Wednesday, March 19, 2014

TRUTH: How Can We Know? (Article 5)

It is evident that the first points, self-consciousness, God-consciousness, and righteousness-consciousness are so often not though of by people as they consider what the truth is.  This is natural as they are intuitive.  The last point we discussed, internal consistency, is all too often ignored as people settle for a religion or world view that makes them feel good or comforts their guilt ridden conscience to some degree and confirms them in their own pride and lusts (sin).  We must understand that man is notorious for comforting himself with lies!

God, through His prophet Isaiah, confronted ancient Israel with her purposeful self-deception.
"...ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves." (Isaiah 28:15)  The fact is that it is impossible to maintain lies before the God of truth.

As God has stated,
"When a wicked man dieth, his expectation shall perish: and the hope of unjust men perisheth." (Proverbs 11:7)

You can carry lies all through your life; but, when you arrive before the Holy Judge of all, a person's refuge (hiding place) of lies will completely fall apart.

The fifth step in knowing the truth is taught to us by the Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospel of Mark, chapter 2.

Here is what that says...
"1  And again he entered into Capernaum after some days; and it was noised that he was in the house.
2  And straightway many were gathered together, insomuch that there was no room to receive them, no, not so much as about the door: and he preached the word unto them.
3  And they come unto him, bringing one sick of the palsy, which was borne of four.
4  And when they could not come nigh unto him for the press, they uncovered the roof where he was: and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay.
5  When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.
6  But there were certain of the scribes sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts,
7  Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? who can forgive sins but God only?
8  And immediately when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, he said unto them, Why reason ye these things in your hearts?
9  Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk?
10  But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (he saith to the sick of the palsy,)
11  I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house.
12  And immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went forth before them all; insomuch that they were all amazed, and glorified God, saying, We never saw it on this fashion."

Note the following...
(a)    The man with the palsy (paralysis) came to be physically healed.
(b)    Jesus addressed this man's sins, by forgiving them.
(c)    The scribes (Jewish religious teachers) were shocked as they knew only God can forgive sin, which is exactly true.

Now we come to the central teaching of this whole account.
Jesus asks, "Whether is it easier to say... Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk?"  Good questions.  Note that Jesus did not say, 'Whether is easier to do?,' but, "whether is it easier to say?"  To say something like "thy sin be forgiven thee" or "take up thy bed and walk" is to make a claim that is either verifiable or not verifiable.  The fact is that all statements that can be spoken by anyone will fit into one of these categories.  Both types of statements are normal to life and relationships and communication.  In the two statements Jesus makes here, he makes both a verifiable and a non-verifiable statement.  "Take up thy bed and walk" is verifiable; the man will either be healed and walk and Jesus shown to be true, or the man will remain unchanged and Jesus will be shown to be false.  "Thy sins be forgiven thee" is not verifiable; But, that does not automatically mean it is false, just that, you cannot see the results or give historical or scientific corroboration for it.  Whether or not you believe it is entirely based on the character of the person that makes the claim.  Does the person deserve to be believed?

What now?
Jesus continues (verse 10-12), " But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (he saith to the sick of the palsy,)  I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house.  And immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went forth before them all"    [The Bible reason for all the miracles done by Jesus Christ and His Apostles was to show Jesus to be TRUE.]

The purpose for Jesus making the verifiable statement is so that we may see that He is true, that He is Who He says He is, and then have the confidence in Him to believe the things he says that we cannot verify.  Faith is the entrusting of our selves to a non-verifiable statement, such as a promise of God.  Promises are realized in the future.  The things God has given us in the Bible that are verifiable give us irrefutable warrant to trust God on everything else He says.

This is why internal consistency cannot stand alone, it must be accompanied by verifiablity.

I would submit to you that books like the Book of Mormon, Hindu writings, Buddhist writings, and the Koran (etc.) are either not verifiable (they make lots of claims without those claims being testable) or are verified as false where they are testable.  Therefore, I can discount them.

