The Whole Truth

By Jeff Faull

It”s getting harder and harder to get the truth these days. We are constantly called to discern truth in every realm and at every level. We used to say, “Don”t believe everything you hear.” Then we said, “Just because it”s in print doesn”t make it true.” After that we said, “You found it on the Internet but that doesn”t mean you can trust it.” Now we have to say, “Seeing is not necessarily believing.” Have the photos been doctored? Am I looking at a computer-created image? There never has been such an obvious culture of spin and deceit.

This especially is evident in the political arena. Lies and distortion are an accepted part of the political landscape. In fact, spin and twist are admired as strategy and necessary political posturing. “Read my lips . . . no new taxes”; “I did not have a relationship with that woman”; “It depends on what the meaning of the word is is”; “We have found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq”; “I took the initiative in creating the Internet.”

Ann Landers told of a comedian and a politician sitting on an airplane together. The politician says: “You”re a comedian, eh? Tell me a joke.” The comedian answers: “You”re a politician, eh? Tell me a lie.”

But lies are not limited to politicians and fisherman. Allegedly unassailable disciplines and bastions of “truth” are susceptible to distortion.

Bastions of Truth?

History, for instance, is not exempt from lies. There are two very different accounts of the life of Christopher Columbus. Was he the great discoverer of the New World in 1492, and thus worth celebrating on Columbus Day each year, or was he an imperialist pig responsible for the death of millions of Native Americans? How can I discern what is true?

Is the correct version of history the one taught in textbooks of yesteryear or the version taught in the updated and revised editions? Should we trust history as previously written or history that has been rewritten? Have new facts been brought to light, or is it just old propaganda rebirthed? Is history the helpless victim of political correctness, the current agenda, and revisionists” whims, or is it the beneficiary of current discovery and scholarship? Did we formerly live in an era where we turned a blind eye to the failures of our heroes and conveniently overlooked even blatant indiscretion, or do we now live in a culture where every flaw and shortcoming is magnified under the white-hot light of critical scrutiny and conjecture? How do we decide what is true?

Science is not always exempt from inaccuracy. Why do we use words like bias or hoaxes when it comes to science? Isn”t science the arena that deals in cold, hard facts and reason? Is it global warming or cooling? Both? Neither? I have no environmental agenda, but there obviously is some manipulation on both sides of the issue. I”m not informed enough to conclude who is lying. How many retractions have been written about “discoveries” and “accepted science” that has been renounced or disproven as suspect or fraudulent?

Families are not exempt from lies. We speak of “family secrets” and “skeletons in the closet.” People have lived almost their entire lives believing things about their family, or a family member, only to learn later they were deceived. Some of the most closely guarded and elaborate cover-ups occur within families.

Courtrooms are not exempt from lies. “Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?” And yet more lies are told in courtrooms than perhaps anywhere else on earth.

Religion is not exempt from lies. Church scandals, dirty secrets, false doctrines, wrong motivations, power plays, church history, and today”s headlines are littered with evidence of lying and deceit even in the name of God. Whom can I trust? What should I believe? Who is right? What is true and what is false?

Business and finance are not exempt. Why the need for language and measures like “truth in lending” or “full disclosure” or “fine print” and “disclaimers”? Why do we remember names like Enron and Bernie Madoff? Schemes, scams, and scandals abound in the business world.

There are deceptions in the fields of education, medicine, psychology, and any other discipline you might encounter. So what do we do? Give up? Throw up our hands in despair and say, “I know there is this thing called truth, but I”ll never be able to figure it out. Smarter people than I have tried, and they disagree.” Do you determine your own truth? Pick the one that suits you best and believe what you want to believe? Confidently and stubbornly defend your position at all costs?

Who cares if you”re wrong””it”s your right. For many, this is default mode when it comes to a worldview. Many people determine their worldview through their narrow slice of life observation and experience and feelings or, even worse, by listening to the majority and being moved by the prevailing winds and whims of opinion. At best it is a pooling of ignorance, at worst a mindless subjective preference.

A few years ago in Christianity Today, Tim Stafford wrote of a teacher named Stephen Bilynskyj.

