Satan’s plan to eradicate God’s truth now fills all the world. Jesus foresaw that this would happen for did he not ask, “when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” (Luke 18:8 ESV) I recently contacted a person whose life’s mission is to disclose alien involvement with human beings. He believes in good aliens and bad aliens and seems like a genuinely good guy. He believes humans need to “wake up” in order to keep the bad aliens from winning the war against us. I asked him a few relevant questions about his beliefs and Christianity. His answer was obscure, but at one point he wrote concerning these things, “One can surmise and have conjecture but one will never actually know.” This is where this researcher and I part company. I believe we can know truth.
Paul instructs mature Christian believers to put on the armor of God in order to wage war “against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:12) The very first piece armor the Christian must don is the “belt of truth.” We have two options, either truth exists or it does not. If truth does not exist, then nothing we do matters anyway. If truth does exist, then it can be known and we have duty to find it, learn it, and know it. What we are discussing here exactly describes the dialogue between Jesus and Pilate.
37 Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” 38 Pilate said to him, “What is truth?” (John 18:37-38)
Throughout his Gospel John records Jesus’ own testimony concerning the truth. The book begins,
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life,[a] and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. …
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”) 16 For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.[d] 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God; the only God,[e] who is at the Father’s side,[f] he has made him known. (John 1:1-18)
This passage tells us that Jesus was full of truth and that truth itself comes through him. John also relates here that it is Jesus who makes God known to man. How does he do that? By teaching man the truth about God. In chapter 5 verse 33 John says that John the Baptist bore witness “to the truth,” that is, he bore witness to the man Jesus, to the Jews. Jesus fully understood who he was and what he taught. John records,
31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-32)
This passage proves that the words of Jesus contain truth, that that truth can be known, and that belief of that truth will set a person free from sin and their bandage to Satan. When the Jews questioned him about this strange teaching he said,
“Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave[b] to sin. 35 The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. 37 I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. 38 I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.” (John 8:34-38)
Jesus conversation with the Jews continued,
39 They answered him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing the works Abraham did, 40 but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did. 41 You are doing the works your father did.” They said to him, “We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father—even God.” 42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. 43 Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. 44 You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. 45 But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. 46 Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? 47 Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.” (John 8:39-47)
Jesus refers to Satan as the Jews’ father here. Anyone who has not embraced the words of Jesus, anyone who has not been delivered from the dominion of darkness into the domain of light still retains Satan as his father. The great news of the Gospel, however, is that Jesus came to free us from the domain of darkness and make a way for us to come into God’s light. But, we will never be able to make that transition if we do not embrace that fact that truth exists, that it can be known, and that it resides in the person known as Jesus the Christ. This is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Finally, towards the end of John’s book, comes another great revelation of truth. John records,
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God;[a] believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?[b] 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.4 And you know the way to where I am going.”[c] 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord,we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also.[d] From now on you do know him and have seen him.” (John 14:1-7)
Verse 6 I think records the simplest statement of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the way to God. Jesus is the truth which reveals by speaking the truth that way to men. Jesus himself contains the life of God for he in fact is the Creator of man and all things. And, finally, no one will ever come to a knowledge of God and to God himself (the Father) unless he comes through Jesus (for Jesus is the way to God, the truth about God, and the life of God).
Finally, let’s consider a very important verse from the Psalms.
The sum of your word is truth,
and every one of your righteous rules endures forever. (Psalm 119:160)
We learned from John the Apostle and Prophet that Jesus is the word made flesh. While in the flesh Jesus told us told us that the words he spoke were words of truth given to him by the Father. This verse from Psalms tell us that the “sum” of Christ’s word, the totality of God’s words revealed in the Bible, is truth! Churches have fallen away from the truth of Christianity because they have rejected much of the Word of God. We must read Old and New Testaments prayerfully in order to understand the truth and way of God.
The ET researcher I mentioned above said that we can surmise and conjecture, but we can never know the truth. Pilate wondered the same thing. I showed above that truth is knowable, that Jesus Christ is the truth, and that the sum of his Word is truth. The truth test will always reveal the false prophet from the true. The false prophet teaches that each man makes his own reality and determines what is true for him. The true prophet teaches that God’s Word establishes truth and that we must align our lives with that truth. Thus Isaiah proclaimed,
20 To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.
21 And they shall pass through it, hardly bestead and hungry: and it shall come to pass, that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse their king and their God, and look upward.
22 And they shall look unto the earth; and behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish; and they shall be driven to darkness. (Isaiah 8:20-22 KJV)
The world has grown dark indeed. Many men see this darkness. Many want to understand it and want others to awaken to it, yet they refuse to see the light that shines in this darkness… Jesus the Christ, the Son of the Living God.
