From: dil@sce.carleton.ca (David Irvine Laurenson)
Subject: Re: "Truth"
Organization: Carleton University
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1992 13:52:16 GMT

GE0110@SIUCVMB.BITNET (Tom Purcell) writes:

>Marty writes...

>>
>>You're partly right.  It is possible for different people to have
>>different insights into the same truth.  It also is possible for
>>different people to express the same truth in different language,
>>leading to the impression that they disagree when they do not.
>>However, when statements contradict each other, they cannot both be
>>true.  The statements, "Jesus is God" and "Jesus is a man" are both
>>true, although incomplete.  The statements "Jesus is God incarnate"
>>and "Jesus is ONLY a man" are incompatible and cannot both be true.
>>

>I do not disagree, but recognizing that only option one may be true in some
>abstract sense does not lead one to a certain choice between them.  One is
>left ultimately with a degree of uncertainty and an element of
>"faith" in the choice....  If truth exists (and I believe it does also),
>it cannot be recognized without some assumptions (faith).  This results in
>a degree of uncertainty in our conclusions.  Our salvation, after
>all, is a matter of faith and trust rather than a matter of
>intellectual certainty.  (I am not trying to knock logic, by the way,
>but merely pointing out the necessity of uncertainty and trust).

Of course this depends on what you mean by faith.  I understand faith
as 'being sure of what we do not see'.  i.e. there is a certainty
about faith.  Phrases like 'I know whom I have believed in' spring to
my mind, and one of the verses in today's scripturette - Romans 8:39 -
being SURE that God was able to do what he had promised.  So in a way
you COULD say that our salvation is a matter of faith, but if you mean
that it is not certain, then I disagree wholeheartedly.  I realise
that this is semantics, but it is a distinction that I feel is
important.  On the matter of choices I agree that it is frequently
very difficult to determine what the 'truth' is - and I too believe
that absolute truth exists.  For myself, when I am not sure about what
is right I have to hold off on jumping to one conclusion or another
until I determine what the Word of God says.  Just recently I learnt
this the hard way when coming to terms with some of the beliefs that I
held as a child - beliefs that I now see as contrary to the Spirit of
God.  This was a very difficult thing to do, but now I can see a
little more of the truth.  This doesn't mean that I understand the
whole truth, but that I am progressing towards it.  After all isn't
this what the Christian life is all about - growing to be Christlike,
and in that to be growing in the knowledge of the truth.

>>I think that scriptural passages such as 1 Cor 13:11-12 and Isaiah
>>55:9 mean that we cannot understand everything about God, not that we
>>cannot understand anything about God.
>>

>To the degree that we agree that at some level our "understanding" is
>necessarily incomplete and potentially flawed, I agree.

>My life's experience has taught me not to be too certain of
>my views.  Both as a social scientist and Christian, I have changed
>my views on many things as I have learned more of life.  Yesterday's
>"certainty" has often been viewed later only as a partial truth or
>perhaps a mistake.  It is my judgement that should I live to be
>1000, I would still be changing my views, understandings, and "truths".
>It is of the nature of having a finite capacity, something we all share.

Hear hear...

>Perhaps the only really certain things in life are the subjective ones,
>such as the confession of the blind man (John 9:25).  I would really like
>to be more certain and to command understanding of more "truth", but it
>is not my fate.  It helps me from time to time to realize this
>and to be reminded that it is my faith, not my grasp of "truths" that
>assures my future.  It is a good thing for me that it is so!
>that it is so!

Amen.  I am frequently glad that it is not MY efforts that brings me
close to God, but God's Spirit working in me.  This is a much surer
foundation - the cornerstone.

>And now for a really radical thought......
>Perhaps we would win more to Him by describing our experiences with
>Him rather than with powerful and logical arguments of "truth".

Yes, I think we can.  It has often been said to me that the majority
of conversions occur because of the influence of a Christian friend.
I can't see that people are bowled over by clever arguments - all
faiths have them.  What makes the Christian faith unique is that it
changes lives.

OK - how about interpretation of scripture.  Do we take all of
scripture literally, some of it literally (if so how do we decide what
is literal and what is not), or none of it literally.  Some of the
things I am thinking about are the flood, Revelation (and if you don't
take this literally would you have taken Daniel literally at the
time?).

Just a question that I am finding increasingly difficult to come to
terms with,

Your servant in Christ Jesus our Lord,

Dave.

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