Christian Truth Made Plain: Faith Seeking Understanding

Essentials of

Christian Truth

CHAPTER 1

Introduction:

Faith Seeking Understanding

Human beings, in spite of the tremendous diversity that exists among us in our physical condition, socioeconomic status, and intellectual capacity, have one thing in common. Each of us has been created by God for the same purpose. That purpose is to have a personal relationship with Him, one that is based upon love.

God created us, and therefore knows each one of us intimately. He knows our real person, that true self that lives within this physical body of ours. He understands, therefore, the best way to reveal the truth about Himself to each of us.

The essence of Christian truth is simple enough for every individual person to understand. At the same time it contains a depth that provides meaning and answers to the most earnest intellectual and theological inquiry. And it contains a certain mystery that lies beyond our finite minds to comprehend, which will only be revealed when we are in his presence in heaven.

God has planted within the heart and mind of every human being an inherent awareness of Himself. He has set (or planted) eternity in our hearts (Ecclesiastes 3:11). He has revealed aspects of Himself in the natural world, our sense of right and wrong, and our ability for rational thought that understands the difference between true and false.

What matters during our lives on this earth is that we embrace the essential truth of Christianity. It is not necessary to understand, or to even seek to understand, the depths of Christian truth in its theology. Yet for many Christians the essential elements of Christian truth are not really clear to them. There are two reasons for this.

Church services and pastors in their preaching use the ecclesiastical language of traditional creeds and doctrines to formally express allegiance to the Christian faith. Tradition in the Church is important. And the formal creeds and doctrines represent the summary statements of a very foundational and critical understanding of Christian truth, often achieved as a result of extensive thought and debate among committed Christian theologians over the centuries. But many Christians today have not had the formal training and educational instruction in those doctrines and statements of faith that were once a normal part of Christian education in the Church. And the underlying truths that are communicated in the language used in those summary statements and doctrines are not often clearly explained in sermons or other instructional opportunities such a membership classes within the Church. As a result many Christians who are regular and faithful members of the Church and who are familiar with the language used to express our faith may not really understand the underlying truth.

The second factor has been the shift in motive within the Church itself. The Christian Church for its first 1900 years or so taught biblical truth, which had as its central focus the condition of mankind and God’s plan through Jesus Christ to bring men and women into a relationship with Him that is eternal. Help to the poor and disadvantaged was always part of the Church’s mission because it reflected God’s love for each individual, but it went hand in hand with communicating the good news of the gospel.

Over the past 100 years, however, most of the mainline Christian churches have become increasingly conformed to the tastes of a secular society. Many pastors and church leaders, through the focus of their preaching and selected programs, have positioned Christianity simply as a useful adjunct in the lives of their congregation. The central message is conduct, kind and decent behavior, a lifestyle that centers in service to others, but which limits that mission to worldly ends. That mission is worthwhile and in fact a commandment from Jesus Himself. But it is a by-product of Christian faith and not its main point.

Christianity should not be viewed as a useful means for ordering one’s life, or as a vehicle to form pleasing social relations. Nor should it be sought as a comfortable resource to draw upon should a time of need arise within the mainstream of one’s life. Most certainly Christianity provides comfort, the only source of true comfort, but that, too, is only achieved as an outcome of a search for the ultimate truth, purpose, and meaning of life.

Christian believers who are following the leading that God has planted in their hearts and minds are in a search for that truth, purpose, and meaning for their lives. They believe the essential truth of Christianity but seek a deeper and more complete understanding of that truth. Christianity does indeed bring comfort, but it is truth not comfort that is the primary motive of the search. It is for those believers that the following chapters seek to provide a clear presentation of the essential elements of Christian truth, and to address some of the difficult questions that often arise in those who genuinely seek a deeper understanding of those truths.

Christian truth is the greatest thing that has ever been revealed to human beings. It brings a joy that exceeds anything this worldly life could ever offer.

All believers shall equally enjoy the presence of God when they live with Him in eternity, but they can enjoy his truth more fully as they increase the depth of their understanding during their lives on earth. The more we understand Christian truth, the more we will understand all the questions and complexities that often arise during our lives on this earth, and the more effective we will be in explaining these things to others.

