How Do We Know Truth? (Moments In Time)
What is truth? What is not true or what is deception?
People say, "I know the truth." How does one know that they know the truth about anything? If we are deceived, then we believe an untruth, yet we think we know truth. So, how does one know that they know the truth?
In all my years of talking to people about the bible and Christian teachings, the message of the Gospel, the Good News, the topic of TRUTH always arises. A Christian says that "Jesus is truth". "The Bible is true." "The word of God is true". You know the usual responses to those statements to truth. "That's your interpretation." "The Bible contradicts itself." "There are many ways to God."
Pontius Pilate, said to Jesus, "What is truth?" But Pilate was not really asking because he did not give Jesus time to answer, even if He would have. But I suspect, that is a question that Jesus would have answered if Pilate would have waited for an answer.
What is truth? How can I answer that question and explain it to someone? I was watching a preacher on a college campus speaking to students about the gospel. Most of the students would not accept what the preacher had to say. The program was called "Wretched" and here is a sample: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTXEq70HFSU
Suddenly, it came to me, that maybe, I cannot convince someone of what the truth is when it comes to the Bible, the Good News, Salvation. I asked myself, "How did I come to know the truth?" In answering that question, I started to remember times (Moments In Time) when people came to me with the truth about salvation. Here are some of my memories:
- Charles G., a car pool, co-worked in the 1980s: As Charles was driving down Rt. 72 towards Lebanon, the city where we worked, he pointed out a billboard that said something about "Salvation". He asked me, "What do you think about that? What does it make you think." I told Charles, "I don't know." He said, "Don't you think it's something you should consider." That's all I remember that 30 plus years ago. I wonder where Charles G. is today. I've searched for him on the internet, but could not find him.
- In the 1970s, I don't know the date, my first wife and I were invited to a dinner of the Full Gospel Businessmen's Association. It was at the Holiday Inn at the Grantville exit of I-81. I remember that at that dinner, after the meal, there was a speaker who talked about something. I do not remember what was discussed, but I do remember this - I stood up in response to something the speaker said. What did he say? I don't remember, but I remember responding to what was said. I remember the suite I was wearing. It was one of those 1970s style suits, a mixed brown pattern, stretchy material.
I remember that when we got home that evening, we were sitting on the couch watching television and my wife asked me why I stood up. She did not stand up. At the time, we were Catholics. I think she said something about being Catholic. I remember not being able to answer her. I did not answer. But obviously, I wanted what the speaker was talking about and asking me to respond to. And we know, in that type of meeting, it would have been a call to respond to the message of salvation. Apparently that was the time of my being "born again", my new birth, my acceptance of Jesus as Savior.
HERE IS WHAT THIS MADE ME THINK AND CONSIDER.
It could be that, to discover truth, I needed something to happen that was going to make me think about my condition. I needed to see something and hear something for me to consider if what I saw and heard was truth, and if it could help me. I ventured into accepting something as truth. The thing I saw did not convince me of truth. The speaker's words did not convince me of truth. I considered what was said, and determined in my mind and heart that I had a need which could be met by what I saw and heard. I needed what was being presented. Without my recognition of my need, the may have been no reason for me to accept what was said as truth. Since I felt something impacting me, I knew that there could be truth in what was being offered.
Here's the point. When it comes to biblical truth, I am not going to convince someone of truth by simply explaining it to them. The explanations may be necessary, but the transaction, the acceptance of truth, comes from the person seeing, feeling, and knowing their own need and accepting that what is being offered could meet that need. It's a transaction entered into by the person, not a transaction caused by me trying to convince the person of truth. Something happens inside the person, often long after I have spoken to them or someone else has spoken to them, that the person comes to "see the light", comes to accept the truth. It's independent of me, not dependent on me. It's dependent on that person's recognition of their need and acceptance of what was said as being true.
RECOGNITION OF OUR NEED. MEETING OUR NEED. ACCEPTING TRUTH.
When I was being witnessed to by others over the years, as I remember those circumstances, it was happening when I was in serious need to have something corrected in my life. Nothing I was doing was fixing my problems. Going to church every week did not fix me. Going to confession every week did not change me. Wanting to change did not change me. But, coming to the realization that the message of the gospel that was presented to me on several occasions, over years, was what could meet my need, what could change me, what could help me to stop doing the things I was doing and should not be doing. It was not the coercion of someone telling me. It was my recognition of my need and accepting the answer to that need.
AS A CHILD, HE WAS CALLING ME
God surely seeks us from our birth. I remember being in the 4th and 5th grade at Holy Family Catholic School in Harrisburg, PA. We were taught to go into the sanctuary and "make a visit" at anytime of the day. Go into the church, sit or kneel in a pew and quietly pray and speak to God. I remember doing that several times.
Before school started, all the students gathered in the parking lot in back of the school waiting for the time to go into the building. We played there, ran around, talked, and waited for the bell. That was the period of time when I would sometimes go into the church sanctuary, entering at the front side door. The sanctuary was surrounded in stained glass windows. I clearly remember the yellow, red, and orange windows. They were not the stained glass windows as in the old churches. They were modern windows, solid sheets of windows, maybe 4 ft. by 4 ft., all one color.
As I look back on those visits, I wonder what God was doing with me. I wonder what he was seeing in me. Because, many years later, after having grown up, I did so many things wrong, and no longer made those visits. But then, when I started to wonder how I could get my problems fixed, how I could stop doing the things I was doing, I started to make those visits again. I would go to Saint Patick's Cathedral in Harrisburg, PA.
As a child, He called me and I responded. As an adult, He called me, and I eventually I responded, willingly, waiting, listening, reaching out. Eventually, He got me. Eventually, I came to know the truth. How do I know the truth? How do I know that what I know is the truth. I responded to the many callings over the years, I knew in my mind and heart that He had the answers to my problems.
NOW, I KNOW THAT I KNOW THE TRUTH. I JUST KNOW.
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