He starts each class with a jar full of beans. He asks his students to guess how many beans are in the jar, and on a big pad of paper writes down their estimates. Then, next to those estimates, he helps them make another list: Their favorite songs. When the lists are complete, he reveals the actual number of beans in the jar. The whole class looks over their guesses, to see which estimate was closest to being right. Bilynskyj then turns to the list of favorite songs. “And which one of these is closest to being right?” he asks. The students protest that there is no “right answer”; a person”s favorite song is purely a matter of taste.

Bilynskyj, who holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from Notre Dame asks, “When you decide what to believe in terms of your faith, is that more like guessing the number of beans, or more like choosing your favorite song?” Always, Bilynskyj says, from old as well as young, he gets the same answer: Choosing one”s faith is more like choosing a favorite song. When Bilynskyj told me this, it took my breath away.1

Truth Came Through Jesus

So what do we do if we care about truth? The apostle John says truth came through Jesus. Paul reminds the Ephesians that truth is in Jesus. Jesus claimed to be the truth. Instead of giving up or stepping up””we look up! A couple of questions are vital in this regard. They provide litmus tests of truth for believers.

What did Jesus say? Does an idea fit his words? This one ought to be a no-brainer. If truth is in Jesus, if he was born to tell the truth, if he said “I am the truth” then certainly his words are a trustworthy source of truth.

He said his words were spirit and life; he said we weren”t to be ashamed of his words. He said his words would not pass away. He said we would be judged by his words. Why? Because they are the acid test of truth.

If a claim contradicts Jesus” words in their context, it simply is not true. Yes, following Jesus is a relationship, but it is a relationship based in propositional truth.

Who is Jesus? Does an idea or proposition fit his character? When I met my wife Val, I learned some facts about her pretty quickly. I knew she had just turned 19. I knew she had gone to Ball State University. I knew she was intelligent and got good grades and she liked horses. I knew she had brown hair and brown eyes and drove a brown Mustang. I knew she was beautiful. I even knew our families had crossed paths years before in Mishawaka, Indiana, and that we had played together briefly when we were toddlers. And I knew I was smitten.

But I didn”t know her, not really. Not like I do after 26 years of living, loving, fighting, and laughing. Not like I do after four houses, two ministries, three children, and a grandchild together. Not like I do after enjoying the sunlight, and facing trials and the seasons of life with her. I know her much more deeply than just intellectual facts. I know who she really is now and love her even more deeply.

Similarly, I now know Jesus on a much deeper level than when I first made my confession. God has spoken to us in his Son Jesus. He himself is the essence of truth.

What did Jesus do? Does the idea we”re considering match his behavior? That”s the basis for the WWJD question, but it”s just one piece of the truth puzzle. Jesus went around teaching in synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. He ate with tax collectors and sinners. He spent time in prayer and fasting. He mentored his closest followers. His life and actions give us glimpses of the truth he embodied.

What and whom did Jesus sanction? Does a claim or idea fit his endorsements? Jesus quoted and endorsed the veracity and authority of the Old Testament. He said the Scripture could not be broken. He often prefaced his statements by saying, “It is written.” He referred to the Law and the prophets as being trustworthy. But he also commended as truth that which his apostles would record by the Holy Spirit. He gave them the “keys to the kingdom.” It is not enough to live life in the “red letters”””by Jesus” words””if we fail to acknowledge that the red letters endorsed the foundation of the apostles and prophets.

There is absolute truth and you can know it. The truth is Jesus””his Word, his character, his actions, and the teachings he authorized through Scripture. If something doesn”t align with him, it simply isn”t true. As Kevin DeYoung says, “I”ll give my life for an exclamation point but I won”t give my life for a question mark.”

DeYoung quotes G.K. Chesterton, who observed that hard truth may make walls but they are the walls of a playground.

We might fancy some children playing on the flat grassy top of some tall island in the sea. So long as there was a wall around the cliff”s edge they could fling themselves into every frantic game and make the place the nosiest of nurseries. But the walls were knocked down, leaving the naked peril of the precipice. The children did not fall over; but when the friends returned to them they were all huddled in terror in the centre of the island; and their song had ceased.2

Walls of truth are our friends, not our enemies. Jesus came to testify to the truth. He is our exclamation point. He is the whole truth!

_________

1Tim Stafford, Christianity Today, 14 September 1992, 36.

2G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy, 1908.

Jeff Faull is senior minister with Mount Gilead Church in Mooresville, Indiana. He serves as one of CHRISTIAN STANDARD”s contributing editors.