What is truth? Is it as some suggest the reliability of information? Is it goodness and trust? Is it the absence of doubt? Is it enlightenment and if so where from?

Well maybe or maybe not. Certainly we can say that if truth is the existence of these things, then lack of truth must be the absence of them. Like light, the absence of it bringing darkness, so the absence of truth must be "falsehood". Like a balance or a scale, we have at one end "true" and at the other "false". This of course is rather black and white view and besides how do we know which is which, or what is in the middle? One man's truth is another man's lie!

In the New Testament, Pilate interestingly asks Jesus what is truth? If we look at the context though we see something rather peculiar (Pilate who was a very politically motivated man, was trying to understand the accusations being brought against Jesus (by the Jews) of him "being a King")

John 18: 37 - 38
Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice......... and so in response Pilate says "what is truth?"

However, seemingly without waiting for a response to his question, he then goes out to face the accusers of Jesus and says "I find in him no fault (at all)". (John 18: 38). So Pilate, a hard political figure, quite used to ordering people to be executed, probably much harder and more cynical than any of our modern politicians, reacts in an animated fashion and testifies to the truth of what Jesus was saying. A complete contrast if you will to the falseness of what was being said by the mob outside. We are left wondering Why? What was it in the words of Jesus that affected Pilate so much?

In contemplating this then we come back to Pilate's question (and the very heart of the issue)
"what is truth?". How on earth, in such a world as we live in, can we trust to any kind of truth? It appears that one man's truth is another man's lies. People fight wars in the name of causes which they passionately believe to be correct, yet surely both sides cannot be right? (if indeed either of them ever is)

look at this bold claim by Jesus....

John 14:6
Jesus saith unto him (Thomas), I am the way , the truth , and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Now was Jesus a mad man? Was there a consistent message of hope and life in these declarations of "truth"? Also can we test the truth of the Bible and what Jesus was saying nearly 2000 years later?

Well yes we can......... The consistent message of both Old and New Testaments is that mankind will fool himself forever at every excuse. Consider the following two quotes and see if it rings true:

Jeremiah 17:9
The heart [is] deceitful above all [things], and desperately wicked: who can know it?

Proverbs 21:2
Every way of a man [is] right in his own eyes: but the LORD pondereth the hearts.

So the message here is that mankind is very good at fooling himself into believing what he thinks is "true" Of course by implication everyone else, who does not agree, is wrong! How do we break out of this? Well, we need a "bench - mark" to measure our perceptions against.

Can we find "truth" by looking inside ourselves? Well the Bible says most emphatically NO. Any attempt in this direction will only result in being deceived and self deception is probably the worst kind of all.

The Bible and Jesus claim to be telling the "Truth" to those who will listen in order to set us free from the burden of sin and death, but why on earth should we trust their messages rather that the meditations of our own heart? In the Old Testament God lays down a "bench-mark", by saying if what is told you comes true, then believe it, if not then don't.......

Deuteronomy 18: 22
When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that [is] the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, [but] the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.

So do we have anything we can "bench-mark" in the late 20th century and say "yes that came true"? Well yes we do. The witness of the prophecy regarding the restoration of the State of Israel. This event was predicted in both the Old and New Testaments as a precursor to the return of Jesus. (Ezek 37:12 and many others) Almost 2000 years went by and Israel was for the most part desolate. Then in May 1948 the event awaited for so long happened. See also http://freespace.virgin.net/christadelphians.eastcov/Prophecy.htm Now Christadelphians do not hold a political view point, but only attempt to testify to the accuracy of fulfilled Bible prophecy and point out the implications for further events soon to happen in the completion of God's purpose.

So finally can we trust to ourselves to find "truth" and look inwards for enlightenment? Will we be able to rise to a higher level of understanding which will lead to the solution of our own problems and those of the world? Evidence from history and even observation of children playing suggests that within each individual there resides a nature which comes to its own definition of the truth. So people come to that which is "right in their own eyes" as the Bible terms it. The Bible itself is quite clear that no such seeker of "self truth" will overcome the fundamental problem of human nature and the lies people tell themselves and others. Only God and Jesus offer real "truth" and a way forwards on this rather critical issue.

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