TRUTH: How Can We Know? (Article 2)

Many people think that the Bible is a compilation of the religious writings of men.  But that is not what the Bible claims for itself.  The Bible had over 40 different human writers spanning at least 1,600 years.  But none of these men claimed that what they wrote was their thoughts; the Bible consistently claims in every book that God is the author and the men are God's chosen prophets.  [How to know whether or not this is true will be dealt with in coming articles.]

This is a little background to...

The first words of the Bible are...
                              "In the beginning God..."

The Bible everywhere assumes the existence of God and nowhere attempts to prove it.

You do not need to prove that which is self-evident; that which everyone knows.

Read this, if you would...

Romans 1:18-23
"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;  because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.  For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:  because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.  Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,  and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things."

1)  God says men hold the truth (in context God is not saying men hold all truth, but the specific truth of God's existence and power).

2)  The truth of God's existence is "manifest in them"--revealed, or made know, in them.

3)  "God hath shewed it unto them"--God has given man this knowledge in the creation.

4)  This knowledge is clearly see and understood by man.

What does man know about God without any one teaching them--intuitively?  Man knows "God's eternal power and Godhead."

Eternal = God is not created.  God is the non-created creator of the universe.  To use philosophical terms, God is the un-caused cause.
Power = God is the all-mighty.  The one that created the oceans, the sun!!! and the expansive universe with all its stars is all-powerful.
God-head = personal (thinking, reasoning, willful, feeling) Lord (ruler; king; judge) over His creation.  Of course, this is not all we need to know about God, but it is the start.  More on that is subsequent articles.

The first step in knowing the truth is the truth of Self-consciousness.

The second step in knowing the truth is the truth of...

God-consciousness.

Many will say, "many people are atheists" and they believe there is no God; surely, they are denying this God-consciousness.

Consider...
a)    Men are notorious for claiming and acting contrary to the truth.  How many misguided women have gone and married a man in the face of the truth that he is a good for nothing, drunken, and a violent tempered man.  "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." (Luke 12:34)--where you place value is where your heart will be focused / loyal / dedicated.

b)    Knowing the truth and submitting our lives to the truth are two different things.

c)    All cultures over all known history are God-conscious.  And, by far, the vast majority of these never knew about the Bible.

Why people deny the truth about God's existence is dealt with in the Bible text above.
i)    Man holds the truth in unrighteousness.  He holds it but refuses to submit to it.

ii)    Man knows this truth about God but decides to not glorify God in truth, nor be thankful to God for who He is and creating us, etc.

iii)   The decision to believe a lie (that is what happens when you deny the truth) causes man's imaginations to become vain (worthless) and their foolish hearts to be darkened.  Truth is likened unto light.  If you keep blowing the candles out soon you will be groping in the dark.

iv)    Man changed the glory of God into idolatry; man worships idols; man worships the creation instead of the creator--i.e. mother earth, father time, zen--getting in tune with the universe, the spirit of the bear, the fox, the water, and on we could go.

The Bible is clear that men does "not like to retain God in their knowledge."  The existence of God does not offend man's intellect, it offends man's pride, self-will, and heart desires.  But notice, God will not forget about this wickedness of man.  Man is without excuse, condemned, and under the coming wrath of God unless man comes to believe God.  What do I mean?

The Bible reveals, "But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." (Hebrews 11:6)  Two things: (1st) "believe that he is"--believe in the existence of God.  (2nd) "that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him"--believe in God as your only hope.

The first point is easy.  God-consciousness is what this article has been discussing.  And remember I said that the Bible does not seek to prove God's existence, but assumes it because all men already know it.

The second point is what the Bible is all about.  The Bible gives the TRUE answers to this.  Why God is our hope?  How God is our hope?  Why God is our only hope?  How do I enter into this hope in light of my guilt?  Etc.

You ask:  how do I know the Bible is true?  Well, be patient, we are getting there.

TRUTH: How Can We Know?

I have visited the Grand Canyon twice.  The great expanse is bewildering; it is hard to take it all in.

Speaking of being bewildered, tragically, people get bewildered as they contemplate how to know what is true.  May I suggest that knowing the answers to the questions of life, purpose, man, God and what is next is not bewildering.  It is graspable by each person.  I suggest that what is bewildering about knowing the truth is the many many many many many many and many voices out there saying what they believe the true answers to life's questions are.  Included in those voices is your own.  There are truths that you just do not like (or will not) and would rather another answer.

TWO THINGS THAT ARE CONTRARY CANNOT BOTH BE TRUTH!

Where to begin?  Where do I begin to cut through the chatter and get at the truth?  The starting point is actually one that is so intuitive that hardly anyone mentions it.  And if it were not for the fact that it really is the first step in knowing the truth it would not need to be mentioned.   But, it is so commonly assumed in our thinking that it is neglected in conversation.

Self-consciousness.

You know you are here and that you are a conscious knowing being.  There is nothing I can quote or cite to prove it.  Any person that says, 'I am not real / I am not here,' defeats their own proposition by speaking the word "I."  To deny your existence is lunacy.

Because you are self-conscious of your existence and rationality you can have confidence that further truth is knowable.

I am planning at least two more articles on the subject of How We Can Know Truth.  Please check back.  It does get more interesting.

Absolute Beauty

Beauty in NOT in the eye of the beholder.  The statement, 'beauty is in the eye of the beholder," is subjective, making the beholder the judge of beauty.  The Bible is clear and reality cannot be avoided, God is judge of all.  You might think this an obscure subject.  Nevertheless, how you view beauty stems from how you view God; therefore, it is of the utmost importance.

• "Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name: bring an offering, and come before him: worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness." (1Chronicles 16:29)
• "Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name; worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness." (Psalm 29:2)
• "And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it."  (Psalm 90:17)
• "Honour and majesty are before him: strength and beauty are in his sanctuary."  (Psalm 96:6)
• "O worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness: fear before him, all the earth."  (Psalm 96:9)
• "Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth."  (Psalm 110:3)
• "For how great is his goodness, and how great is his beauty! corn shall make the young men cheerful, and new wine the maids."  (Zechariah 9:17)

Holiness is the supreme attribute of God.  All that makes God Who He is is holiness.  Holiness is the sum of all God is.  Holiness also includes all that makes God distinct (different) from all other beings.  Holiness equals God's uniqueness--"To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One."  (Isaiah 40:25)

The beauty of holiness means that God is absolute beauty; God is beauty, and the standard by which we and all our ideas and actions are judged.  God is truth, life, righteousness, justice, grace, mercy, love, longsuffering, and many other things.  It is not a contradiction in God to be "angry with the wicked every day" (Psa. 7:11) and so love the world that He gave His only begotten Son (Jhn. 3:16).  It is God's nature to be just and merciful.  How to be both just and merciful is only something God can do!

SIN IS ABSOLUTELY UGLY!  God sins not, it is not in His nature to sin.  If there is beauty then there is ugly.  God's people are commanded: "whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." (Philippians 4:8)  If there is lovely then there is ugly.

The Psalmist writes, "When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth: surely every man is vanity. Selah."  (Psalm 39:11)  The Living God is seeking men out today; He loves men.  When God confronts you from the Word of God--the Bible--you are repulsed and/or offended.  Why? because God is ugly?  No, because God's sinless holy beauty exposes our utter wretchedness.  When you are compared to God you are left with no standing.  The Lord Jesus taught this same truth in these terms, " And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.  For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved." (John 3:19-20)

Ezekiel chapter 16 is, in my opinion, one of the most graphic metaphors in the Bible.  It is arresting.  The nation Israel's parentage is described as being of Amorite and Hittite--Biblically, these were nations of the grossest depravity.  The nation Israel is described as a discarded newborn baby (live post-birth abortion-a.k.a. exposure).  None pitied, and there she lay in an open field in the afterbirth and blood.  There is no beauty in sin.  SIN IS ABHORRENT TO GOD!

Now read the description of what God did.  "(6) And when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live; yea, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live.  ...  (9) Then washed I thee with water; yea, I throughly washed away thy blood from thee, and I anointed thee with oil.   ...   (14) And thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty: for it was perfect through my comeliness, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord GOD."  (Ezekiel 16: 6-14)

There is no one like God (the God of the Bible).  Although there was no beauty in Israel (all sin), God took pity, was merciful, and cleansed away their filthiness (justice) and then taught them about Himself that they may be beautified.

Friend please consider the following facts....
1.    You are a sinner in whom is no beauty and righteousness before the eyes of the Holy God Almighty.

• "As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:   ...   There is no fear of God before their eyes."  (Romans 3:10-18, read the entire passage:  http://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/book.php?book=Romans&chapter=3&verse=)
• "But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away." (Isaiah 64:6)

2.    All sin MUST be punished.

• "Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die." (Ezekiel 18:4)
• "For the wages of sin is death;"  (Romans 6:23)
• "He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?" (Hebrews 10:28-29)

3.    God sent His beautiful righteous Son to take your punishment upon Himself as your sacrificial substitute.

• "For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." (Luke 19:10)
• "Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many."  (Matthew 20:28)
• "For he [God] hath made him [Jesus] to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." (2Corinthians 5:21)

4.    What Jesus Christ did on the cross by dying and shedding His precious sinless blood is the only way to have your sin cleansed, yourself forgiven by God, and be given the gift of eternal life.  There is only ONE way.

• "In whom we have redemption through his blood , even the forgiveness of sins:   ...   And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven."  (Colossians 1:14, 20)
• "Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers;  But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:  Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,  Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God." (1Peter 1:18-21)

5.    God commands all men (you) to repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ that they might be saved from their own sin and God's wrath to some.

• "And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:" (Acts 17:30)
• "I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." (Luke 13:3)  Repentance is a heart brokenness over my sinful ugliness and a turning to God and His beautiful holiness.
• "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.  For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.  For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed." (Romans 10:9-11)  Faith is trusting my entire life and soul for now and eternity to one, Christ Jesus.

6.    There is nothing you can do to earn the gift of eternal life.

• "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9)

Jesus said...
"Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." (John 14:6)

God has declared...
"Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." (Acts 4:12)

There is one God.  There is only one way to God.  There is only one saviour, Jesus Christ--God in the flesh.  There is only one truth.