What Is Truth? When Reason Falls Short
Is that video real or artificial intelligence? Is this report “fake news” or maybe something in between? Yes, these questions make our individual and societal heads spin and sadly sometimes explode. As the robot in the classic 1960s TV show Lost in Space often said, so much of what we see “does not compute.”
This sad reality is one of the most destructive consequences of the fall of man in the Garden of Eden—finding truth without God. Since then, humankind lives and dies, spiritually and naturally, seeking truth according to our standards contaminated with our incomplete understanding and corrupted by sinful motives, lusts, and passions thereby making “truth in our image.” We taint our knowledge with various forms of deception, sin, error, incompleteness or lack of understanding as no human philosophy or science can stand the test of eternity. Humanity only finds truth in the Logos, the Word of God, Jesus Christ, as said in John 1:1-3, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ... Through him all things were made (NIV). Truth is not an abstract theological principle, but the living presence of Jesus Christ embedded in the personal relationship of Creator to creation.
John 18:37-38 illustrates the challenge of discerning truth in human reasoning when Jesus appeared before Pontius Pilate for trial as a king and Jesus said, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”
“What is truth?” retorted Pilate. Jesus answered the question by remaining silent. The person of Jesus is truth itself. If Pilate had a spiritual heart to see, he would have bowed and worshiped Him who was truth standing before him!
Man’s pride in defining his own truth appears in another paradoxical statement by Jesus in Matthew 18:3 where He says: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” A way to understand this is to think back to when we were toddlers. Our parents had knowledge and wisdom that we could not grasp to raise and protect us. We must, in turn, crucify our pride and accept that our science, reasoning, and intellect are incomplete and admit that God infinitely dwarfs our understanding.
In my journey from atheism to Christianity, I gradually became more comfortable in relinquishing my need to control and understand everything intellectually and accepting that “truth” is love embedded in a relationship with a Creator who has infinitely greater knowledge and power. This provided a different kind of evidence in my heart—the footprint of God in all the details of my life, who numbered the hairs on my head (Luke 12:7), who wrote all my days in His book before I was born (Psalm 139:16) and works everything for my good (Romans 8:28).
When our intellect and reasoning begin to question the nature of God—as will happen to us all—may we give our trust and doubts to God and recognize that our desire to “have it all figured out” is a product of the fall. True freedom comes in the wisdom of our child-like nature that says, like the man with the demon-possessed son in Mark 9:24, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” and God will show us the eternal truth of heaven!
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Scripture quotations are taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Source: Extracts from the “Prologue from Ohrid” by St Nikolai Velimirovich – The Art of Orthodoxy, https://theartoforthodoxy.com/extracts-from-the-prologue-from-ohrid-by-s...