The Bible is unique in this way.  God took some 1,600 hundred years to reveal His entire Word to man because He did so through the history of men and nations for the very purpose that we (God's rational creatures) would be able the verify the Scriptures as TRUE, and have overwhelming confidence that we can trust God for the things that are not verifiable (like promises, and many other things).  If God had just dropped the completed Bible down to man we would have no way to verify its truthfulness.

Isn't God awesome!  And because God has created you a responsible rational free-willed creature God treats you as such and will judge you as such.  That is why I beg of you to pay close attention to the Bible, God's Word; your life and eternity depend on you knowing and submitting yourself to the truth.

The Bible is Verifiable by its...
          (1)    People (ancient documentation).
          (2)    Places (geography).
          (3)    Nations / civilizations.
          (4)    Customs.
          (5)    Israel (God's chosen nation).
          (6)    Historic events.
          (7)    Fulfilled prophecy (the Bible is 100% accurate in all prophecies to date).

Therefore, we are without excuse!

Can I challenge you to not make excuses or trust in lies.  Knowing the truth is not complicated, but it will require some work on your part to hear and think and test.  If you want to know God will help you.

THE TEST FOR TRUTH IS NOT IF YOU LIKE IT OR NOT!

Monday, March 17, 2014

TRUTH: How Can We Know? (Article 4)

Sequoia tree, California.
Internal Consistency

We should expect truth to be consistent with truth.

Jesus said,

"Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand:"

If a person makes two statements and those two statements are not compatible, or are contradictory, we know that (a) one or both of the statements are false, and (b) the person is at least partially wrong.

We live like this daily in our relationships with other people.  We meet a new person, we begin with their name and where they are from, how old they are, and begin to get to know them.  We begin a new relationship with a mix of trust and caution. As we learn more of this person--their actions and words--we look for consistency.  We judge as to weather or not their words and actions are consistent.  Our trust or caution (dis-trust) for this person will increase or decrease according to their consistency.  [External verify-ability also comes into play, but that will be dealt with in the next article.]

Internal consistency cannot stand alone.  A series of lies may advance in perfectly logical sequence and have internal consistency.  Internal consistency must come under the scrutiny of verify-ability--next article.

This requires something of you.  To know the truth will require that you care about knowing it enough to work at it.

Personal Testimony:
In regards to the Bible: I came to know Jesus Christ personally when I was 15 years old and I have been studying the Bible ever since.  Over the years there have been a few things that I initially thought may be contradictions--things I could not see how they were consistent.  But, after more study found, as I learned more of the God's Word (the Bible), that the Bible was demonstrated to be consistent.  This has happened so many times that when I now come across something I do not understand I try to be patient and keep studying.  Besides, I realized that it was high-minded pride to assume just because I do not understand the Bible that the Bible must be wrong.  What a fool I can be.

The fact that the Bible has been written by 40 different men over a period exceeding 1,400 years and conveys a singular and consistent message is a testimony that the Bible is exactly what it claims to be--the Words of God to man.

You will be able to find many people that say the Bible is full of contradictions.  I have found that these people fall into two basic categories: (1) Those that claim the Bible has contradictions but could not open a Bible and show you these supposed contradictions.  Most fit into this category.  (2) Those in academia that approach the Bible with the pre-condition that all is doubted until proclaimed true by human intellect or observation.  On this second point let me ask, who lives like this?  When a person tells you what they did this past weekend and it is a consistent account do you say, "I will not believe a word you are saying until I see empirical evidence.'  Even in Western law we deal with people on the basis of innocent until proven guilty.  When a claim is made the onus is on you to disprove it; not on the one making the claim to prove it.

Can I challenge you to take personal responsibility for the truth.  As I have written before, there are many voices speaking out there.  The Lord Jesus asks you, "For what shall it profit [you], if [you] shall gain the whole world, and lose [your] own soul? Or what shall [you] give in exchange for [your] soul?" (Mark 8:36-37).  If you will begin reading the Bible intelligently and patiently, desiring to know the truth, you will be rewarded.

