True For You, But Not For Me

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Sunday April 22, 2007 

Sermon: “True For You, But Not For Me”

Richard Rioux

 

 

“You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:32)

“Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’” (John 14:6)

In the critically acclaimed 1992 movie A Few Good Men, there is a dramatic courtroom scene in which Tom Cruise, who plays a brash Navy lawyer assigned to defend two Marines accused of killing a fellow soldier but who contend that they were acting under orders, is questioning Jack Nicholson, who plays the Marine colonel in charge. Tom’s character accuses Jack’s character of ordering a disciplinary procedure known as a “Code Red”:

Tom: “Colonel, did you order the Code Red?”

Judge: “You don’t have to answer that question.”

Jack: “I’ll answer the question. You want answers?”

Tom: “I think I’m entitled to them!”

Jack: “You want answers?!!”

Tom: “I WANT THE TRUTH!!!”

Jack: “YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH!!!”

Jack Nicholson might as well have been yelling at all of North America because it seems that a lot of people today in our post-modern society have a really hard time “handling the truth”.

         

On the one hand, we demand truth in almost every area of our lives. We demand the truth from our spouse; we demand the truth from our children; we demand the truth from our doctor, our pharmacist, and our financial adviser; we demand the truth from our politicians; we demand the truth from our teachers; we demand the truth from our pastor. We expect the truth when we read a reference book or history book. And we also assume the truth when we’re watching a news program or reading a newspaper.

On the other hand, despite our unwavering demand for truth in all those areas of our lives, there are a lot of people today who aren’t really interested in truth when it comes to morality and religion. “Truth is in the eye of the beholder.” they’ll say, or, “That’s just your opinion.”, or again, “Whatever works for you.” The popular saying is: “That might be true for you, but it’s not true for me.”

This is known as relativism. In today’s society, we are told that truth is relative – that there no such thing as absolute truth. Even though most people intuitively know that absolute truth exist and conduct their lives with that understanding, to the intellectual elite dominating our universities and media, this idea that truth is relative is considered enlightened and progressive. We are told that a fact can be true for one person yet at the same time not true for another. The very idea of absolute truth is considered naïve and outdated. In this modern age of tolerance and pluralism truth all too often becomes a casualty.

Relativism claims that what we believe to be knowledge – what we believe is a firm grasp on truth and reality – is only an opinion. Relativists brazenly claim that objective, universal truth simply doesn’t exist. Only opinions exist.

In his book The Closing of the American Mind, the late professor Allan Bloom said, “There is one thing a professor can be absolutely sure of: almost every student entering the university believes, or says he believes, that truth is relative.”

In 1991, a survey taken by the Barna Research Group in the US found that 66 % of American adults didn’t believe that absolute truth exists. Specifically, they agreed that there is “no such thing as absolute truth; two people could define truth in totally conflicting ways, but both could still be correct.” When polled again in 1994, a staggering 72% of American adults – almost 3 out of 4 – affirmed some kind of relativism. George Gallup once said, “It’s not that Americans no longer believe anything. It’s that they believe everything.”

But why do so many people reject the idea of absolute, objective, truth, especially when it comes to God, the Scriptures, or morality? Could it be that they simply don’t want to be held accountable to any moral standards, or to have to answer to someone greater than themselves? Perhaps Augustine was right when he said that we love the truth when it enlightens us, but we hate it when it convicts us. The Emperor Napoleon once remarked, “There are some men who are capable of believing everything but the Bible.” There are many who have a hard time believing the Bible, yet their capacities for believing anything and everything that opposes the Bible are enormous. Maybe they can’t handle the truth.

Although relativism has intermittently appeared and reappeared throughout our history, it’s dominance of a culture is new. As Christians, we are well aware of how this relativistic view of truth has soured society’s attitude toward Christianity and its truth claims. Today, Christianity is increasingly pushed aside by the universities, the media, and politics. Rather than having a major voice in public life, Christianity has been relegated to the private and the personal. Rather than being a matter of truth, it’s all just opinion.

What is truth? Webster’s Dictionary defines truth as:

1)      the quality of being in accordance with experience, facts, or reality

2)      conformity with fact; correctness; accuracy

3)      an established or verified fact, principle, etc

Contrary to what is being taught in schools and promoted in today’s secular society, truth is not relative but absolute. If something is true, it’s true for all people, at all times, in all places. All truth claims are absolute, narrow, and exclusive. And all truth claims exclude their opposites – even religious truths.

