Can the truth evolve and vary from person to person?
What is truth, these days it is moveable, shifting, fitting in with the general sentiment.
But the truth is not what the majority think.
A village at the base of an inactive volcano may all think they are safe just prior to the volcano erupting.
The truth was that the volcano was about to erupt and had nothing to do with how many believed otherwise.
The Hebrew for ‘truth’ used in the Old Testament is ‘אֱמֶת’ (e.met) which means ‘truth, true, firmness, faithfulness, sureness, reliability, stability, continuance, as spoken, truth as a body of ethical or religious knowledge, true doctrine”
All of that gives an impression of permanence and something that can be trusted.
That is what the Bible is, it speaks of a constant, dependable truth.
People need to know the truth about the world and themselves.
Table of Contents:
1. The deceptive, untruthfulness of advertising
Here is a bottle of fizzy drink. The label says: ‘SUGAR-FREE.’
So ‘Sugar-Free’ means it’s not sugary, right?
And so it’s not a sweet drink, right?
Wrong!
But the label says ‘Sugar-Free!’ What is the truth?
It’s TRUE that there is no sugar, but it tastes sugary!
It is very sweet because there are loads of what they call ‘artificial sweeteners’ in it!
Or what about the supermarkets that show various products and say ‘Price matched to Aldi’, many get fooled into thinking that everything in that supermarket is cheap.
Whereas the reality, the truth, is that many thousands of other products not shown in the advert have an inflated, higher price.
So labels and adverts can be TRUE, and yet still be MISLEADING.
2. How truthful are the stories in newspapers, magazines, TV, etc?
What is truth? Is the media true?
Here is an example of a newspaper story I read:
Children dive for cover under their desks, as RAF plane crashes next to infant School.
A local newspaper near Diss, Norfolk.
The children had to be comforted by their form teacher after this frightening incident.
Parents were furious that RAF planes are allowed to fly so dangerously close to the school …”
Wow, this sounds like a really scary situation!
But this is what really happened (I know because I was close by):
The mums and dads picked their children up from school AS NORMAL.
A mother asked her two children what sort of day they’d had, and they said: “Neil got sent home from school for being naughty… and we saw a plane go over and two white mushrooms came out of it.”
The mother asked whether anything else had happened and the children said no.
The next day the newspaper reporters were waiting outside the school and they immediately crowded around the parents, saying things like:
“Don’t you think it is terrible how low these RAF planes fly?”
“Isn’t it dangerous having RAF jets flying so close to the school?”
“Aren’t you scared for your children’s safety?”
But the reporters were not interested in what all the parents had to say.
They only wanted to write down the things that the complaining parents said.
So what we read in newspapers, magazines, or what we see on TV, will be based on some facts, but as we have just seen, the true story can be made more colourful and it ends up being not very truthful.
It is interesting to observe that some parents had said, “No the plane crashed a long way away!”
But the reporters totally ignored those sorts of remarks!
Be aware that the stories you hear are probably exaggerated or other information has been added in.
What is truth? It certainly is missing from a lot of newspapers, magazines, TV, etc.
When we give to charity we expect the money to be used wisely, is millions of pounds on executives a good use of the money, see here.
There are charities that Christians often donate to, what do they spend their money on?
3. Are the Internet news sites truthful?
Wikipedia has an interesting list of fake news websites.
Here are some examples out of the 79 in their full list!
CBSnews.com.co
‘List of fake news websites’ Wikipedia 3
Owned by Paul Horner. Mimics the URL, design and logo of CBS News…
Empire News
Many of this website’s fake news hoaxes were widely shared on social media, with stories based on social or political controversies, or were simply appalling to readers. The site says that its content is for ‘entertainment purposes only…’
Global Times
A daily tabloid owned by the Chinese government…
Global Associated News
Described itself as enabling users to produce fake stories using its ‘fake celebrity news engine’…
Natural News Formerly News Target
a website for the sale of various dietary supplements, promotion of alternative medicine, controversial nutrition and health claims, and various conspiracy theories, such as ‘chemtrails’, chemophobic claims (including the purported dangers of fluoride in drinking water, anti-perspirants, laundry detergent, monosodium glutamate, aspartame), and purported health problems caused by allegedly ‘toxic’ ingredients in vaccines, including the now-discredited link to autism…”
Just looking at the few examples above is very worrying, let alone when you look at the full list of 79 fake news channels.
The spread of lies, toxic views, and confusion is chilling.
We need to seek out the reality and the truth.
4. Jesus, the Truth, put on trial by liars and murderers.
Any trial of Jesus was going to be an absurdity because earlier the chief priests and the elders of the people had met together in the palace of the high priest and had plotted to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him. (Matthew 26:3-4)
Jesus was arrested and led to Annas, a bad former high priest of the Jews.
Annas broke two Jewish laws during the first part of the trial:
- He held the trial in his house, not in a courtroom.
- After questioning, Jesus was punched or slapped and then convicted of nothing.
From there Jesus was led to the Jewish Sanhedrin and to the present high priest, Caiaphas, who was Annas’s son-in-law.
Caiaphas broke seven Jewish laws during the trial: 4
- The trial was held in secret.
- It was carried out at night.
- While Jesus was in custody he was mocked and beaten.
- They blindfolded him and continued to punch him and they said “Prophesy! Who is it that struck you?”
- Jesus had no one defending him in the ‘court’.
- Many false witnesses presented conflicting evidence but nothing could be proved.
- The requirement of the agreement of 2-3 witnesses could not be met.
Finally, Caiaphas declared the guilty verdict of blasphemy because Jesus at that point claimed to be God in the flesh.
Many hate the truth because it shines a light on their own lives and shows that they are rebelling against God, that they doing bad things and are not doing good to others.
No wonder those self-righteous, jealous, religious leaders wanted to kill Jesus, the pure Son of God.
They hated the truth because they liked to receive honour from others while they pretended to be righteous.
5. What can we trust to be the Truth?
Well, there is one Book that is true, which won’t mislead you and it is totally truthful, and that is the Bible.
The Bible is known as the Word of Truth.
In this book, it tells us:
The whole Bible was given to us by inspiration from God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realise what is wrong in our lives;
2 Timothy 3:16 The Living Bible
it straightens us out and helps us do what is right.”
6. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
What is truth according to the Bible?
1. The Bible states that both Jesus and King David said “Your Word is Truth”, therefore the Bible itself is the truth. 5
2. Jesus said that he himself is the Truth “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” 6
3. Jesus came from heaven to the Earth to be a living witness to God’s truth and to show us that Jesus is the King:
At the trial with Pilate, Jesus said to him, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” 7
4. ‘Truth is that which is consistent with the mind, will, character, glory and being of God. Even more to the point: Truth is the self-expression of God. That is the Biblical meaning of truth.’ 8
Who can we trust; Wikipedia, education, TV, newspapers?
Are celebrities good influencers?
Have you been a victim of fraud?
References – open in new tabs:
Javier Rodríguez from Palma de Mallorca, España licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license. ↩
taras.rynza on Flickr via Compfight cc ↩
‘What is truth?’ Got Questions Ministries. ↩
Psalm 119:160 & John 17:17 NIV ↩
John 14:6 NIV ↩
John 18:37 NIV ↩
‘What Is Truth?’ By John Macarthur. Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. 1 January 2019. ↩