EZINE 10, December 2017
WHAT IS TRUTH? DOES IT MATTER?
By Otto Engelberth
If you are a news junkie as I am, you have been exposed to the concept of "fakenews". This term was coined by some news sources to describe news that they believed not to be true.
Truth is a concept that this generation must make decisions about every day. We are continually confronted with having to decide the truthfulness of the information that we are bombarded with on TV, radio, newsprint, and the internet.
The primary filter that we use in this process is our paradigm or our world view.
This represents our reality and our truth. We develop our world view over our lifetime. Contributors to this process are our parents, teachers, people that we respect, public media, and our life's experiences.
The reason that our truths matter to us is that we act on them and those actions have consequences.
Given the amount of information that we are confronted with daily, we are continually modifying our world view to the new information we receive. This results in us developing the point of view that there are no absolute truths. Our truth is relative to the situation that we are dealing with.
For many of us, the concept that truth is relative puts us in conflict with the concept that there is a Creator and Sustainer of all that we are aware of and much more that we don't yet know about. We feel more comfortable with the theory of evolution which makes room for relative truth where the concept of a Creator implies absolute truth because the Creator is the original designer of all that is.
Before going on, let's consider the implication of the existence of absolute truths.
Absolute truths are not dependent on anyone believing they exist. They standalone. For example, the earth was a sphere when most people believed it was flat. You may recall from your history class that Galileo was imprisoned for saying the earth was a sphere. Just because most people believed the earth to be flat didn't make it flat.
Is it possible for a person to be absolute truth?
Think about it -- for a person to be truth, everything about them would have to be true. The only person that I know of who claimed to be truth is the Jesus Christ written about in the Christian Bible.
You may have heard of his name used as a swear word. Also, if you are a follower of the prophet Mohammed, you may have noticed that Jesus is mentioned in Koran which was written some 600 years after Jesus lived on earth. And finally,this year is called 2017. That's the number of years since the birth of Jesus Christ. I guess you could say that he was, historically, a very high impact person.
What makes Jesus so unusual in many people's eyes is the historical fact that,within a span of three years after reaching the age of 30, he performed as many as a thousand supernatural miracles that were observed by thousands of people.
Included in Jesus' miracles were the healing of hundreds of people's sicknesses and mental illnesses, restoration of their limbs, eyesight, hearing, and ability to talk.
On two occasions, he fed thousands of people by expanding one person's meal in such a way that they were all fed with several meals left over. On another occasion, he walked on water, on another he turned water into good wine, and on another he calmed a violent storm by his verbal command.
Jesus even brought dead people back to life. His most dramatic raising of a dead person back to life occurred when he raised his good friend, Lazarus, whose body was decomposing because it had been in a tomb for four days.
Not long after this, Jesus himself was put to death by the Roman soldiers. After beating and whipping him, they killed him by hanging him on a wooden cross by nails through his hands and feet. Just to make sure he was dead, they pierced his side with a spear causing blood and water to exit the hole.
He was placed in a tomb that was guarded by soldiers. After three days, he came back alive and was seen by more than 500 people. Some of whom he spoke with, ate with, and touched. And after being back alive for 40 days, his followers watched him ascend into heaven.
My reason for writing this paper about truth.
Recently, I was reading the account of Jesus' conversation with the Samaritan woman in the fourth chapter of John's Gospel. The woman commented, "Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain and you Jews claim that the place to worship is Jerusalem."
At the end of Jesus' reply he said, "------ the true worshipers will worship the Father (God) in Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is Spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth."On another occasion Jesus stated, "If you know the truth, the truth will set you free."
It occurred to me that it would be helpful to know what the truth is that Jesus is referring to. What follows is an overview of the absolute truth from God's perspective.
What would Jesus' mother say about him?>
Well, she would say that his conception and birth was certainly "one of a kind".
How is that? You ask.
For Mary, a Jewish teenager from the town of Nazareth in the Galilee region, life was good. She was a virgin and she was pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, who worked as a carpenter and was a descendant of Israel's famous King David.
Mary's typical day probably involved going to the well for water, doing laundry and preparing food. She had no way of knowing that the events of this day would not only change her life forever, but also impact yours and mine as well.
Her life changed because God sent an angel named Gabriel to deliver a message to Mary. Gabriel said, "Greetings, you are highly favored! The Lord is with you."Mary was troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will call him Jesus.
He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob's descendants forever;his kingdom will never end."
