A CHRISTIAN VIEW OF TRUTH
Some Thoughts on Epistemology by
GARY RAY BRANSCOME
Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth
and
the life: no man cometh to the Father, but by me" (John 14:6).
Since God alone
determines what is true, the fact that Christ claimed to be the truth
is a testimony to His deity, for only God can make that claim. In fact,
if God did not have the power to determine what is true, He would be
limited by what is true. And, if God was limited He would not be God at
all, for the truth, or the one who did determine the truth, would be
the real authority, and thus the real God. That is why the heart of
Satan’s rebellion against God involves the exaltation of falsehood,
Satan is a liar because he wants to make himself into the one who
determines what is true (John 8:44, Isaiah 14:12-14).
Because God
determines what is true, the future events predicted in Scripture will
come to pass, not because God happened to know the future, but because
that is what God has decided shall happen. In saying this, I am not
saying that God wants all of the evil that will take place to happen,
or causes it. Instead, I am saying that the evil that comes to pass
will be allowed to happen in order to reveal the consequences of sin.
Nevertheless, God will be working in the midst of those events to
deliver those who repent, from sin and from the wrath that shall be
poured out on all who reject God’s mercy. In fact, the only reason that
He has not destroyed the world long before now, is because He is giving
us a chance to repent.
TRUTH
IS REALITY
Since God
determines what is true and man is limited by it, truth has an
objective existence outside of man. In short, truth is the reality that
God has established. Therefore, all of our learning and groping after
knowledge is, at best, nothing more than an attempt to discover what
God has decided. For that reason, true learning can only take place
when we are willing to correct our opinions by conforming them to the
revealed Word of God (2Corinthians 10:5, Isaiah 8:20). The difficulty
lies in the deceitfulness of the human heart (Jeremiah 17:9). Because
of sin, it is much easier to deceive ourselves, twist the facts, and
ignore any truths that are not to our liking than it is to be honest
and objective. In fact, that is why cults explain away any Bible
passages that do not fit their theology, and evolutionists explain away
any facts that do not agree with their ideology.
KNOWLEDGE
IS AWARENESS OF REALITY
According to the
Bible, reality exists on two levels: the spiritual level and the
material level. Moreover, in designing us to function on the material
level God gave us five senses that enable us to take in knowledge from
that realm. We can see the material universe, we can feel it, smell it,
taste it, and hear it. Furthermore, the knowledge that these senses
convey to us is objective in the sense that others can see, hear,
touch, taste, or smell the same things. Using those senses we can
observe, measure, and analyze the world around us. However, the Bible
makes it clear that there is a whole realm of existence that we are not
even aware of. In order to understand just how limited our senses are,
try to imagine what existence would be like if you did not have any the
five senses. In other words, what would life be like if you did not
have the ability to see, hear, smell, feel, or taste. In such a
situation you might imagine that other people exist, but without the
ability to see them, hear them, smell them, feel them, or even taste
them you could never be sure. Without the five senses your mind would
not have any way of receiving one bit of objective verifiable data.
Therefore, while it would be absurd for any man to assume that all of
reality is limited to what can be ascertained by those five senses,
just because our knowledge is limited to those five, speculation about
a sixth sense is absurd. In fact, we know that those who claim a sixth
sense are deceiving themselves (or being deceived by Satan) for the
knowledge they claim to have is not objective or verifiable. In fact it
is clearly evident that they are calling subjective impressions
knowledge, and that is dishonest. Apart from a miracle, spiritual
reality is totally outside of man’s realm of knowledge (2Kings 6:17).
That being the
case, it is absurd for any man to imagine that he can discover the
truth about God by philosophizing (Romans 1:20-22). While sound reason
tells us that God must exist (for every design, there is a designer),
apart from Scripture we have no way of knowing who God is or what He is
like. Therefore, if we are to know anything about God, God must reveal
it to us, we cannot discover it by speculation. In order to clarify
what I mean, compare speculating about God with speculation as to who
my neighbors might be. Just as it would be foolish for you to try to
learn something about my neighbors by philosophizing, it would be
equally foolish to think that you can learn anything about God by
philosophizing. There is a limit to man’s knowledge, and a wise man
will not deceive himself into thinking that he can know more (Romans
1:20-22).
Since God brought
the Bible into existence to testify of Christ, and it is only through
faith in Christ that we receive eternal life, only those who accept
what the Bible says and look to Christ for salvation are truly wise (1
John 5:13, Acts 4:12). In contrast, those who reject the testimony of
Scripture, and wind up in hell because they think that they are too
smart, or too highly educated to believe the Bible, are the greatest
fools on earth (Proverbs 28:26, 1Corinthians 1:27, Psalm 14:1). Through
the Bible, the Holy Spirit speaks to our heart in words that are
objective and verifiable, and when we acknowledge our sin those words
assure us of God’s mercy and forgiveness in Christ (Romans 10:14-17, 1
Corinthians 1:22,23, Matthew 4:4, Ezekiel 13:3).
THE
FALLIBILITY OF MAN'S REASON
While God has given
us the ability to reason, that ability not only has limitations, but is
also hindered by the deceitfulness of the human heart (Jeremiah 17:9).
Therefore, even though God’s gift of reason gives us the ability to
draw valid conclusions from specific information, it is easy to err.
When it comes to Bible interpretation, men often read unscriptural
assumptions into the text, jump to conclusions not warranted by the
words, or simply explain away passages that do not agree with their own
ideas. For that reason, it is important for us to bind ourselves to the
facts, and not let our imagination run wild. In order to have the
truth, our thinking must be in accord with the written Word of God
(2Corinthians 10:5, Romans 12:2, Isaiah 8:20).
In order to
illustrate our need for divine guidance, I might compare our ability to
reason with a straight line. In fact, we generally reason in a straight
line, from premise to conclusion. However, God’s wisdom is so far above
our wisdom, that comparing it to our reasoning would be like comparing
a straight line to a circle. They are as different as night and day!
Nevertheless, just as an octagon is closer to a circle than a square,
reasoning that proceeds carefully, one step at a time, is closer to the
truth than reasoning that ignores the details and proceeds in 90 degree
jumps. For that reason, we must constantly guard against the sinful
desire to assume knowledge while jumping to unwarranted conclusions, or
conclusions that contradict Scripture (Isaiah 8:20).
CONCLUSION
While Post
Modernism is the latest “intellectual” fad, it amounts to little more
than a glorification of ignorance. In fact, I sometimes wonder if those
who deny the existence of objective truth are really sane.
Nevertheless, it is fairly evident that they do not actually take their
own rhetoric seriously. Although, they are prone to jump to conclusions
without making any effort to eliminate error, their actions are not
consistent with their philosophy. For if they really believed that
truth was just a matter of opinion, they would never go to a doctor or
stop at a red light.