Verse studied: PHILIPIANS 4:1-9
Subject: TRUTH
1. INTRO:
truth
The state of being in case: FACT (2): the body of real things, events and facts: ACTUALITY (3) A transcendent fundamental or spiritual reality b: a judgment, proposition or idea that is true or accepted as true c: The body of true statements and propositions.
Is it important that we believe that the bible is a ‘Body of real things, events and facts?’
“No-why does it matter? The bible is about faith right? Being a Christians makes me feel better than anything else so why worry about the truth?”
i. Faith- “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
ii. Hebrews 11:1
1. The object of our faith/ hope is Jesus Christ and he is our assurance. We hope for Him and our salvation even though we cannot see him.
2. At one time thought this was advocating blind faith. But faith defined is resting in the assurance that what Jesus said is true.
2. IS THERE ABSOLUTE TRUTH?
There are many philosophical views of Truth. (5 theories, broken down very simplistically.)
Two foundations when dealing with truth
i. Law of the excluded middle- Every proposition is either true or false.
ii. Law of non-contradiction- No proposition is both true and false.
Correspondence theory“X is true if X corresponds to a fact.” Saying, there is a brown desk in another room is true IF there is in fact a brown desk there. If there isn’t, its false.
i. IMPORTANT because the bible makes claims that are either true or false.
Coherence theory
“A proposition is true if and only if it coheres with x.” Saying the desk is brown is true if it is commonly held as true and is consistent with our idea that it is brown.
i. Problem with this is that it creates chances to have contradictions. i.e. What is true for you is fine but it is not true for me. This violates the law of non-contradiction and cannot be held as true.
Postmodernism
We human beings are, then, ultimately arbiters of what is true. Consensus is truth. The ‘subjective’ and the ‘objective’ are rolled into one inseparable compound.
i. There is no truth, truth is what you make it
Relativism “The truth of a statement depends on the views of persons or cultures, not on whether a statement corresponds to objective reality. For a statement to be true simple means that a person or culture believes it to be true.”
i. Problem once again is the law of non-contradiction and law of excluded middle. Violates BOTH laws.
Pragmatism
The view of holds that a belief is true only if it works for an individual. Therefore, Christianity may be ‘true for me’ if it helps me, but false for another if it doesn’t help them. Usefulness and truth not always linked.
i. Problem is that although something may be false it may still help, i.e. for example, it can be useful for some persons to believe that they live in a world surrounded by people who love or care for them… even if they don’t.
3. IS GOD CONCERNED WITH BEING TRUE OR FALSE?
What does Jesus say about himself?
VERSES: John 4:24, John 8:31-32, John 14:6, John 16:13, John 17:17-19, John 18:37. Galatians 5:7, 1 John 1:6-8
The issue with choosing not to look at Jesus in terms of what he said as either true or false is that Jesus made the ‘proposition’ that what he said was true and that he was ultimately truth.
Jesus has specifically, pointedly told us that he is truth and the truth will set us free. If we choose not to look at Jesus from this perspective, do we live as free?
i. If we choose to close our minds off to Jesus and be all about ‘feelings’ then we loose. Macarthur states:
1.
“In sharp contrast to the contemporary definition of faith, biblical faith is not an irrational ‘leap in the dark.’ It is not a mystical encounter with the ‘wholly other’ or the ‘ground of being.’ Nor is it optimism, psychological self hypnosis, or wishful thinking. True faith is a reasoned response to revealed truth in the Bible, and salvation results from an intelligent response, prompted by the Holy Spirit, to that truth.”
ii. Dr. Lloyd Jones states
1.
“I think, and believe when Jesus says ‘TRUTH’ He meant for us to examine and decide if what we believe about what Jesus claimed was true or false. Not right or wrong or good or bad, true or false."
CLOSING QUOTE:
“If one set of theological beliefs is absolutely, objectively, universally true, then its corresponding set of moral truths would also be absolute. But there is no way in which we can currently know which set, if any, is true. Various faith groups teach many different set of theological beliefs; they different from religion to religion. They even disagree within the religion. Until we can all reach a consensus on a common set of theological beliefs, we will never achieve agreement on moral questions. There has never been a worldwide unanimity about religion beliefs. There never has been a consensus on major moral questions. We seem destined to always have active ethical disagreements in the world. Even if absolute truth exists in the religious sphere, we may never be able to determine what it is.”
The problem with this whole thought starts after the first sentence. Jesus claims to be absolutely true so one cannot say well that was fine for him. By saying so they have denied Jesus and said what he said is false. If you believe that what Jesus said about himself is absolutely true then let’s live like it and be students of truth.ps: We are trying to figure out how to keep our Microsoft Word format from being messed up by the blog. Give a day or two and these words wont be so confusing.
Hey guys, 
