“Your Truth” Or The Truth?

Last week Vice-President, Kamala Harris, stirred some controversy by her response to a student who made an anti-Israel comment.

“Your truth cannot be suppressed,” Harris told the student.

The exchange took place at George Mason University during a Q & A session when one student questioned funding Israel’s “Iron Dome missile defense system, which has been credited with saving countless Israeli lives,” according to multiple news outlets.

The student accused Israel of engaging in ethnic genocide.

The Vice-President responded, “This is about the fact that your voice, your perspective, your experience, your truth cannot be suppressed. And it must be heard.”

The point of this post is not political, but an illustration of a widely used expression today when speaking to a wide range of topics. Politics. Science. Culture. Morality. Ethics. Values. And religion.

“What’s truth for me, may not be truth for you. And what’s truth for you, may not be truth for me,” is the mantra of our day.

While people may hold various opinions about certain topics, and choose to accept or reject the information presented, there is such a thing as truth. Whether or not we know it, understand it, or believe it, truth exists.

In spiritual matters, Jesus said that God’s word is Truth (Jn. 17:17). He further declared that He was the divine embodiment of Truth. “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (Jn. 14:6)

Too many view religious truth as depicted by Charles Shultz in a Peanuts cartoon featuring a conversation between Linus and Charlie Brown. It seems that Charlie was confused and disillusioned by his failing beliefs when Linus comforted him with these words: “It doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you are sincere.”

It’s possible to be sincere, but be sincerely wrong. The Bible records many examples of people being on the wrong side of Truth, but sincerely following “their Truth.” Saul of Tarsus rejected Jesus as the Messiah and sought to persecute and kill Christians. He said he did it in “all good conscience.” That was his truth. But he was wrong.

Some folks today are very open about their personal quest for their own truth. An artist, Jim Alford, wrote a piece entitled “looking for my own God.”

“I am approaching my sixtieth birthday and in many ways, I feel like a college sophomore. What is the meaning of life? I am still looking for my own truth, some metaphysical answers to who I am. I am looking for a personal creator that fits like an old tee shirt or a pair of old slippers. A god just for me, customized and accessorized with me in mind.”

I wish I could talk to Mr. Alford and point him to the Creator of the cosmos. The One who formed Adam from the dust of the earth. Who made woman from his rib. (Gen. 1-2). And the One in whom “we live and move and have our being” (Ax. 17:28).

Truth is understood in knowing God, Jesus, as the Son of God, and learning about life on earth and life beyond the grave as revealed in Scripture.

Like the Ephesians, Mr. Alford and others seeking “their truth,” need to hear, believe and trust “the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation” (Eph. 1:13).

Too many today, even among those claiming to be Christians, are being guided by “their truth” instead of what the Bible reveals about sin, salvation, and the church that Jesus purchased with His blood (Rom. 3:23; Ax. 4:12; Matt. 16:18; Ax 20:28).

Rejecting the Truth, and seeking my own way will lead me down a path described by Robert Bellah in Habits of the Heart. He interviewed a woman named Shelia who embodied this attitude.

“I believe in God,” Shelia said. “But I can’t remember the last time I went to church. But my faith has carried me a long way. It’s Sheilaism. Just my own little voice.”

Indeed the wise man was right, “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes” (Prov. 21:2).

Instead of looking for “your Truth” religiously, come to know God’s Truth. It will provide you everything you need for life and godliness ( 2 Pet. 1:3).

–Ken Weliever, The Preacherman