“What is Truth?”

Near the end of my previous post we were left with a question voiced by Pontius Pilate, a governing official of what would have been the most civilized and just empire in the world at that time, Rome.  The question, “What is truth?”

From about 500 BC to about 30 BC Rome existed as a republic, a government in which citizens elected representatives to rule on their behalf and in which laws established by those representatives were to ensure a just and equitable society, including due process for lawbreakers. Roman natural law held that all men were born equal and that they have certain rights that no government can violate (Sound familiar?). However, those rights were not endowed upon them by the Creator but came initially through logic and reason. As time went on, lawmakers were influenced more and more by philosophy and political expediency. Through corruption and political intrigue (think Julius Caesar), the ideals of the republic deteriorated, (Sound familiar?) and were supplanted by an autocratic form of government beginning with Caesar Augustus in 27 BC.  The Roman Senate gave him the name Augustus, implying he was to be venerated above all mortals, the final arbiter of truth.

Augustus was ruling Rome when Jesus was born. He was the one who required the census that brought Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem.  Under the rule of Augustus, Rome entered into a 200-year period known as Pax Romana (Roman Peace). Rome had conquered much of the “civilized” world and had multiple nationalities living within the empire. The term Pax Romana mainly referred to a time of peace which existed between nationalities within the empire (Oxford Essential Dictionary of Foreign Terms in English).

Benefits of the Pax Romana included increased prosperity and improved quality of life with more and safer roads to travel, advanced architecture and advanced trade.  However, history indicates that Pax Romana was maintained not on truth and justice, but on food, circus and suppression of rights.  In other words, keep the people well fed and entertained, bring down the hammer on them when they misbehave and you have peace, at least the perception of peace. Pax Romana ended around 180 AD, as society deteriorated and internal conflict increased, with the Empire ultimately being sacked by the uncivilized Huns, Goths and Vandals.

I would also note that throughout this period Rome was deeply religious, having a multiplicity of gods to choose from, including the Caesar’s themselves who were to be preeminent in the hierarchy of deities.

I present this history as a means of understanding the skepticism implied in Pilate’s question in response to Jesus stating that He had come to this world to bear witness to the truth.  Within the culture in which he lived and knowing Rome’s turbulent history, how could Pilate not be skeptical that anything such as truth – objective, absolute, transcendent truth exist, even though the very embodiment of that truth stood before him?  How could he not be cynical, seeing truth as something subjective, used to manipulate and control rather than objective, facilitating justice and true liberty for all who would embrace it.  (John 8:31-32)

Two thousand years later we live in a world, a nation not unlike that of Pontius Pilate, filled with skeptics, cynics and deniers of objective truth altogether.

David Wells in his book, The Courage to be Protestant: Truth Lovers, Marketers and Emergents in the Postmodern World, notes that two thirds of Americans (less in the younger population), do not believe in transcendent or absolute truth, truths that are unaffected by what happens in time and space.

Some see truth coming from a cultural consensus or a supreme court ruling.  Truth for many has its basis in their feelings, thus it is fluid and subjective. Truth is individualistic for others (my truth), the means by which they make their own rules – defining for themselves the terms of their existence. Still others believe truth comes from those who have the best credentials, (physicians, scientists, sociologists); most power (governing officials/supreme court); or most influence (actors, athletes, celebrities).

But for truth to be truth that results in justice and produces true and lasting peace, it cannot be subjective, nor a consensual cultural construct or governmental edict. Truth must issue from the reality God has created and defined, and over which He rules.  Thus, one writer defines truth as that which corresponds to reality as it is perceived by God.

Christian author, John MacArthur, provides a simple definition drawn from the Bible: Truth is that which is consistent with the mind, will, character, glory, and being of God. Even more to the point: Truth is the self-expression of God’s righteous nature and character.  Thus God alone is to be trusted and worshiped as the author, source, determiner, governor, arbiter, ultimate standard, and final judge of all truth.

Grace and Peace ×