The Truth and Nothing but...

I have four brothers, all of them younger, and we have had some fights over the years. Including one particular fight where I broke my hand. Most of the fights were not physical but instead they were mixed with a litany of insults, half truths, and flat out lies. The way that you knew you won the fight is if you could get the other person to cry or walk away first. This was usually accomplished by saying things that sounded like facts, but were not true. I would give you examples of some of the things we said, but I don't want this blog to be considered hateful or show up as a bad site on the spy software your parents installed so they can check up on you. In reality these comments were laced with opinions which were not valid. When we are walking the halls of our school, sitting in biology or social studies class, or hanging out with our friends at the mall we are bombarded with statements about all kinds of things including religion and spirituality. How can we tell what opinions are good or valid and which ones are not?

Several years ago my daughter came home from school talking about people's opinions and she talked about how each opinion was equal. We proceeded to have a rather long conversation about the value of opinions. America really is free in the sense that we can have whatever opinion we want. Having an opinion does not make it a good or valid opinion. Saying something is true doesn't make it true. Truth is a beliefe that represents reality.

Ya, I know it sounds kind of wierd, but if there is truth (and there is) and it can be known (it can) then it might be important for us to learn how to weed out bad opinions. Let me give some examples:

• "I am typing this blog on a computer" This statement is true or it isn't. It can't be "kinda" true. You don't have to believe it is true if you don't want to, but that opinion would not be valid, it would not be good.
• "Life is hard" This is an example where truth is subjective. In other words a persons perception of life is unique to them. Two people in the same situation might come to different conclusions about how hard life is and it would be true because the issue is the perception itself.
• "I can fly by simply flapping my arms" This statement is either true or untrue and perception doesn't matter. If I think I can fly, but when I flap my wings I don't move then reality does not line up with my beliefe.
• "The universe was created by the God of the Bible" Wow, that is a loaded statement. A lot of people have different opinions about how the universe began. Even if there are all kinds of different opinions this is either true or it isn't. In other words it is an objective statement not dependant on a persons opinion. We can develop an opinion abou this statement based on whatever we want (prejudice, evidence, emotion, sound thinking...) but in the end we will either find out that God actually did create the universe or we will find out He did not. There isn't a gray area.

So how does all this apply to our faith? It applies in this way. Jesus either was God or he was not. He iether did die on the cross or not. He either rose from the dead or he didn't. Those are factual statements. We can have opinions about them, but our opinions are either good or bad based on the actual fact of the matter. In other words we can have mistaken opinions. We should be Christians because we believe those things to be facts. Faith is not a blind leap off a cliff in the hopes there is a big cooshy mattress at the bottom. Faith (biblical faith) is when we consider the evidence and base our beliefes on the evidence available.

I believe the Bible is true and accurate. Because of that (along with my own observations about the world) I also believe all people are sinners and in need of salvation. I bleieve Jesus is the only means of salvation (Romans 3; John 14:6; Acts 10:43). It is for those reasons I tell other people about Jesus and what he did on the cross. I believe these things because there is good evidence. Check out these links for more info:

• Is the Bible trustworthy?
• Did Jesus rise from the dead?