Truth. Intuited or Philosophical Theory?

Someone mentioned Webster.
Here ya go....
truth
TRUTH, n.
1. Conformity to fact or reality; exact accordance with that which is, or has been, or shall be. The truth of history constitutes its whole value. We rely on the truth of the scriptural prophecies.
My mouth shall speak truth. Prov.8.
Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth. John. 17.
2. True state of facts or things. The duty of a court of justice is to discover the truth. Witnesses are sworn to declare the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
3. Conformity of words to thoughts, which is called moral truth.
Shall truth fail to keep her word?
4. Veracity; purity from falsehood; practice of speaking truth; habitual disposition to speak truth; as when we say, a man is a man of truth.
5. Correct opinion.
6. Fidelity; constancy.
The thoughts of past pleasure and truth.
7. Honesty; virtue.
It must appear
That malice bears down truth.
8. Exactness; conformity to rule.
Plows, to go true, depend much on the truth of the iron work. Not in use.
9. Real fact of just principle; real state of things. There are innumerable truths with which we are not acquainted.
10. Sincerity.
God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship in spirit and in truth. John 4.
11. The truth of God, is his veracity and faithfulness. Ps.71.
Or his revealed will.
I have walked in thy truth. Ps.26.
12. Jesus Christ is called the truth. John 14.
13. It is sometimes used by way of concession.
She said, truth, Lord; yet the dogs eat of the crums-- Matt 15.
That is, it is a truth; what you have said, I admit to be true.
In truth, in reality; in fact.
Of a truth, in reality; certainly.
To do truth, is to practice what God commands. John 3.

You will notice that apart from the bolded definition, all others hold that truth is absolute, factual, unchanging, and exact.
And you will also notice that the bolded definition clarifies what type of opinion is considerdd "truth". CORRECT opinion. Therefore you may hold the opinion that the sky is red and call it truth if you so desire; still it is not CORRECT opinion, and it is not truth.

As to the OP question.
Scripture has given us where we might find truth. It is revealed in the Person of Jesus Chricst and apart from Him there is no truth for BY HIM DO ALL THINGS CONSIST. Therefore, no "truth" is knowable apart from His granting it to us. Re-read Romans 1 again.

You might also consider:
Col 1:16
For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
Col 1:17
And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

If there is any "truth" at all that may be known, it is by Christ.

And one more for the "philosophy" nuts.
Col 2:8
Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

 

Philippians 1:18 What then? notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretence, or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice.

Relative truth, yes there is a true Gospel. I have no problem with that fact. Or with the fact that the word became flesh and that Word is true.

This verse points out that truth is sometimes like beauty, in the eye of the beholder.

Before you attack me answer this thought, why would a man preach truth he does not believe?

 

No it does not. What this verse SAYS is that some were preaching Christ in pretence. It does not say anything near what you think it does.

What it DOES say is that some were preaching Christ hypocritically. No "relative truth" at all.

To answer your question as to why would someone preach a 'truth' he does not believe; you do know what 'filthy lucre' is don't you? Many have preached Christ for money yet never truly loved nor believed in Him. This is what Paul said. Nothing there about your preconceived notion that there is such a thing as 'relative truth'.

 

So you believe a man will show up every Sunday to tell a bunch of lies? Why bother with the Church if that's your intention, not like preachers were rich back then. I disagree with your assertion even though you support the common belief.

 

Thanks for an excellent example of how truth can be absolute and relative. It is absolute that the room is 78 degrees. It is relative that the room is cold or hot. The dependence is on how the temperature of the room is expressed.

 

Some good points here.

By absolute, I was referring to the type of statement. It is an absolute type statement. It is not necessarily true in that the average temperature of the room is probably not 78 degrees, only the average temperature of some of the air around the thermometer measuring the temp.

 

Relative Truth = oxymoron.

Otherwise words mean nothing.

Once more many of you have proven the fact that Secular Humanism has infected the church. The very substance of your arguments bears this out to be ABSOLUTE TRUTH.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

 

I must be really dumb :laugh: . What is truth? God is truth. To find the truth go to God. What am I missing? Why does it have to be so complicated?

 

Amen sister!:applause: :thumbsup:

 

God is definitely truth.

But usually when we ask the question "what is X?", the proper response would be "X is ...."

So while I believe the statement, "God is truth" is most definitely true. The statement "Truth is God" in response to the question "What is truth?" may not be so appropriate.

