TRUE KNOWLEDGE

Knowledge is a strange thing. It is based upon our believing what someone has presented as truth. Our knowledge is not only subjective because it depends upon our willingness to believe, it is only recognized as fact beginning at a specific time. To the individual, it will remain truth until additional information proves it to be untrue. As an example, a child is taught that two plus two equals four by her teacher. The child believes it to be true, and for a time, it is. But then another teacher teaches her that two X plus two Y equals twelve. She comes to the knowledge that in order for two plus two to equal four, both groups of two must have the same value. Two apples plus two oranges does not equal four of either, but four of another category known as fruit.

Up until the time of Copernicus, people believed that the Earth was the center of the solar system and everything revolved around it. We now know that the Sun is the center and the Earth is among the many bodies that travel around it. We still mistakenly speak of the sun rising and setting as though it is the object which is moving; apparently it takes time for our thought processes to catch up. The truth not only changes when a student learns that two of something is not the same as the number two, it changes as science makes new discoveries.

Truth is often misleading when it is presented by someone putting a "spin" on it, or when only part of the details are known. That is why the courts ask for the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Even then, a person who tells the truth is actually telling what he or she believes to be the truth. A witness's limited knowledge or personal bias is involved with how he understands what is true.

I am often guilty of believing something because it supports my feeling about someone. For instance, if someone tells me something disparaging about President Obama, I am likely to believe it because I don't like his beliefs. The same is true about Richard Nixon, Oprah Winfrey, Judge Judy, Jerry Springer, etc. It has nothing to do with race, gender, or political party; I simply do not like them because I perceive that their character is un-Christian. I am much more likely to believe something negative about them, than I am about Billy Graham, Ronald Reagan, Harry Truman, Martin Luther King, Jr., etc.

So the question follows: is there really something that is true for all time? Yes! Every word that was spoken by Jesus is truth for those listeners who believe in Him (Jn. 17:17; 18:37). Jesus said, "...I am the truth..." (Jn. 14:6). Those of us who believe in Jesus as the Son sent for us by the Father, can know that the Bible is the eternal truth of God. Jesus said that not one jot or tittle would cease to be truth (Matt. 5:18). Since the Bible is the only standard of truth that is eternal, all other knowledge must be evaluated based upon how it lines up with God's Word. If it harmonizes with it, you "can bank on it!"