"How will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I am a virgin?"The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So, the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. ----"
Mary answered, "I am the Lord's servant, may your word be fulfilled." Then the angel left her.
Put yourself in Mary's shoes (or sandals). Who would you share this encounter with? Would they believe you? Would you post the angel's message on Facebook? Would you believe the encounter with the angel was real, or think that you were just imagining the event?
Fortunately for Mary, the angel also told her that her elderly aunt Elizabeth was six months pregnant with her first child. Mary must have decided that it was safe to tell her Aunt because the angel mentioned her during their conversation.
The reason that the angel was familiar with Elizabeth's condition was because, six months earlier, he had also delivered a message to her husband Zachariah informing him that he and his wife would have a son named John in their old age.
This meeting took place in the Holy Place in the Jerusalem temple where Zachariah served as a priest. Note that their son John, called John the Baptist as an adult, would be the person who would identify Jesus as the Messiah some thirty years later.
Upon arrival at Mary's Aunt's home, without prompting, her Aunt confirmed what the angel told her was real. Mary stayed at her Aunt and Uncle's home for three months.
At this point, Joseph was aware of Mary being three months pregnant. His first thought was to quietly divorce Mary. However, an angel appeared to him in a dream telling him, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home to be your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."
Joseph did what the angel told him to do. He took Mary home as his wife.
However, he did not finalize their marriage until after she gave birth to Jesus.
If Mary's story stopped there, people could doubt the truthfulness of what she was going through. But her story was just beginning.
About the time that Mary's pregnancy was at full term, the Roman government,who ruled over Israel at that time, decreed that a census be taken of the people of Israel. Their method of doing this was to have each family go to their ancestral home to be counted.
For Joseph, the city of Bethlehem was the place he and his family had to go to be registered. The distance they had to travel on foot and riding a donkey from Nazareth and Bethlehem was around 66 miles. Probably at least a five-day journey.
When Mary and Joseph arrived in Bethlehem they found all the rooms were taken by all the people from out of town. The only place they could get a roof over their heads was in a stable.
While staying in the stable, Mary gave birth to Jesus. That night they were visited by a group of shepherds who would give Mary and Joseph further confirmation that what the angel Gabriel told Mary was true.
The shepherds told of the event that led them to come to the stable to see the baby Jesus. While they were out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks that night, an angel appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them as a bright light. They were terrified.
The angel said, "Don't be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all people. Today in Bethlehem, the town of David, a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you; you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."
Then suddenly, a great company of the heavenly host of angels appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests."
After the angels left and went back into heaven, the shepherds decided to go find this baby that the angel told them about. After they had seen the baby Jesus, they spread the word about what they had been told about this child and all who heard it were amazed at what the angels had said to them.
What happened next brought home to Mary and Joseph that not everyone was happy about God's son, the future king, coming to live among mankind.
Shortly after the visit of the shepherds, they were visited by three Maji (wise men,astronomers) from the east. Somehow, they had seen a special star in the heavens that indicated to them that the "King of the Jews" had been born. They come and worshiped the baby Jesus as the newborn king. Then they opened their treasures and presented him valuable gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
The person who was not happy with the birth of the future king of the Jews was the present king named Harod. He found out about Jesus' birth from the Maji who came to him asking for directions on where they could find the newborn king. They told him about the star and when it first appeared.
Since Harod didn't know, he asked the Jewish religious leaders if they knew where he was prophesied to be born. They informed Harod that the prophets foretold that he would be born in Bethlehem.
Harod then formed a plan to kill the baby Jesus. He told the Maji that the future king was in Bethlehem and requested that they report to him when the found him so he could also worship Jesus. However, his plan was foiled when an angel toldthe Maji, in a dream, to go back to their homeland without telling Harod of the child's location. Harod then went to his plan B. He would kill all the boys in Bethlehem under the age of two years old.
God, knowing Herod's plan B, told Joseph in a dream to leave Bethlehem immediately for Egypt. So, they left that very night. Unfortunately, Harod carried out his plan by killing all the boys under two years of age in Bethlehem.
Jesus and is parents stayed in Egypt until Harod died. Then came back to Nazareth the town near where they were originally from.
It appears that Joseph and Mary decided, for Jesus' safety, not to tell anyone about his true identity and the role that he would play in the future. They didn't even tell his younger half brothers and sisters.
We don't know too much about his childhood except that he was very intelligent,worked as a carpenter, and did not commit any sins.
