Who Determines Truth?

I hope you love the products and resources I recommend here at Foundational. It is possible that I get a commission and collect income from the links on this page. Click here for more info.

What do you believe about truth?

Do you believe truth is relative?

That it is flexible?

That it is evolving?

Does culture and its morality determine truth? Or is truth more stable than that?

Is there one source that determines truth for all time?

Who Determines Truth?

Evolution is a viable scientific explanation for the origin of life. Fetal tissue in the womb is not viable life.

Government cannot legislate morality.

Men and women are born homosexual or lesbian.

It does not matter how you do it as long as we get the results.

These statements reflect the accepted norm for most societies and cultures in the world today.

Does the acceptance of these pragmatic, rationalistic and humanistic statements make them true?

Is truth determined by the majority of a parliament; the decision of a judge; or the will of the majority of people?

There was a time when the majority of scientists and of educators believed and taught the world is flat.

Did that make it true?

When the majority of the people demand same sex marriage and the legal use of marijuana, does that make it right?

When a lobbying group convinces congress to lower the age of consent to five years old, does that make it morally correct?

Who determines what is morally right and wrong? Who establishes the standard of truth?

Jesus was arrested by the temple guards and taken before the Sanhedrin, the Jewish religious court.

He found guilty of blasphemy when the High Priest questioned Him, “Are you the Son of God?”

Jesus answered in the affirmative.

The High Priest tore his garment and declared Him guilty of blasphemy, even though He spoke the truth.

Jesus was taken from the Sanhedrin to Pilate, the Roman Procurator of Judea, for judgment on the grounds He should be executed.

Pilate asked Jesus, “Are you a king then?”

Jesus answered, “You are correct in saying I am a king. For this cause I was born, that I should be a witness of the truth. Everyone who is of the truth will hear My voice.”

Pilate responded as so many would today. “What is truth?”

The majority of people under forty have been educated to believe truth is relative.

Many of those who are over forty have been inculcated to believe in relativism through media and political correctness.

• What is truth for me may not be truth for you.
• What is right for this person may not be right for another.
• What is true in this situation may not be true in another.

Truth is determined by what works in each situation.

When someone insists there is a set standard of right and wrong; there is a set body of truth; SNOOY (So No One Offends You) rises to the surface immediately.

How dare anyone say they have a corner on the truth!

How dare anyone say there is an absolute right and wrong!

Even in the context of the church, SNOOY will often arise when the pastor dares to preach a message of holiness or calls the people to purity of heart, mind and body.

Indeed, if truth is a relative concept based upon one’s own opinion or personal experience then we each get to have one of own.

SNOOY maybe rightfully invoked when someone expresses their opinion and disenfranchises my truth.

It is time to hear the words of our Lord Jesus Christ found in the Gospel of John 8:31-32.

“If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (NKJV).

Jesus is expressing there is, indeed, a standard of truth.

That standard of truth is none other than His own words.

“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6 NKJV).

What establishes His Word as truth above all others?

Jesus answered that question in His conversation recorded in John 8:40.

“But now you seek to kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth which I heard from God” (NKJV).

Jesus made it clear.

The bedrock of truth is none other than the Word of God, itself.

The Psalmist declared, “Forever O Lord, your Word is settled in heaven.”

• Truth is not evolving.
• It is not flexible.
• It does not fluctuate or adjust from culture to culture; generation to generation; or situation to situation.

Truth is static.

It is immutable and firm as the God who spoke it!