What Is Truth?

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How can we know the basic truths that our lives should be built upon? How can we identify errors in our knowledge? Did our knowledge base become tainted by ancient myth and uninspired philosophy? This video shows the way to truth, as revealed by Jesus Christ.

Video transcript:

We live in an age of uncertainty. Many claim to be “agnostic”, asserting that the truth about our existence and our purpose in being cannot be known. This belief is not peculiar to the current age. During His trial with Pontius Pilate, Christ said that He had come into the world to bear witness of the truth. The cynical Pilate replied, “What is truth?”

What indeed is the truth? What is the source of truth? What is the foundation of reliable information upon which one may establish his life? Is any man the source of truth? Is it Buddha or Mohammed or perhaps the ancient Greek philosophers? Jesus told His disciples what was the foundational source of truth that humankind may rely on, when He prayed to the Father on behalf of all who would follow Him:

JOH 17:17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.

Jesus said that God’s word, the Holy Bible, is the truth, that it will always be found to be true, to be accurate, to be reliable. In fact, the Bible provides the correct foundation for all other knowledge. It is the only accurate source of information about God, His purpose, His plan and His instructions to and expectations of humankind.

Why is There Any Doubt About the Bible’s Veracity?

Very few in this modern world have any regard for the teachings of the Bible. Why is that? Hundreds of years ago, the Bible was so highly regarded that many dedicated their lives and some sacrificed their lives to the cause of making the Bible available to every person in his or her native tongue. Bibles had to be chained to a pillar in the church, in the time of Henry VIII, to prevent them from being stolen. Access to the word of God was greatly coveted. Yet today, when the word of God is abundantly available, relatively few see the value of the scriptures.

Here is how the Bible lost its credibility: The churches took the pure and true word of God from the Bible and alloyed it with a mixture of human philosophy and ancient mythology. They taught that mixture of truth and error dogmatically as the word of God. Eventually, as knowledge, especially scientific knowledge increased, it became increasingly difficult for the Church to justify its teachings.

A profound example is the teaching of the Church about the construction of the universe and the prominence of Earth in the scheme of things. The church of the third century had a high regard for the Greek philosophers and promoted the theories of Aristotle. Aristotle had taught that the universe was constructed of concentric, transparent crystal spheres upon which all the stars, the planets, the sun and the moon were fixed. These crystal spheres were thought to revolve around the earth, which God had placed at the center of the universe. The Church promoted the theories of Aristotle dogmatically. But in 1610, Galileo pointed his telescope toward the planets. His observations proved that Aristotle’s theories and the teaching of the Church were wrong. It was evident that the planets, including the earth, were orbiting the sun. There were no crystal spheres and the earth was not the center of the universe. Galileo was persecuted by the Church for publishing this truth.

Was the Bible wrong? No, it was human philosophy that was in error. This error was introduced into our body of knowledge by men who regarded the teachings of the ancient Greeks as truth. They thought these ideas of uninspired men were needed to augment the teachings of the Bible. The Bible, however, nowhere teaches that the earth is the center of creation. Neither does it endorse the uninspired ideas of human philosophers nor the religious customs and traditions that perpetuate ancient myths and pay homage to gods other than the true Creator God. Yet the Church has taught all these things as dogma, as truth. Even today, many people erroneously believe that the Bible teaches that the earth is the center of the universe.

The Bible’s credibility had been damaged by the Church’s poor stewardship of the truth. Since the 18th century, the so-called “Age of Enlightenment”, there has been a constant erosion in the perception of the veracity of the Bible. It is no longer regarded as the inspired word and truth of God. It’s teachings and precepts no longer set our standards of morality and proper conduct. We have even made it illegal to teach from the Bible in our schools and its laws are no longer allowed to be displayed in our Nation’s court rooms. We have cut ourselves off from the source of knowledge that made our civilization great.

The Evidence Shows The Bible To Be True

Yet, the Bible contains truth that can be found nowhere else. In the 18th and 19th centuries, it was thought that many of the nations and kings mentioned in the Bible were inventions of Biblical writers. There was no corroborating evidence of the existence of the Assyrians or the Hittites, for example. There were no records of many of the kings named in the Bible, such as Sennacherib of Assyria or David, King of Israel and the ancestor of Jesus Christ. But archaeological evidence recovered from the sands of the middle east in the past two centuries has provided corroboration of the accounts of the Bible. Ancient stone documents attest to the lives and exploits of Sennacherib, David and many other Biblical characters. In the “Age of Enlightenment” Biblical history, the only surviving record of these ancient people and cultures, was discarded. Though the historical accounts of the Bible have been verified by archaeological finds, its reputation has not been restored.

Fulfilled prophecy gives remarkable evidence of the truth of the Bible. No other document can boast of the kind of incredible fulfilled predictions that are contained in the pages of the Bible. There are more than 300 prophecies in the Old Testament, for example, that predict the birth, life and death of Jesus Christ. The prophecies tell who would be His ancestors, from what tribe He would originate, where and when he would be born, what would be His mission and how He would die. The amazing prophecy in Daniel’s ninth chapter predicts that Christ would begin his mission in 27 AD. This prophecy was widely understood in Judea at the time and the coming of the Messiah was eagerly anticipated by first century Jews. It is because Christ was the sole fulfillment of these hundreds of prophecies that we know He is our savior. Because no humanly devised writing of ancient origin could accurately make these kinds of predictions, we believe that the Bible is the true and inspired word of God.

If the Church of the third and fourth centuries had not included ancient myth and false human philosophy into its body of knowledge, had not taught these concepts along with the truth of the Bible, perhaps the Bible would be better understood and appreciated in the modern world. It is important for you to know that the teachings of the Bible are true and that much of what is taught by Christianity is not contained within it’s pages. It is vital that you appreciate the truth that is presented to us in the Bible and that you are able to use it as a reliable guide for your behavior and actions, the walk you will take through this life. The source of information in this series of videos will be the Bible alone. We will exclude human philosophy, mythology and uninspired tradition. All these sources have introduced error into Christianity for the past 2000 years.

Jesus told us that we must live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God:

LUK 4:4 And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.

He said that if we knew the truth, we could live as free men:

JOH 8:32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

He told us that that truth of which He spoke was the word of God. He said that word, if we live by it, would allow the Father to set us apart.

We need to rediscover the value of the Holy Bible. It contains the truth that God wants us to possess. We must live by it as Jesus said. We must make God’s word the basis of our body of knowledge. Further, we need to root out the falsehoods that have been taught as Christian truth for nearly 2000 years. When we live by the pure truth of God and eliminate the spurious information that has been taught as truth, we can be set apart as Jesus prayed that we would be. We can be certain that our lives are on track with a Godly purpose.

We need to rediscover the value of the Bible. It contains information that is inspired by God for our benefit:

2TI 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 17 That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.

Study the Bible! It is the firm foundation on which all other knowledge should be built. God has created it and preserved it for you! Learn what the Bible sets forth as truth and right doctrine. If you read it with an open and honest mind, you will learn the purpose for your life and you will know what God expects of you. You will discover the place that God has reserved for you in His everlasting kingdom!