 

Gold Dragon, can you answere this question? And what exactly is the point to this whole thread? From reading all the posts it appears it's just about impossible to know for sure what truth is. And if we can't know what truth is we can't determine right from wrong or even up from down. I'll just stick with believing God through His word and trusting Him to reveal truth through the Holy Spirit. Then I won't have to think about whether truth is relative, objective, philosophical, intuitive understanding, ect.ect.ect. The Bible clearly states that God has revealed Himself to us through His creation and a conscience. This is where all truth begins.
Blessings

 

What is Truth? When the Bible says something like "Keep My Commandments" THAT is Truth.

Jn:14:15: If ye love me, keep my commandments.
Jn:14:21: He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.
Jn:15:10: If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.


WHAT is the definition of a LIAR as far as God is concerned?

1Jn:2:4: He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.


Unfortunately though, too many Christians try to think they can use their "intuition" to turn the Truth into anything they want for it to be.

If a person actually WANTS to do God's will, then the Truth will be revealed to him, through the Word, through the Holy Spirit and through the providences of God.



Jn:7:17: If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.


Truth is also something that we DO and we wont do it if we LOVE sin instead, LOVE selfishness:

Jn:3:20: For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
Jn:3:21: But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.


Again, it is our DEEDS that cause us not to want to come to the light... in other words God says something like "Keep My Commandments" which is very simple, so much so that a child can understand it, but they who love sin will work their way around the Truth to try and make it be what they want for it to be. It isnt that Truth is relative, its that some try to MAKE it relative because they love unrighteousness:

2 Thessalonians 2:
10: And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
11: And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
12: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

what is "THE LIE" spoken of here in Thessalonians which is opposite of the TRUTH? (we can know what Truth is when we know what the Lie is)... verse 3 calls him "the man of SIN"... SIN is defined in the Bible as "Transgression of the Law" ...that man of LAWLESSNESS...

1Jn:3:4: Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.

God says this in so many ways throughout the Bible that you cannot miss it unless you WANT TO

They didnt love the Truth, what did they love? UNRIGHTEOUSNESS. SIN...

The entire TRUTH summed up is this:

Eccl:12:13: Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.

That is God's character, the commandments sum it up, LOVE... not selfishness, and the Commandments show us God's Government and we are to emulate God to the world and be rid of sin in our lives...

THAT is the Truth, plain and simple...

that is why in Revelation 14:6-12 the Three Angel's Messages tell us the last warning message to mankind, which is to keep God's commandments to avoid receiving the Mark of the Beast.

There is the Mark of God and the Mark of Satan.

Its that simple.

TRUTH is simple.

People who love to sin make it difficult. But they arent fooling God any, for He knows why they avoid the Truth.

Rv:12:17: And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
Rv:14:12: Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.
Rv:22:14: Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.


The TRUTH simply put is the truth about God's character of LOVE... which Satan has tried to LIE about since the beginning... he did it to Eve in the Garden.... making her distrust God...

the Ten Commandments are a description of the chatacter of God's Love... and we are called to emulate that:

Romans 13:
8: Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.
9: For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
10: Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

Jesus LIVED the TRUTH:

Jn:15:10: If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.

How will THE TRUTH set us free?

Jn:8:32: And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

well read what Jesus Himself said there about THE TRUTH:


John 8:
32: And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
33: They answered him, We be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?
34: Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.


Understand? Jesus talked about being in BONDAGE... to SIN...


The TRUTH makes us free... free from what? SIN of course!


simple simple stuff... become like a little child, stop trying to intellectualize everything away... the truth is there... just stop trying to weasel your way around it


Matthew 18:
2: And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them,
3: And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Mt:11:25: At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.



Claudia

 

Some of us like the truth to be simple and that is cool if that is how you are.

Others like to think a little deeper and be more critical of supposed truths, of which the extremes are scholars, philosophers and such.

There are pros and cons to both views and God wires us differently.

I also acknowledge that Christ speaks of having a simple child-like faith and that this is related to a simple view of truth. So I do try to mainatin a constant tension of having a child-like faith while often being complicated in my view of truth. And I know that isn't for everyone and may be bad for some.

I believe that God does reveal truth to us through the bible, the Holy Spirit and creation itself. I am a student of the bible and the sciences that try to describe God's creation. While I wouldn't consider myself a student of the Holy Spirit in the sense that I study about the Holy Spirit, I do consider myself a student of the Holy Spirit in that I seek to learn from the Holy Spirit by seeking his guidance in all I do.

As I said earlier, I think it is definitely a valid view that all truth is from God. However that statement has nothing to say about the characteristic of that truth being absolute or relative.

 

HP, you're killing me:laugh: . If you want to look for truth through philosophy or whatever, go for it. I'll stick to my statement that God is truth and you won't find truth apart from Him. Very simple and yes, it's a childlike faith of which I thank God for. Thanks for the discussion.
Blessings :wavey: