One Truth Fits All
Pilate said to him: “What is truth?” (John 18:38)
When I need a “pep talk” for parish ministry, of an occasion, I watch a video from a youth conference I attended in 2008. Rev. Forrest Stroop (†2022) was the keynote speaker for the event. We were posed the question: “Why is truth important?” Stroop made wise to assume that, for instance: “If you’re driving on the highway, wouldn’t it be good to know that one of your wheels won’t fly off. And if that does happen, you’ll be upset. You’ll think: ‘I was lied to. The mechanic told me it would hold.’” Truth matters because it ends up affecting your life in big ways. How much more important is it to communicate and listen to the truth that ends up impacting our eternal life – or death, should we reject God’s clear revelation in Jesus Christ.
Given the objective nature of truth (which is to say, truth exists independent of our individual, or subjective, perceptions, and therefore also remains constant), truth unites. It provides common ground for two parties whose opinions or perspectives differ to arrive at an agreement. “We may not feel the same way about this issue,” one might say, “but we both have to deal with the cold, hard facts.” Differing opinions can be corrected, but dishonesty divides. This should be common sense – and it is.
However, as one philosopher remarked, “that which is most common is most despised.” Truth is the great leveler; a truck driver, postman, or street sweeper who is equipped with reason and common sense can discern reality as well as the Ivy league student, provided both are given access to the same information. That might be welcome news for the truck driver but bad news for the Ivy leaguer – what advantage, after all, does one have if facts and logic are the common stock and trade of every individual? No intrinsic power to define another’s reality; that belongs to God alone. Everyone is answerable to the facts, whether they wish to be or not.
The renowned lay theologian Gene Edward Veith, Jr. has written several books explaining and dealing with “postmodernism”: a worldview which a high number of influential people in our world today take for granted. The central tenet of postmodernism is that truth is not objective, but subjective – that “truth” resides in the individual, subject to his or her private judgments or feelings at the given moment. If they wish to be consistent, postmodernists will have to concede the point that they cannot tell you anything, because their “truth” is no more valid than your “truth.” As it happens, though, that doesn’t work (a truly inconvenient “truth”). Today’s public influencers state, in one breath, that truth is subjective. In the next, they vehemently insist that you also assent to their “truth.” It can change from one day to the next, one broadcast to another, but we are pressured to adopt the current view and the approved narrative. The facts do not matter – who, at the end of the day, can know anything for certain? Best believe the people with the power to reward right think and punish ideas they label as “dangerous,” whether by name calling or by other measures.
To be certain, not all truths are equally important. Knowing the half-life of uranium, for instance, or the average grade of highway asphalt in Saskatchewan is not a part of everyday concern. Believing in a “flat earth” may not impact your ability to operate a combine – though it will likely hinder your plans to chart a flight to Asia. Then there are the truths we ought to take for granted, common sense, such as the fact that standing water breeds bacteria; or that bats are common carriers of rabies and a bite from one can lead to fatal infection. There are urgent facts; and next to them are non-negotiable ideas. Such as the scientific fact that life begins at conception; or (to get to the meat of the matter) the theological premises that Holy Scripture is inerrant and infallible.
Toward the middle of the past century, when postmodernism had its birth and awakening, many influential theologians adopted the opinion that Holy Scripture is not inerrant; rather, they asserted (quite unreasonably, mind) that the books of the Bible were riddled with contradictions and false information. The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS), along with other Christian organizations, held on to what the historic Church has always taught and believed: namely, that Holy Scripture is without error and indeed incapable of error, that is, “infallible.”
A highly influential group of professors at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, who allegedly denied that Scripture is inerrant, were expelled from teaching and drew after them a devoted following of students. As several – though by no means not all – of these erring theologians and burgeoning pastors found a home in what would later become the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and its sister organization, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC). The ELCA and ELCIC maintain that the Holy Scriptures are not to be trusted wholesale as the Word of God, but rather, that they should be subject to moral and historical scrutiny where the clear statements challenge prior assumptions. Practically speaking, the reader gets to judge what is God’s Word and what is not. This is called the Higher Critical Method of interpreting Scripture.
What becomes the objective standard? What is truth? we are prompted to ask, as Pontius Pilate asked our Lord Jesus during His sentence hearing. To give the Roman governor some credit, Pilate knew the self-evident facts surrounding Jesus’ case: that He had made no open challenge to imperial authority and therefore did not earn the death penalty from a Roman judge. But when it came to the heart of the matter – that Jesus was in all truth a “king,” though not an earthly king wielding and army, one rather who had the power to save both souls as well as bodies for eternity – Pilate tosses up his hands and dismisses the possibility that he has anything important to learn from Jesus. “What is truth?” he asks. In startlingly similar fashion to today’s postmodernists, Pilate shrugs off the burden of proof; and, when honesty would have done otherwise, crucifies Jesus our Lord. Today, when all it takes is a simple slanderous remark or willful flick of the wrist to silence anyone who challenges my assumptions, my ambitions, “my truth” – then, in the eyes of those who wield such power and control, that is the only objective truth that matters. “I get to decide what’s true for me – and for everyone else!” our modern Pilates insist on answering the question.
Jesus’ words stand nonetheless: “Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” (John 18:37) His words and teachings, which are reliably recorded in Holy Scripture, do not encompass every subject we can study on earth – whether history, politics, applied science, etc. But where they do presume to speak on any of these subjects, they offer up the pure, objective truth. God, the Creator of heaven and earth, cannot contradict Himself! It is important, not only to affirm that truth exists out there somewhere, but to be properly informed about the source of truth. God called all things into being. If He were to speak directly to His creation (as it is reasonable to assume He would), then it would be outside His character to misinform or mislead into error.
As the Psalms declare, God has lovingly made and fashioned “me” – whoever that “me” happens to be, in other words, bestowed an intrinsic dignity on every human being. Now, supposing that were only “my truth” or “your truth,” then the one putting that in question would get the power to say: “No, you have no intrinsic dignity, so I get to decide whether you or anyone has it or not.” That idea sounds dangerous and frightening. No; that kind of thinking is what divides. Truth unites. God has spoken, though every human being be found a liar. He has not lied to you about your own worth, your own sins, and your salvation owing to His work alone in the crucified Christ.
Pastor Heide
