Truth is what is. Truth is independent of what I believe or you believe. The world is a sphere even if you or I think it is a square. Objective truth is that which is true regardless of opinion and belief. Otherwise we could not say that the world is a sphere! Nowadays there is the false notion that you can have “your truth” and I can have “my truth”. This is to confuse the PERCEPTION of truth with truth itself. The same applies to interpretation of laws and the Bible. There is only one true interpretation, but there are many perceptions of what people believe to think the law says or the Bible says. This is precisely why in law and in literature and in theology there are “Rules of Interpretation”.
That is why I had to go to great lengths in my legal training in England to learn the “Rules of Interpretation” which states the GOLDEN RULE OF INTERPRETATION – that the LITERAL meaning of words must always be taken as the correct meaning UNLESS there is a clear indication within the law or passage itself that it is a figure or speech or is metaphorical.
WE ARE NOT AT LIBERTY JUST TO ADD WHATEVER WE BELIEVE TO THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OR TO THE BIBLE. This is exactly what some liberal Supreme Court justices are trying to do, and some liberal Bible so-called “scholars”. This simply leads to confusion and anarchy, and denies what true intellectuals have always known as Objective truth! To deny objective truth is to deny the existence of both logic and reason and ends valid communication altogether. The true purpose of philosophy itself is the search for what is objectively true.
Here are the three tests of truth: First, the Test of Correspondence — Does the theory or philosophy correspond with reality? Second, the Test of non-contradiction — Is it self-consistent or does it contradict itself? “A” cannot equal “non-A”. Third, the Test of Practice — Are you able to live consistently with your belief system, theory, philosophy or worldview?
In fact even those who say they don’t believe in objective truth cannot live consistently with this belief. I pointed this out on a flight to Germany to a fellow passenger. I simply told her that I hoped the pilot did not share her belief system about all truth being relative, because if he didn’t believe that the earth was round we would all end up dead!
I have said and written over and over for the last 40 years (since I devoted my life to the study of “worldviews” (including, philosophy, logic and reason) — people will continue to believe what they choose to believe. This is true on any and every subject (whether it is about cheese or wine or the ultimate questions of existence). Even worse their beliefs are fixed, regardless of objective evidence and objective facts, and in the case of atheism, regardless of hard science which now proves beyond any reasonable doubt, the existence of an intelligent designer.
It is pointless to have any discussion with anyone who does not believe in objective truth. If they chose to believe that the earth is flat, there is nothing anyone can do to convince them otherwise. Some people even believe that something is true because it is the majority view! Nowadays we call this “Groupthink”. In fact, there was a time when the majority did believe that the world is flat. There are millions of Muslims in the world who believe in Jihad, in genital mutilation of women, and that women are inferior to men. There was a time when the majority of Europeans believed that slavery is a legitimate and proper practice.
So why do I continue these seemily “pointless” discussions? The answer lies very clearly in the Bible on just about every page of the New Testament, particularly in the Gospels, in the very words of Jesus Himself, but the answer lies also in my own experience. I do this because for every 100 people who are fixed in their worldview choices there is one person who is willing to consider facts and evidence and is open to changing their beliefs if they are contrary to reality.
With regard to people rejecting the obvious objective truth that Jesus was whom He saiid he was, here are just a few passages:
1 Corinthians 1:21: “since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.”
Matthew 13:15-16: “For the hearts of these people are hardened, and their ears cannot hear, and they have closed their eyes so their eyes cannot see, and their ears cannot hear, and their hearts cannot understand, and they cannot turn to me and let me heal them. But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear”
Romans 8:7-8: “For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will. That’s why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God”
John 9:39-41: “Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, “Are we also blind?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.”
John 8:11-12 “Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, ‘I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life’.”
So, What is the answer to “Spiritual Blindness” and a lack of being able to recognize objective truth?
2 Corinthians 3:16: “But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.”
In conclusion, Here are some interesting Quotes:
* “In faith there is enough light for those who want to believe and enough shadows to blind those who don’t.” Blaise Pascal
* “The eyes are useless when the mind is blind.”
Here is a quote from an article at the link below:
“All of truth falls into one of two categories. We take some claims about the world to be objective. Objective claims aim to rightly represent the world, and they can be either true or false.
“However, not all claims are about what is true of the world. Unlike objective claims, relative claims aim to tell what is true only in relation to a particular person or culture. Relative claims are only “true” in the sense that they accurately represent what is true for some person or community.”
RELATIVE TRUTH IS NOT FACT BUT MERE OPINION.