We know that Jesus knew who was at a young age because, when he was twelve years old, he spent three days debating the finer points of our old testament with the religious leaders of his day. When asked why he did that, Jesus indicated that he was carrying out his Father's (God's) business.
When Jesus was around thirty years old, he began to tell people that he was the son of God. The trigger for this change was when God's Holy Spirit came to dwell in him after he was baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordon river.
The absolute truth about the unseen world.
Before we go ahead with our discussion about why Jesus Christ is truth, I thought it would be helpful to discuss the truth about what is going on in the unseen world.
Maybe you haven't thought about the unseen world much, but we are impacted by things that we cannot see every day. Things like the wyfi signals that serve our computers and phones. How about germs and viruses? Also, the force of gravity that keeps us from flying off into space.
What about when a medium communicates with a dead person? Why does evil exist. Why do people worship idols and other material things? These are all examples of influences from the unseen world.
Have you ever had a thought pop into your head that you had not been exposed to before? Have you wondered where it came from? The Bible was written by authors who said that they were writing what God told them to write. In other words, their direction was coming from the unseen world.
By the way, evidence that the Bible is truth is not only confirmed by archeology,but also the number of detailed prophecies that have come to pass. This important because approximately one third of the Bible is about foretelling future events. There were over 200 of these prophecies about Jesus that were already fulfilled with many more that will be fulfilled in the future.
God described himself as being a spirit who is all powerful and knows everything,past, present, and future. He is the creator and sustainer of all that is. He has character and integrity. He always existed in the past, exists in the present, and always will exist in the future. God says that he accomplishes his plan utilizing Himself, his Son, and his Holy spirit.
As an aside, the Bible states that God knew you and I before he created the universe many thousands of years ago.
Thousands of years ago, God created a large group of spirit beings, that He called angels, to serve Him. Angels are individuals, they have their own character and personalities. They accumulate knowledge, they have free will, and they never die. Also, they can display themselves as people.
Long before the creation of mankind, a particularly gifted angel named Lucifer,wanted to take God's place so he led one third of the angels in a rebellion against God and the two thirds of the angels who remained loyal to God. Lucifer and his followers were not successful but have continued to be adversaries of God and His loyal angels to this day. After failing in their attempt to overthrow God, the fallen angels took up residence on earth.
In contrast to God, Lucifer lacks character. In fact, he is described as a liar who is incapable of telling the truth. His ultimate goal is to destroy mankind because they are God's created beings living on the earth which Lucifer considers his domain.
We participate in the unseen world because God created mankind as a "spirit being", created in God's image, residing in a physical body. The "spirit being" part of us never dies. So, what is our ranking in the spirit world? God says that we were created to be a little lower than the angels.
Unfortunately, our original ancestors, Adam and Eve, were gullible to Lucifer's lie that they would be like God if they would follow his suggestions rather than what God had told them. Their decision resulted in all their offspring also being gullible to the spiritual influence of Lucifer and his angel followers.
Mankind's gullibility to act on Lucifer's spiritual influence is on display when we think thoughts, say words, and take actions that are destructive for us personally,destructive for our relationships, and destructive for society. Additionally, Lucifer's goal is to have us believe that we are self-sufficient under his influence and that we come to believe that we don't need a relationship with God.
These destructive things that we think, say, and do are described as sin. Our sin is what identifies us with Lucifer's kingdom and stands in the way of our having a relationship with God. Ultimately God will judge Lucifer and his angelic and human followers. The result being that they will spend eternity in Hell.
As a side note, there are many prominent people in our world today who worship Lucifer. Just thought you would want to know.
God's response to mankind's condition was to establish a nation of people with whom He would dwell. About 4,000 years ago, He chose a man named Abraham to be the father whose offspring would become that nation. Today we know this nation to be Israel.
If you have read the Biblical Old Testament, you know that this nation's people sprung from Abraham's grandson Jacob who was later renamed Israel. They grew in number from 72 to more than 1.5 million people in the 400 years they were slaves of the Egyptians. God used a man named Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egyptian slavery.
God then gave Moses the laws that the nation would be governed by. These laws included hygiene, property rights, interpersonal relationships, and rituals that needed to be observed so that they would not forget God's special relationship with their nation.
Over the next 1500 years before the birth of Jesus, there were periods of time when the nation rebelled against God and His laws and followed Lucifer's influence. God then allowed them to be overrun and hauled off into captivity. But God never abandoned His promise to bless the world through His people. This is where His Son Jesus Christ comes in.
The absolute truth about Jesus Christ
From the Gospel of John, chapter 1, verses 1 thru 5.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the Beginning. Through him all things were made;without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
In this paragraph, John refers to Jesus as the "Word". He does this because, prior to coming to live on earth as a human, Jesus was part of the unseen world.
Therefore, the only communication with mankind about Jesus was through the words that he inspired the authors of our Old Testament to write.
Just so we don't gloss over this, the bullet points below state the truths about Jesus' existence prior to being born in Bethlehem:
About now you are probably thinking that it is strange that Jesus would make such a big deal about people believing in and accepting Him. I used to wonder about that as well. Then it occurred to me that every person on earth is being influenced by entities from the unseen world. Even the atheist who believes there is no God comes to that belief because of Lucifer's influence.
Jesus said that no one would be able to overcome Lucifer's influence and choose to believe in Jesus and all that He represents without being drawn to do so by God's Holy Spirit. So, given the spiritual battle raging in the unseen world, it is a big deal to believe in Jesus.
So, what happens to us when we choose to believe in and follow Jesus? You will recall that, earlier in this paper, I stated that we are spirit beings that are created in God's image, living in our physical body.
In the third chapter of John's Gospel, he relates Jesus' conversation with a religious leader. Jesus told the leader that no one can see and enter the Kingdom of God unless they are spiritually reborn by God's Spirit. Putting it another way,the spirit part of a new believer in Jesus becomes a new person.
In addition, God's Holy Spirit takes up residence in the spiritually reborn person.
Why is this important? It's important because:
You may be asking yourself why sin is such a big deal to God. After all, most of us are pretty good people. Occasionally we mess up, but on balance, we think our"score board of life" looks pretty good.
Unfortunately, that perspective is right out of Lucifer's playbook. You will recall that Lucifer convinced Eve to eat the forbidden fruit by convincing her of his lie that she would be like God. She would have the knowledge of good and evil. In other words, Eve would have a conscience.
So, being "little gods" in our own mind, we feel free to set our own rules and keep our points on our life's scoreboard. Not only that, just in case there is a real God with real expectations, we expect Him to respect our point of view.
Our "little god" perspective is very short term compared to God's eternal perspective. At best, we are aware of our life's experience plus what we know of history. As followers of Lucifer, we focus on things that we expect to experience in our lifetime. Lucifer doesn't tell us what happens after we die.
In contrast, God's perspective starts in the beginning and goes on forever. He created mankind to be part of His eternal plan. God loves us and wants us to be part of his family. In God's eyes, our sin is evidence of Lucifer's influence on us soGod needed to have a way to erase our sin from our record so that we can spend eternity with Him.
Since the penalty for our sin is death and spending eternity in hell, God, being just, needed someone to pay the penalty for us. Not just anybody, but a person who could resist Lucifer's temptations and be without sin.
So, in effect, God sent himself, in the person of his Son Jesus, to live a human lifelike you and I. Eventually, people, under Lucifer's influence, beat and killed Jesus.
They did this not knowing that Jesus was actually paying the penalty for all of mankind's sin by dying and going into hell on their behalf.
After having accomplished this while spending three days dead in the grave, Jesus came back alive. Then spent the next 40 days being seen by over 500 people,eating, touching and talking with many of them to prove that he was alive. Then,while in the presence of many of his followers, he was taken up into heaven.
About now, you may be thinking that God has offered you a very good deal. His free gift of eternal life with Him in exchange for your believing in Jesus and what he did for us. Oh, did I mention that to get this free gift, you need to accept it. To clear your mind, God asks you to confess all your sins to him, and thank him for him forgiving them. And finally, you need to tell others that you have done it.
Now that you have accepted God's free gift of eternal life, you have begun a journey that will go on forever. Like any journey, you need instructions about what our destination looks like as well as the roads that God wants us to take to get there. These instructions are found in the Bible.
Also, it is important that you not try to make this journey alone. You will benefit a lot by finding a group of fellow believers who will help you along the way. Usually the best place to find these fellow travelers in a local Bible believing church.
Relatively speaking, the duration of the part of our journey that remains for us here on earth is very short compared to the rest of eternity. Depending on your present age, probably no more than 70 years if you are 15 years old or 35 years if you are 60 years old.
Would you like to know what the Bible tells us about the times that we are living in and how they will impact your journey? If you are a student of history, you will recognize many of the foretold events that have occurred in the last 1985 years since Jesus' time on earth. These events include:
The event that is prophesied soon to happen is Ezekiel's war of Gog and Magog that God showed him over 2,500 years ago. He wrote about it in chapters 37 and 38 of his old testament book. In this war the nations of Russia, Iran, Turkey, Libya,and Sudan make a surprise attack on the nation of Israel and nobody comes to Israel's aid. God intervenes on Israel's behalf causing over 80% casualties to the attackers. If you have been following the news, you will recognize that this event is pretty well set to happen.
Another development that will soon happen is the formation of a one world government. The term presently used to describe this is "The New World Order."We are seeing this play out today where the leaders of some countries want to maintain their country's sovereignty while others in those countries want to have a one world government.
Ultimately, a global government will be formed and headed by a Lucifer possessed person called the Antichrist. He will require all the people under his rule to receive a mark on their forehead or hand signifying allegiance to him and Lucifer. Those who refuse the mark will not be able to buy or sell.
As a side note, those who pledge their allegiance to the Antichrist by receiving his mark, will spend eternity in hell. I just wanted you to know this just in case you are presented with this decision.
This leader will negotiate a seven-year treaty with Israel. This treaty will result in what the Bible refers to as the great tribulation. It is during this time, God will deliver his wrath on the unbelieving world population. It will be so terrible that no one would survive alive if God had not cut it short.
In the book of the Bible titled The Revelation, it gives us some idea of what will happen during this time. One event is described as a great earth quake that will be so violent that every mountain and island will be moved from its place. The sun will turn black and the moon turns red. Rocks will fall from the sky like figs off a tree and the heavens will appear to be rolled up like a scroll.
Before you think that this can't happen, events like this have happened before,thousands of years ago. Maybe you have read about the lost civilization called Atlantis, seen dinosaur bones in museums, or read about wooly mammoths being discovered in Siberia frozen in place with grass in their digestive systems.
There is much speculation about planet X, often referred to as Nibiru, that makes periotic orbits through our solar system. In preparation for this event,governments around the world have built underground cities presumably for the protection of the leaders and elite.
There are several other destructive events described that result in over half of the people on earth and other life dying, the vegetation scorched and major pollution of the oceans and water ways.
Now for the good news. Those of us who have accepted God's free gift of eternal life will not be on earth during the period of God's wrath. We will be in heaven.
It's part of our journey. How will this happen? According to what is written in first Thessalonians, chapter 4, verses 16 and 17.
For the Lord (Jesus) himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command,with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are alive and left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.
In another place in the Bible it describes all of this happens very quickly, "In the twinkling of an eye."
Closing Thoughts
In the beginning of this paper I made the following comment about our relative truths.
The reason that our truths matter to us is that we act on them and those actions have consequences.
Does this statement also apply to absolute truths? Do absolute truths have consequences even if we don't believe that these truths exist? Is there a difference between physical absolute truths vs. those that are spiritual?
Yes, physical absolute truths can be verified by observation or in a laboratory. On the other hand, some aspects of spiritual truths need to be acted on by faith. As we've seen in Jesus' case, we have the historical record of his earthly existence.
Particularly important are the supernatural miracles that he performed. And finally, we also have the occurrences of things that were foretold to happen.
Oh, and two more things that I forgot to mention. There were several times that people who were possessed by Demons made comments that originated from the unseen world. Their comments indicated that they knew Jesus was the Son of God and that Jesus has the power remove them from the person they are possessing and to send them to hell. In one case, the Demons ask Jesus to send them into a herd of pigs, which Jesus did. Next the demons caused the pigs to go over a cliff and drown in the water below.
The second happened when Jesus and three of his disciples, Peter, James and John, climbed a high mountain. While at the top, Jesus' appearance was changed into a spiritual being. His face shone like the sun, and his garments became brilliantly white. Then the disciples saw him in conversation with Moses and Elijah who had lived more than 500 years earlier. While this was taking place, they heard a voice from a cloud say, "This is my Son whom I love; with him I am well pleased, Listen to him!" After this Jesus changed back to his normal appearance and they walked back down the mountain.
About now you may be wondering why I would take the time to write this paper about the absolute truth from God's perspective. I did it because I felt it is something you should know because it has consequences for you. Your response to it will have eternal consequences. Either you choose to spend eternity with God or you will end up spending eternity in hell with Lucifer by default.
I've chosen to spend eternity with God, Jesus, and all my brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ. I hope that you will decide to join me there.
"I did enjoy, or shall I say was refreshed by reading your booklet. I think is profitable for our grandchildren to read as it is written very well in an understandable style"
—C. Geiger
