WHAT IS TRUTH? by C. L. Taylor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Mar 27, 1907

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 33, No. 13.

WHAT IS TRUTH?

By C. L. Taylor

Is this a question which really admits of a positive answer?

Shorn of all superfluities, the actual cry of the great dying world is, "What is truth?" And in reply to the question, which has become almost one of despair, there come from all parts of Christendom a thousand conflicting answers.

The terrible result of this tangled and discordant condition is that mankind everywhere is fast coming to believe that, after all, there is no such thing as truth; that truth, so termed, is but a matter of opinion, at best only relative. It is common, indeed, to hear it said that no one can know this or that to be right; he can only think himself right; that error to-day will be truth to-morrow and vice versa.

Were this true, then every searcher after truth might as well cease further effort and say with those of old, "Let us eat and drink; for to-morrow we shall die." But it is not true.

Truth is as absolute and positive as the personality of God Himself. "I am the truth," said Jesus. The I AM of God is the truth of God. "God is;" His truth is. If it is possible to know God, then it is possible to know truth.

Truth is a fact. Truth in the life is an accomplished fact in the life. The great truth-fact of the Gospel of Christ for the believer is "Christ in you, the hope of glory." And just so certainly as one can know his own life as a fact, just so certainly, yea, more certainly, can he know the life of God within him as a fact.

And right here let it be said, it is to be deplored that so many professed followers of God treat the Gospel of Christ as a mere abstraction, as an empty theory to be bandied about in idle discussion, critical argument, or empty declamation. As a rule, he who can glibly argue knows little or nothing of the great fact of truth.

Jesus said, "Ye shall know the truth." That divine assurance still stands, and every hungry soul may trust it fully. And the only prerequisite to knowledge of truth is a burden to obey truth when it shall be made known. Here is the word: "If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God." John 7:17. Or, as given in the Revised Version, "If any man willeth to do His will, he shall know." To every one longing to do the will of God, the Saviour says, "Ye shall know the truth."

And mark the expression, "the truth." It is impossible that there should be many systems of truth. "There is one body, and one Spirit, . . . one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all." There is but one truth—"the truth . . . in Jesus." In Jesus Christ is summed up all truth, and He is "the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever." Truth is unchangeable.

It is time that we treat the word of God with respect. It may not be regarded, as even some ministers have said, "as an old fiddle upon which one can play any tune he pleases." It is a simple, plain, straightforward presentation of God's thoughts toward men, and only those who would darken counsel "by words without knowledge" will speak thus contemptuously. As high as the heavens above the earth, so is God's expressed thought above ours; nevertheless He says: "All the words of My mouth are in righteousness; there is nothing froward or perverse in them. They are all plain to him that understandeth, and right to them that find knowledge."

God has promised, dear reader, to teach us. "They shall be all taught of God." "The Spirit of truth . . . will guide you into all truth." Our Father, by His Spirit, has many beautiful ways of helping us to know. If we, like the Ethiopian eunuch, are unable to grasp the meaning of some parts of the word, a good friend will be despatched to aid. If, like Daniel, we are distressed to know, and the case is urgent, angelic beings will be hastened, and will come quickly to enlighten. And day by day as we pray for light that we may walk in that light, "the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him" will rest upon us, and we shall see and know.

Like Pilate, we may well ask, "What is truth?" Unlike the Roman ruler, let us remain with Jesus until the question is fully answered. Let us sit at His feet and hear His word, and thus secure from Him that good part which can not be taken from us.

C. L. TAYLOR.