Pilate, when Jesus was brought before him, asked the question, "What is truth?" That question implied his hopelessness and frustration with real meaning in life. Can we rely on anything?
Since we believe in absolute truth, we also become aware of the exclusive nature of claims to truth. Our society tries to make the claim that "Everything is relative." There is a problem with that, and we will note it in a minute. Christianity, on the other hand acknowledges that "some things are relative, and some things are absolute."
Since every major religion makes claims of exclusivity, it is not really fair to claim that Christians are arrogant when they make the claim that there is only one way to Heaven. The Christian claim is no more arrogant than the claims of the other religions.
Truth, by definition, is exclusive. If something is true, then opposing items must be false. The opposite of truth is certainly excluded by truth itself.
Some People try to deny this (that statements contrary to each other are exclusive). However, the assertions they make that are regarded as "truth" and yet are contrary to each other are nothing more than opinions. Look back at the statement made earlier: "Everything is relative." Another way of stating that principle is "There are no absolutes." Now, concerning truth, others may say "there is no exclusive nature to truth claims."
Let's look at the words that are used by those making the statements mentioned in the last paragraph. "Everything is relative." "There are no absolutes." "There is no exclusive nature to truth claims." Did you notice that those are all absolute words? They are all absolute claims.
My son puts it like this: someone says, "There are no absolutes." Then he asks, "Are you sure about that?" Then they might slip up and say, "Absolutely!"
Truth inherently is exclusive. If something is true, then something contrary to it is false.
In your comments this week, I challenge you to see how claims to truth relate to what you are studying. Tell us how truth, or surety of truth, affects preaching and doctrine.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment