What is Truth?

Rev. Richard A. Bolland
(As published in the Pagosa Springs Sun Newspaper 11-13-03)

           Where do you find real, genuine truth?  A very long time ago, in a land, far, far away, a Roman Governor named Pontius Pilate asked Jesus, “What is truth?”   Pilate isn’t the only one asking what is a very good question.  Lots of people claim to be telling us the truth, but there’s a problem – they contradict each other, therefore they cannot all be telling the truth, can they.

            We could listen to Plato or Aristotle, or John Locke, or De Sarte, or if you wish to be more up-to-date perhaps Oprah or Dr. Phil might be more your cup of tea in attempting to know the truth.  Once again you’d have the very same problem, they all contradict each other.  People have noticed this problem with truth claims, and they’ve made some quite remarkable adjustments to try and understand the nature of truth itself.  Some have reasoned:  “Well, since everyone seems to have their own versions of the truth and since all truth claims seem to be contradictory, then it must be so that everybody’s right and telling a slightly different variation of the truth.”

             There is an old Indian parable (of the subcontinent variety) which speaks of blind men describing an elephant.  One man grasps hold of the trunk of the elephant and declares that, “An elephant is like a snake!”  Another man wraps his arms around the elephant’s leg and declares, “No, an elephant is like a tree!”, and a third (feeling the side of the animal), states, “No, an elephant is like a wall!”  In today’s Post-Modern world some would conclude that all three are telling the truth since their individual perceptions are true in a limited sense.  But, of course, the elephant is the whole elephant!  The whole elephant is the truth about what elephants are like! 

            One of the primary theories about truth these days is the notion that perception creates reality.  The reasoning goes like this:  “If I perceive something to be true, then it is.”  Perhaps you’ll remember the old “saw” that goes something like this:  “If a tree falls in the middle of the forest, and no one is there to hear it fall, did it make a sound?”  Now this is a remarkable piece of Post-Modern logic.  A good Post-Modernist would conclude that the tree did not make a sound because no one perceived it.  Of course, it is an absurd notion since the tree did fall and it unquestionably did make a sound when it did.  Frankly, it makes no difference whether or not anyone heard it, because it happened in reality!  Just because we believe something does not make it so!

             Where shall we go with all this?  I would be bold to suggest that truth has only one of two origins:  Either truth is from inside of us, or it comes from outside of us.  If we determine what is true from inside of us, then the reality about truth is that there isn’t really any truth at all, because all of us will come to different versions of how we perceive things.  I would make the following claim regarding truth:  Truth, in order to be true, must be true for all people of all times, in all places regardless of whether or not anyone believes it!  Therefore, truth must come from outside of us!

            Let’s rejoin the conversation between Jesus and Pontius Pilate for a moment.  Prior to Pilate’s question about truth, Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world.  If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews.  But now my kingdom is from another place.”  “You are a king, then!” said Pilate.  “You are right in saying I am a king.  In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth.  Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”  Then Pilate asks his question.  (John 18:36-38)

            The irony regarding Pilate’s question was that he was looking truth in the eyes when he asks what truth is!  Jesus is who Jesus claims to be – truth in the flesh.  God doesn’t merely have the characteristic of being true, He is truth itself.  For instance, when Jesus says, “I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”  (John 14:6), He is telling the absolute truth because that’s what He is!