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

TRUTH: How Can We Know? (Article 3)

People deal differently with the search for the truth.  Some despair of ever finding it.  Some reject; they have found truths and do not like what they have found.  Some cannot be bothered to deal with the consequences of truth and/or do not want to be distracted from their here-and-now pursuits / pleasures.  Many redefine truth to be subjective so that they can claim to have truth without the consequences of real truth.
In the two previous articles on the subject of how to know truth we spoke of self-consciousness and then God-consciousness.  Man is a rational creature.  God is our rational Creator.  And God has given man what is needed to know God (Creator), who is truth, and truth about the creation, including ourselves (mankind).  Note:  Man is not the source of truth.  God is truth!

In addition to the first two steps in knowing the truth (self-consciousness and God-consciousness) comes our third step, that being Consciousness of Righteousness.  Some might like to use the term moral-consciousness, but the term righteousness (definite right, opposed to definite wrong) is much stronger and communicates the truth much better.
Note:  Consciousness of righteousness does not mean man is righteous, or does right.  That is a separate issue.

Romans 2:14-15
"For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves:  Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;"

The context of these statements is that the Gentile (non-Jewish) ancient world (BC.) had no written revelation from God in apposition to the Jews, who had the written Scriptures (The Old Testament).  You can read the entire chapter for this context (www.blueletterbible.org/Bible.cfm?b=Rom&c=2&t=KJV).  

What this means is that when the Apostle Paul writes "when the Gentiles, which have not the law," the "law" he is referring to is the Old Testament Scriptures--written down and readable/learn-able . 

Central Fact.
Every man has the God-given consciousness of right and wrong, consciousness of righteousness.

This fact is demonstrated universally in the experience of man.  Even a headhunter in Papua New Guinea who has killed and eaten other men, whose conscience may be blunted by repeated offense, is angered and affronted when he is the one being hunted, or another tribal member is the victim--vengeance must be taken.  Even a compulsive thief feels offended when he is stolen from.  Have you ever told a lie about another person (or some such situation) and justified yourself that you did right and then one day found out that someone has been lying about you and felt that you were wronged?  Of course you have.

Consciousness of right and wrong does not mean men do right.  Men can, and do, corrupt their consciences by repeated sinning against their consciences.  Nevertheless, conscience of righteousness is in each man.

How does this relate to how we can know the truth?

Simply, you have a God-given point of reference at which you and God can relate to each other.

This internal consciousness of righteousness means that you can begin to understand yourself, your Creator, why the two of your are at odds, and how God has provided the only way for you to get right with Him.  This is huge!

Verses 13, 14, and 15 of Romans chapter 2 form a parenthetical statement, meaning they are interjected into another line of thought.  Please understand that it is eternally essential for you to know the truth now in this life--the real and only truth--as revealed by the God of truth, for there is coming a day of judgment.

Fact:  "For there is no respect of persons with God."--Romans 2:11.  All men of all ages, of all nations, and of all classes are equally responsible before their Creator.

Fact:  "For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law:"--Romans 2:12a.  All men that have never had the Bible of all ages, of all nations , of all classes are condemned for their sin.

Fact:  "and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law;"--Romans 2:12b.  All men that have had the Bible of all ages, of all nations, of all classes are condemned for their sin.

Fact:  "In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men..."--Romans 2:16a.  There is an appointed judgment day and God is the judge from Whom nothing shall be hid.

Fact:  "...by Jesus Christ..."--Romans 2:16b.  God's Son, Jesus Christ, is your Judge and will judge you if you die in your sin.

Fact:  "...according to my gospel."--Romans 2:16c.  Jesus Christ will judge you according to what is in the Holy Scriptures.  

This is the third article in this series on How Can We Know Truth? and there are at least three more to come.  I trust that you see that this is not confusing.  No doubt you have many questions; please stay tuned and keep reading.

Can I encourage you to get a Holy Bible.  May I recommend reading the book of Genesis and the Gospel of John.  If you are an English speaking person, and I assume you are since this article is written in English, please get a King James, Authorized Version (not a New King James, that is different).  The King James Bible translation has all the words and is a thoroughly faithful and long proven translation that can be completely trusted.  The "thees" and "thous" are there for a very important reason.  Email me and I will tell you why.