Truth deals in reality and facts, not opinions. As Bernard Baruch once said, “Every man has a right to his opinion, but no man has a right to be wrong in his facts.” Facts do not cease to exist just because they are rejected or ignored. Truth is still truth even if you don’t believe it. Mark Twain once stated, “Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please.”

Here are a few “truths” (i.e. facts) about truth:

Ø Truth is discovered not invented. It exists independent of anyone’s knowledge of it. (Gravity existed prior to Newton’s discovery.)

Ø Truth is transcultural; if something is true, it is true for all people, in all places, at all times (2+2=4 is true for everyone, everywhere, at every time).

Ø Truth is unchanging; only our beliefs about truth change. (When we started believing the earth was round instead of flat, the truth about the earth didn’t change, only our belief about the earth changed.)

Ø Truth is not affected by the attitude of the one professing it. (An arrogant person does not make the truth he professes false. A humble person does not make the error he professes true.)

Ø Truth is not relative but absolute. All truths are absolute truths. Even truths that appear to be relative are really absolute. (If Richard says, “It feels really warm in here today”, his statement may appear to be a “relative truth”, but in fact it is absolutely true for everyone, everywhere that Richard feels warm.)

In a survey of American health, it was learned that 40 percent of overweight men thought they looked fine and “felt they were at about the right weight.” In contrast, 29 percent of women who were not overweight “felt they needed to lose pounds to achieve a healthy body weight.” Both groups were operating under the perception of truth rather than truth itself. Such thinking leads to erroneous behaviour. There is a vast difference between truth, and the perception of truth.

Abraham Lincoln once used a very clever ploy to teach some people about truth. They had come to him with a decision that was based on suppositions rather than truth. After hearing their logic, Lincoln asked, “How many legs would a sheep have if you called its tail a leg?” “Five!” they answered. The President responded, “No, it would only have four legs. Calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it one.”

Beliefs are not to be equated with truth or reality; rather, they are to conform to truth or reality. Simply believing something to be true – regardless of how strongly or sincerely you believe it – does not make it true. A person can be totally sincere about what he or she believes, yet be sincerely deceived. (Someone can sincerely believe the world is flat, but that only makes that person sincerely mistaken.) A belief cannot change a fact, no matter how sincerely it is held. Reality is what it is whether you agree on it or not.

There is an ancient Hindu parable that is often used by relativist to illustrate their relativistic viewpoint: the parable of the six blind men and the elephant. The men –blind from birth – are asked to touch the elephant before them and try to guess what it is. Each touches a different part of the elephant and each reach a different conclusion about the object in front of them. One hugs a leg and exclaims, “It’s a tree!” Another grabs the tail and shouts, “It’s a rope!” Still another touches the trunk and says, “No, it’s a hose.” The one feeling the tusk believes it’s a spear. And the one holding the ear is convinced it’s a fan.

These blind men are said to represent different religions or different religious viewpoints. Each one of them perceives the object in front of them (the elephant) differently. However, as previously mentioned, a person’s perception of the truth does not determine what the truth is. Remember: “A person’s belief should not be equated with truth or reality; rather, it should conform to truth or reality.” Regardless of what the blind men believe they are touching the fact remains – the elephant is still an elephant. Additionally, when you examine the contradictory views of various religions groups more closely, you discover that the “leg”, “ear” and “tusk” really belong to totally different “animals”, and the “tail” is just a man-made “rope”. Some even argue that there is no “elephant”.

This brings us to religious pluralism. Religious pluralism is directly related to relativism. While relativism is the belief that all opinions (or beliefs) are equally valid, religious pluralism is the belief that all religions lead to God, Heaven, or salvation. Of course this is in direct opposition to Christianity’s exclusive claim that salvation is found in Jesus Christ and Christ alone.

“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)

“For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men.” (1 Timothy 2:5-6)

“Jesus answered,I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’” (John 14:6)

Now that’s not say that there isn’t some degree of truth contained in other religions, but to claim that all religions are equally valid or true when so many of their core doctrines and beliefs contradict each other is totally illogical. It violates one of the fundamental laws of logic – “the law of non-contradiction”. Contrary beliefs are possible, but contrary truths are not possible. When Jesus says, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me”, that is an exclusive claim that leaves no room for religious pluralism. To say that all religions lead to God, or to Heaven, is to make a liar out of Christ.

For instance, Muslims believe Jesus was only a righteous man – a prophet of God. They completely reject the Christian belief (i.e. biblical doctrine) that Jesus is the Son of God saying, “God has no son”. They also deny His bodily resurrection.

Jehovah’s Witnesses also believe that Jesus was only a man – albeit a perfect sinless one – and deny His bodily resurrection.

Mormons believe that God is not eternal (He was not always God), but that he was once a man like you or I who grew to become a god through obedience and good works, and that we too, through our obedience (to the Mormon Church) and our good works, can also become gods and goddesses. They also teach that God is only one amongst many gods – that He has a “father god”, a “grand-father god”, a “great-grand-father god”, and so on, as well as many goddess wives.

Atheists (Humanists for instance) believe that God does not exist. They believe that the universe and everything we see around us is all a product of chance, random “mutations” and what they refer to as “accidents”.

Most Eastern religions (i.e. Hinduism, Zen Buddhism, etc.) as well as the New Age Movement teach that “everything is God” and “God is everything”. And since everything is God, “I Am God” and “You Are God”. They also believe that the universe is eternal and not created.

All these beliefs are in direct opposition to what Christians believe. Christianity teaches that God does exist and that He, through Jesus Christ, created the universe and all life in it (You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.” Revelation 4:11; “Through him [Jesus] all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.” John 1:3); that there is only one God (“Is there any God besides me? No I know not one.” Isaiah 44:8; “I am the LORD, and there is no other; apart from me there is no God.” Isaiah 45:5); that He is eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God” (1Timothy 1:17) and unchanging (“the same yesterday and today and forever”, Hebrews 13:8); and that He exists as a “triune” God – “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit” (Mathew 28:19).

Christianity also teaches that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ (or Messiah); that He is the Son of God and God the Son (second person of the Trinity); that He is the only Mediator between God and man; and that He is the one and only Saviour of the world (He died on a cross to pay for our sins).

Furthermore, the Christian Faith is the only Faith that teaches that salvation is by grace [alone]through faith [alone]not by works [human effort or good deeds], so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). All other religions – or at least those who believe in a “God” or “gods” and in an afterlife of some kind – see salvation as achieved (or earned) through human effort – whether through asceticism, mysticism, illumination, good deeds/works, or by participation in and obedience to a particular religious system.

Again, as previously stated, Christian’s claims are exclusive and narrow, and they all exclude their opposites. And it is because of these claims that Believers are so often viewed as narrow-minded and intolerant. In today’s modern and enlightened society, tolerance is considered one of the highest virtues. To make an exclusive claim is deemed intolerant and arrogant by the pluralist. In actual fact, true tolerance means “putting up with error” – not “being accepting of all views”.

Even though relativists insist that there is no such thing as absolute objective truth, they claim that their point of view – their belief that there is no such thing as absolute truth – is absolutely true. Their view is totally self-contradictory. You can’t in the same breath say, “Nothing is universally true” and “My view is universally true.” By applying his view to everyone but himself, the relativist actually falsifies his own belief system. To be consistent, the relativist must say, “No position is objectively true – including my own relativistic position.”

Furthermore, for a relativist to say the belief that truth is absolute is wrong, they have to admit that error exists. The idea that error exists at all presupposes the existence of truth (just as disorder presupposes order and blindness presupposes sight). Philosopher Josiah Royce argued, “The recognition of error assumes that an idea does not conform to objective truth.” If you correct me, you assume error exists. And if you assume error exists, you assume objective truth exists.

In conclusion, I would like to remind you of these words spoken through the apostle Peter: “But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.” (1 Peter 3:15-16)

As followers of Christ, it is our God appointed duty and responsibility to share and witness to the truth – standing up for what we believe in and know to be true – even if doing so makes us unpopular, or leads to charges of intolerance, or even to persecution. As the Word of God says, we must “always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks” “speaking the truth in love(Ephesians 4:15).

Being prepared means that we not only have to know what we believe but also why we believe it. This means that not only do we need to have a good “working” knowledge of God’s Word, but we also need to be able to give an explanation of why we believe it to be true.

“Men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them.” (Acts 20:30) “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth.” (John 16:13) “Show me your ways, O LORD, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.” (Psalms 25:4-5)

Now let me leave you with these words of wisdom, “The desire for truth must take precedence over all other desires.” (Albert Einstein) The fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth.” (Ephesians 5:9) God our Savior…wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2:3-4) “Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place.” (Ephesians 6:14)

___________

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