The chapters that follow will attempt to present the wonderful truth of Christianity. It will be done with words and language that have common and understood meanings. It is meant for the Christian believer who is serious about their faith. It seeks to convey the truth, to the glory of God and the peace and happiness of those who believe. It will not be distracted or compromised by cumbersome language that draws the attention of the thoughtful reader to the language that is being used, but away from the truth that is trying to be conveyed. Some thoughts and concepts may be difficult to express and to understand. They are not made any easier to comprehend, for example, by a persistent attention to gender when the context is very clear. So the word mankind is used, which has the same traditional meaning as human beings or humanity, and which is inclusive of both male and female.

The presentation will also be straightforward and rational. This may at times seem to be too analytical, or to suffer from a lack of emotional appeal. But the truth that is being expressed follows from the central and overriding truth that God created each one of us individually and specifically out of his love for us, and his desire to have a love relationship with us. That truth is at the center of all other truths. It is the umbrella that covers the entire gamut of events, consequences of those events, remedies that God provides, and the response needed from us. A solution can be called a solution only when we first understand the problem. There is a very rational flow in the understanding of Christian truth, but it all follows the expressed love of God in his creation of human beings and what is necessary for that love relationship to exist and to continue.

Christianity is true. It is the truth about God and about ourselves. It is the only thing that provides understanding to everything we encounter in this life. But more importantly it offers us the only path to our ultimate happiness. God has blessed us with many sources of happiness in our lives on earth, but every one of them is a foretaste or diminutive preview of that ultimate happiness we shall know when we are in God’s presence, reaching the purpose and knowing the joy for which we were created.

CHAPTER 2

One Truth

Everyone understands what is meant by the truth. The concept of true and false is understood in its basic form by human beings from the toddler stage onward. It doesn’t seem to require much clarification. Even young kids know the difference between the truth and a lie. But when it applies to subjects that cannot be verified by direct observation or direct determination, there is often a misunderstanding or denial of the reality of the concept of truth.

Truth is the property of being in accord or agreement with fact or objective reality. It is distinctly different from opinion, and different also even from belief as it is used in common language. Truth represents the real facts about something. What we think or believe about something may be actually true, or what we think may be wrong or false. We may not have sufficient knowledge of the facts, but that lack of knowledge does not alter the existence of those facts or the existence of a certain reality. In other words, our lack of knowledge, or our false beliefs about something, does not alter the truth about it.

People sometimes say that perception is reality. Yes, but… It is certainly true that people make decisions and take action based upon what they think is true, but what they think is true may be either true or false. If what they think is true is really false, then the decision they make or the action they take may be a big mistake.

A simple example that we all can relate to may illustrate the point. Consider a checking account. I may think I have a certain balance in my checking account based upon my own records. But what if my number does not agree with the balance claimed by my bank? No matter how strongly I believe in my figures, the bank and I cannot both be right. Ultimately the bank’s claim about the actual money in my checking account will prevail, and I will have to accept error on my part and submit to the facts held by the bank as the truth.

Truth in mathematics is an easy concept to understand. There is a logic and an ability to obtain demonstrable proofs that govern operations that clearly distinguish true from false. Opinions and wishful thinking have no place.

The existence of truth in areas outside of mathematics is equally valid. Truth is still the property of being in accord with facts or reality. In some areas our state of knowledge is less complete than in mathematics, but that does not mean that the reality of absolute truth does not exist, and that some things are true about that reality and some things are false. It is simply that our knowledge of that reality is less complete and cannot be demonstrated or verified by the tools of mathematics, logic, or experimentation, the usual means for the determination of truth.

The distinction between truth that can be demonstrated or proven in contrast to truth that lies outside the bounds of proof is nowhere more evident than the modern-day cultural perception of science and Christianity. The advances in science and scientific thought over the past two centuries have led to a perceived division between scientific knowledge and Christian belief. At its worst this division has spawned a warfare between those outspoken atheists and the biased media on the one hand and those well-intended but misguided creation scientists who refuse to acknowledge certain well-established scientific facts that do not contradict the Bible if it is properly interpreted. This perceived division between science and Christianity leaves many with the uneasy feeling that there is one truth for science and another truth for Christianity.

This tension around the compatibility of the truths of science and Christianity is actually not a new topic. Claims of incompatibility between the two are the result of either a lack of understanding