Does Truth Exist?

We began our journey at the beginning, so to speak. Before we could venture into examining the “right” or “wrong” of anything, we first had to find an answer to the most basic question of all. Is there an absolute Truth, and Who is the ultimate arbiter of that Truth?

The common viewpoint of the world has become inherently relativistic, or “nihilistic”. Historically, this has not generally been the case. In fact, this is a drastic change from the operative viewpoints of most of our ancestors. Although the basis for this change is in evidence as much as 2500 years ago in certain parts of the world, it has only recently exploded onto the world scene as a whole since the early 20^th century.

The search for an answer to this fundamental question led us to examine and re-examine the major religions of the world and the writings of both ancient and modern philosophers. In this search, we had to acknowledge that every decision in a person’s life is a direct product of whether he holds to an absolute Truth, or believes rather in a world of relative truth. If an absolute Truth exists, then “right” and “wrong” are predetermined and choices may be made accordingly. However, if truth is relative and each person judges individually what is right or wrong according to their own opinion, then each person becomes free to act in any fashion they themselves deem morally acceptable. This relativism is a common thread in today’s society, and has led to widespread disagreement among people on the major issues of morality and ethics.

If there is no absolute Truth, then all truths must be accepted, no matter their effects, or how distasteful another may find them. Many people can be heard to say, “What’s true for me is true for me, and what’s true for you is true for you.” Or you may hear “I have to find my own truth.” This seems innocent enough, and even has a ring of spirituality and tolerance to it – the kind of tolerance our modern society demands for all beliefs and lifestyles. But if we ignore for a moment the flowery ring to it, we find ourselves undeniably smacked in the face by the illogical underpinning of this theory. For example, who can say if murder is truly wrong, when there is no absolute “wrong”? Who has the right to condemn child molestation as evil, if there is no God, and Satan does not exist? Indeed, if we follow the relativistic ideal to its logical conclusion, we can only arrive at the futile nihilism espoused by Nietzsche when he exclaimed, “All is false – everything is allowed!”

If there is no such thing as absolute good, who can say that helping the poor or living a “moral” life is preferable to one of greediness or vulgarity? Can these adjectives even exist in the face of a truth-less world? One man’s “wrong” may be another’s “right”, and so on. If there is no absolute Truth, and there is no God who has set it as law, then there is nothing stopping me from doing whatever I want, whenever I want. If evolution is correct, and humans are just another animal, then I may as well have as much respect for another human life as I would for a fly that I swat when it comes too close to my food. There would then be no point to a debate over whether or not it is “morally” acceptable to kill unborn children. It would be perfectly acceptable to use the “survival of the fittest” evolutionary mentality to steal, pillage, and plunder for one’s own benefit. Indeed, our world is now filled with these very things. We see it every night in the news. Relativism always leads to self-promotion as a direct result of this logic.

We can see this pattern of belief take shape as we study the religions and philosophies of the world. The most basic forms of this idea of relativistic self-promotion are present in the “holy” books of every single world religion, except the Christian Bible. The Bible has teaching after teaching, verse after verse, expounding on the inherent value of all men, on what is “good” absolutely, and on what is “evil” absolutely. The Bible teaches that mankind was created uniquely by God for a specific purpose, and that we are not animals in any sense of the word, but rather creations of the living God, designed by God to be His children – and that this God has a very precise and absolute judgment on what is right or wrong. If the Bible is not a Holy Book and just “one of many” spiritual writings, then the statement contained in it – that humans were created in the image and likeness of God – would cease to have relevance. It would directly affect the way we view others, and the practices we approve of morally.

Examining the Bible shows, unlike any other spiritual or religious texts throughout history, hundreds of specific prophecies recorded there anywhere from 150 to 2000 years before fulfillment, such as in the book of Isaiah where he refers to Cyrus (by name) destroying Babylon and allowing the Jewish exiles to return home. This prophecy was recorded at least 80 years before they were even taken captive and 180 years before Cyrus was born. We read in detail, in that same book, of a Man being born of a virgin, who would later go on to be beaten and hung on a Cross – and that this Man is God Himself, come down to show us His unfailing Love for us. This prophecy has been dated to thousands of years before Christ was born, even by secular scholars.

It quickly became obvious to my wife and I there is indeed a Source of Absolute Truth that is outside of this physical realm that we inhabit, and that this Source is the One written of exclusively in the Christian Bible. Once we accepted the existence of Absolute Truth, we then faced the dilemma of learning how to recognize the living expression of that Truth – His Church, which Christ Himself described our membership in as being wholly necessary to our salvation from Death.

And so we continued in our studies, and in our search…

Introduction

Let me begin by stating that I am not a priest, theologian, or clergy of any sort. I am a simple layperson in the Church, and a husband and father to my family. You could say that I've been “around the block” a few times, denominationally speaking. During the last twenty years, I have been a part of Baptist churches, Mennonite Brethren, Messianic Judaism, Pentecostal, Charismatic, Lutheran, so-called “Non-Denominational” such as Calvary Chapel and a few independent churches. My childhood home environment, religiously speaking, could best be described as Dispensational Fundamentalist Protestant. I say this only to show that what I've learned about these different aspects of modern Christianity has come from experience and observation.

To say that my path through many different churches is unusual would be inaccurate. While there are some in each of those churches that have spent their whole lives in one place, there are many more that have embarked on a similar path as mine. Many of the people that I met in one church I would run into again two or three churches down the line. There is a common ailment running through Protestant Christianity, the seemingly futile search for the “True Expression” of the Church. I read a book recently that described this ailment as “The Phantom Search for the Perfect Church”. The reason for it is quite simple. The most common reply I would receive when I would ask someone how they ended up at a particular church was that they saw a picture in the Bible of how the early Church functioned, and they were now seeking a church that matched that picture. The problem was that we didn't know where find it - and it seemed elusive no matter where we looked.

We all had certain assumptions that we operated from - doctrinal beliefs and practices that we felt were "must-haves" for a church to be considered to be part of the most pure form of Christianity. As we went from place to place searching for the “New Testament Church”, inevitably something in each church would violate one or more of these assumptions.

Over time, it became blatantly obvious that either there was something severely wrong with modern Christianity as a whole, something flawed in some or all of those assumptions I was operating from, or a combination of those factors.

I believed with all my heart in Christ, and wanted to find His True Church - I wanted to be sure that I was truly serving Him in the way He deserved. I had to find the Truth, and quickly. Especially as a husband and father, my family's eternal lives were at stake, and were my spiritual responsibility. As my lovely wife and I discussed this dilemma, we essentially settled on a plan. Even though we understood from the beginning that it would be a long and difficult process, we agreed that the best way to start was by listing out my assumptions as best as I could and start testing them one at a time. It can be painful and scary to systematically challenge beliefs you've held your entire life, but it is the only undertaking that absolutely forces you to be honest with yourself.

It has been three years now since we began that fruitful yet painful search. At the persistent urging of my wife, I'm starting this blog to share our experience and the progress we've made in that search. We welcome you along on this journey.