Jeremiah 4:2) and the Bible is called the "scripture of truth" and the "Word of truth" (Daniel 10:21, John 17:17, 2 Corinthians 6:7, Ephesians 1:13, James 1:18). Jerusalem is "called a city of truth" (Zechariah 8:3) the ten commandments are called "the law of truth" (Malachi 2:6) and God "desires truth in our inward parts" (Psalm 51:6), and the only way we can truly serve God is "in Spirit and in Truth" (John 4:23). We are reminded to continually walk before Him "in truth" with all our soul (1 Kings 2:4) and to "serve him in truth with all your heart" (1 Samuel 12:24). The man who wants to walk righteously before God must "speaketh the truth in his heart" (Psalm 15:2) and he wants to be "guided and taught in truth" (Psalm 25:5), and will "not conceal" the truth from others (Psalm 40:10), but will gladly "rejoiceth in the truth" (1 Corinthians 13:6).

But today within Christianity there are those who deny that there is even an absolute truth to be known but without truth there is no mercy for "mercy and truth are met together" (Psalm 85:10), they say that this is a new generation where truth is within each of us but "His truth endureth to all generations" (Psalm 100:5) and "endureth for ever" (Psalm 117:2). If no one can surely know truth then there is no actual right or wrong which is the basics of all laws and without laws there is only anarchy but God's "laws and commandments are truth" (Psalm 119:142,151, Malachi 2:6). Those who deny absolute truth also deny the Lord Jesus and call Him a liar for Christ said "I am the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6) and was "full of grace and truth" (John 1:14). Jesus taught "the way of God in truth" (Matthew 22:16, Mark 12:14) we are told that "the truth is in Jesus" (Ephesians 4:21). These same false teachers also deny the Holy Spirit for the Spirit is called "the Spirit of truth" (John 14:17, 15:26, 16:13, 1 John 4:6) and "the fruit of the Spirit is in truth" (Ephesians 5:9). We are to be "sanctified through the truth" (John 17:19) and we are to "speak the truth in love" (Ephesians 4:15) and we are to have our "loins girt about with truth" (Ephesians 6:14) and how can we do this unless we study so that we can "rightly dividing the word of truth" (2 Timothy 2:15), and we know that it is God's will that we "come unto the knowledge of the truth" (1 Timothy 2:4) so that "the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32).

But those who maintain that we can't know truth are "false witness's and speak deceit" (Proverbs 12:17), they are "in err and devise evil" (Proverbs 14:22), they make mention of God "but not in truth, nor in righteousness" (Isaiah 48:1) they "obey not the voice of the Lord and truth is cut off from their mouth" (Jeremiah 7:28). "And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies: but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, saith the LORD" (Jeremiah 9:3). And "they will deceive his neighbour, and will not speak the truth" (Jeremiah 9:5) and their "father is the devil" (John 8:44) for they have "changed the truth of God into a lie" (Romans 1:25) and are "instructors of the foolish" (Romans 2:20) and they "hinder you that ye should not obey the truth" (Galatians 5:7) for they have "received not the love of the truth" (2 Thessalonians 2:10) and are "men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth" (1 Timothy 6:5). These same men have "turned away their ears from the truth" (2 Timothy 4:4, Titus 1:14) and are "ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth" (2 Timothy 3:7).

But these men have been led "captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ" (Colossians 2:8) and are "a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right!" and "full of all kinds of deceit and trickery" (Acts 13:10). So I pray that these men "will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will" (2 Timothy 2:26) otherwise they might be counted among those who "might be damned who believed not the truth" (2 Thessalonians 2:12) because the Lord will "judge the world with righteousness, and the people with his truth" (Psalm 96:13).

"There is one sure and infallible guide to truth, and therefore, one, and only one corrective for error, and that is the Word of God." —G. Campbell Morgan (1863-1945)