IS THERE ABSOLUTE TRUTH?

The belief that Jesus Christ alone is the saviour of humanity and the only way to salvation has been a foundational tenet of Christianity from its beginning.  At the Last Supper, Jesus spoke to his disciples about the way to heaven. He said, “I am the way and the truth and the life, No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14.6.) 

Jesus went on to promise “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth, which the world cannot accept.” (verse 16-17) After Christ’s Ascension, Peter was filled with the holy Spirit (as promised) and proclaimed this about Jesus: “There is no salvation through anyone else, nor is there any other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved.” (Acts 4.12)  Pretty clear, pretty exclusive. The Apostle Timothy was equally clear: “For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” (1 Timothy 2.5)

Unpopular message

This sort of message is not generally welcome to our age of pseudo-pluralism where truth is relative and people want to hear about many paths to God.  But if the testimony of Jesus, Peter and Timothy are to be believed, this is not true. The only way to God is through Jesus Christ.  Should I believe those who espouse that all religions are basically the same and there are many paths to God, or should I believe Jesus, Saints Peter and Timothy.  Hmmm, I wonder who it will be ? 

Truth is rarely fashionable—but it is knowable.  The truth is knowable because Jesus Christ is truth and the He is the saviour of the world, and we can know Him.

21^st century relativism

Many people in the 21^st Century no longer accept that there is such a thing as truth, and certainly no such thing as absolute truth. To them, the only absolute truth is that there is no absolute truth—there’s no right and wrong, only opinions.  All ethics are situational.  (Actually, if there’s no such thing as right and wrong then the concept of ethics is meaningless.)  Everybody is tolerant of everything; the only thing not to be tolerated is intolerance. What we are experience is the liberal left's emerging as intolerance of any views except their own. And as we see with the left's intolerance of even laws that don't meet with their approval. We witness that with violence such the riots in Minneapolis and Los Angeles in open defiance of law and order.

People must rely on laws as the only recourse for moral direction. But even laws can be changed with a simple majority vote and a stroke of a legislative pen. In a world of relativism, there is no higher Truth that exists apart from what legislatures declare and enforce. The final arbiter of truth is power. Change the government and what was right and true yesterday is replaced by a different government and a new set of standards and a different set of lawmakers. What was previously unthinkable can becomes the law of the land. Germany showed us that in the last century.

 

Without a higher moral Law or standard for people to agree upon and follow (or an author and giver of that higher Law or standard), all that’s left is consensus of those who are most powerful and cunning. If there’s no lawgiver, no Messiah to save us from ourselves, then ultimately most people will find no meaning or purpose to life, no truth, life will have no intrinsic value.   

Society may have to hunt down and jail criminals like Paul Bernardo or John Wayne Gacy to protect itself.  But if we seriously believe there is no such thing a right and wrong, no truth, then it’s pointless condemning what they did. After all, when they committed their sexual abductions, tortures and murders, their personal definition of truth may have been dominance and self-gratification.  Somebody may interject to say, “They had no right to impose their views on others or kill those women!”  Why not?  If there is no right or wrong, then there’s no basis to make such a claim.   

What is truth?

That’s why I find 21^st Century relativists suspect. In one breath they maintain there is no objective right and wrong, no absolute Truth.  In the next breath they’re decrying the destruction of the rain forests, or using animals in medical experimentation, or they’re marching in the streets against globalization or lawful deportation of illegal aliens. Methinks the relativist believes in objective truth more than he’s letting on and he expects the rest of us to agree (or at least acquiesce). Why? Well, according to the relativist, each person has his personal truth, his own standard of right and wrong, and he must not inflict his standards or morals on others. But that is exactly what relativists are doing when they march in the streets shouting and waving banners or destroying property. 

Now, if there is such a thing as objective truth, where does it come from? Christianity says Jesus is the Truth. His crucifixion and Resurrection gave rise to a tidal wave of love and hope for millions of people for more than two thousand years. 

Each person must decide if Jesus is the only saviour of the world. Personally, I’ve concluded the answer is Yes. Christ has utterly changed my life for forty-five years.