I believe that now more than ever before, people are being flooded with competing versions of events. A multitude of actors want to influence the broader culture to see the world from a particular vantage point, and this leads to diametric readings of almost every newsworthy occurrence that zips across Facebook and Twitter. It can be downright dizzying.
Scripture presupposes and states explicitly that truth is objective and that we can know the most important pieces of it. Jesus famously told his disciples that if they held to His teaching, they would “know the truth, and the truth [would] set [them] free” (Jn. 8:31, 32). Paul told Timothy that Christians are “those who believe and who know the truth” (1 Ti. 4:3). Peter wrote to believers, telling them that they were “firmly established in the truth” (2 Pe. 1:12). Our knowledge of the truth spoken of in these passages is due to the fact that God, in Christ, gave us his Word, which is truth (Jn. 17:17), gave us the Spirit of truth (Jn. 16:13), and that the church, as the institution charged with passing down that deposit of truth to future generations of reliable teachers, serves as the “pillar and foundation of the truth” (1 Ti. 3:15) by being the vehicle through which Christ, its head, disseminates and guards His truth.
Thus believers are aided by the Holy Spirit and by the institutional church in seeking and understanding the Word of God truly. Much of the Proclamation! blog is dedicated to shedding the light of the truth of the Bible on doctrinal issues where that light is badly needed, especially as it relates to Seventh-day Adventist teachings.
Yet in our current wash of political controversies and battling interpretations of every news story, we should remind ourselves that Christians are called, even more than our neighbors, to be seekers and spreaders of the truth.
Yet in our current wash of political controversies and battling interpretations of every news story, we should remind ourselves that Christians are called, even more than our neighbors, to be seekers and spreaders of the truth. By “truth” here, I mean not only the big picture of creation, fall, and redemption, but also the day to day facts of our world. There is a scene in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade where Indy tells his students that archeology is the search for “fact, not truth.” “If it’s truth you’re interested in,” he says, “Dr. Tyree’s philosophy class is right down the hall.”
I reject Dr. Jones’ distinction. The truth is the facts. To use an image borrowed from Francis Schaeffer, Jones seems to placing what he calls “truth” in an upper story which is the domain of the irrational and undefined, and “fact” on a lower story of the rational and defined. As Christians, we are not likely to think of “truth” as irrational and undefined, but nevertheless we must recognize the unity of all truths (all facts) in one overall truth, because we understand the unity of God Himself, who is the creator and the grounding of all reality.
With that in mind, we have to be careful not to make a fact/truth distinction when thinking about non-theological subjects, like science, history, news, and politics. By unconsciously making this fact/truth distinction, we can feel justified in being sloppier about mere “facts” (news, politics) even if we would be very careful with “truth” (the gospel). There is every temptation to engage in quick, barely considered thinking, and to leap to conclusions that confirm what we are already disposed to believe. The temptation is powerful, especially as politics is increasingly perceived to be a battle between ways of life and the encroaching of hostile interests—indeed, when we might even be tempted to think that playing a little loose with the facts might do God or the church a service by “pushing back” against a secular agenda!
God is not helped by deception. It is Satan who has been a liar from the beginning. And, as Ian Malcom says in The Lost World: Jurassic Park, “There are no versions of the truth.” In the age of the Internet and cable news, there are all sorts of deceptions flying around, some of them small, some of them large. Be alert. These come to us from many sources. They are found everywhere from mainstream media outlets such as MSNBC and Fox News to more extreme and careless outlets like the Huffington Post and OANN. Are we as discerning with our news sources as we would be with our sources of Bible teaching? When we hear something that makes us say “I knew it!” are we ready to search to see if that thing is so? Are we quick to retweet any unverified headline that bolsters our own way of thinking? It’s easier sometimes to just go with it, because it feels good to be vindicated.
It may be that so long as our information is about politics and not theology, we are less on guard and more apt to pick what suits us rather than to search for trustworthy sources, sources perhaps more likely to reveal the complexity of the world. But the believer’s pursuit of truth must extend to all areas of understanding, because God is Lord over all reality, and he is a God of truth. And truth in human affairs is messy. Remember that “in a lawsuit the first to speak seems right, until someone comes forward and cross-examines” (Pr. 18:17), a good reminder to listen to various perspectives. Fact finding can be unsettling at times as it may confront our prior ideas with truth that doesn’t quite fit, but it is also liberating. Truth sets free, and Christians never have to be afraid of the truth.
There are particular bits of wisdom in God’s word that speak to the heart of truth seeking in a landscape of competing narratives and misinformation. “My dear brothers and sisters,” admonishes the apostle James, “take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry” (Ja. 1:19). The Proverbs emphasize repeatedly the importance of truth: “An honest witness tells the truth, but a false witness tells lies” (12:17), “the heart of the discerning acquires knowledge, for the ears of the wise seek it out” (18:15), “teaching you to be honest and to speak the truth, so that you may bring back truthful reports to those you serve” (22:21), “to search out a matter is the glory of kings” (25:2).
If you are reading this blog, chances are that you are very concerned about theological truth and are willing to submit to the Word of God whenever you discover that you’ve held to any false doctrine, or even when your understanding just needs to be slightly adjusted to better comport to Scripture. Such discernment and tenacity is called for in all spheres of truth, not just theology. I don’t mean that other matters are of equal importance. They are not. But I do mean that the fact of objective truth, plus God’s love for truth and hatred for lies (e.g. Pr. 12:22) should instill in us an attitude unwilling to latch onto and spread unsubstantiated claims, but rather willing to “search out a matter” and to be “quick to listen, slow to speak.” †
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