In the New Testament, during the trial of Jesus, Pontius Pilate looked at Jesus and asked, “What is truth?” (John 18:38)
Earlier in the Gospel of John, Jesus is quoted as saying, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
Is there truth? Can you know truth?
There are two viewpoints:
The Pontius Pilate view of skepticism. Even if you see truth – as Pilate did – you question and challenge the truth into oblivion; or when seeing Jesus, literal condemnation.
The second is Jesus who is “I’m not a philosophy or wise sayings. I’m not here to debate. I’m the truth. All things were created through me.” (OGV compilation of Jesus statements.)
The human search for truth will always run amok into skepticism and despair. We don’t have the skill, the ability, or the intellect to understand God. Jesus said, “I and the Father are one.”
A very smart person said, “Everything that can be said about philosophy was said by either Aristotle or Plat0; every philosopher since has fallen somewhere in between.” You could say Pontius Pilate was the result of Greek philosophy, and he summed up what happens when any man tries to find truth, “What is truth?”
The search ends in despair.
In the Bible, truth is revealed. Truth is known by knowing God. The Psalmist wrote, “Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation.” (Psalm 25:5)
Truth requires faith – faith that it exists, faith that we can understand it. And the Bible says we must have faith in Jesus and the truth will set us free.
The scholastic approach, whether truth is called philosophy or masquerading as science, requires faith too.
We live in an Age of Disagreement because culture follows Pontius Pilate and sneers at anyone who says, “This is truth!” Truth is so relative today that noted sociologist Paul Vitz says, “We no longer live in a country of one nation under God but a nation with 350 million gods.”
Chaos.
The Bible teaches that when God is forsaken, truth is forsaken. Lies are believed. Evil becomes good and good evil. Agnosticism isn’t “truth neutral”. You become Pontius Pilate looking at Jesus, condemning him to death, afterwards washing your hands, and proclaiming innocence.
God, the Bible, and faith embrace honest search. God isn’t offended with questions or even doubt. Faith isn’t walking by sight. If you honestly seek, Jesus will come to you – yes, He will speak to you. It might be a vision, a book, a friend, the Bible, or this blog.
Like Doubting Th0mas, who after seeing the marks of the cross on the hands of Jesus said, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28)
Jesus is alive and when you seek Him by faith you will say the same.