“A Tragedy of Murdering The Truth”

Is truth itself as a concept that is actualized still alive today or has it been murdered by the ideologies of philosophical subjectivity and relativistic perspectives? This is a popular pursuit of many individuals today that is sought after throughout the world of both believers and nonbelievers, which I believe is a legitimate pursuit if you are truly, earnestly seeking truth. We even hear people casually say, “That’s your truth, and my truth is my truth” or “It’s your truth and whatever you believe to be truth is true”. Are such statements regarded as meaningful to life in today’s world of such subjective truths?

John 14:6 “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

Jesus identifies in the divine recorded scriptures as the way, the truth, and the life. Jesus inexplicably intertwines “the truth” with “the way” and “the life” cohesively within this verse. Jesus identifies himself as the traveling journey into which one may encounter the summation and impersonated bodied of verifiable evidence that aligns with his divine teachings and his perfected example of moral living. The belief in Jesus himself and his claims will give you the truth, and when obeyed results in a purposeful fulfilling quality of life. To know truth, we must seek the origin of truth and the one who identifies as truth, which is Jesus. Truth is a journey into, which results in a life of becoming.

Sadly, many individuals are not seeking truth neither do they want truth to exist. Many individuals would rather deny reality which results in them believing anything but what is verifiably true such as unreality, fiction, or something that appeases their personal conscious. This is the foundation of which relativism and subjectivism is built upon where such logic and reasoning are rooted in the imaginations of the minds rather than acceptance of living within reality. Within this worldview of subjectivism, the nonbeliever and atheist find comfort because they do not have to be held accountable to anything greater than themselves. Many individuals would argue that there is no truth, and all interpretation of reality is only relative to personal experiences. There is a dilemma within this belief system of truth because it presents as an open-ended conflict. If all truth were only left to the interpretation based upon personal experiences, then we would live our life within a box confined to our own experiences and understanding of life which would be ultimately self-demoralizing and self-depriving. We would also have no need of trusting in anything or anybody including ourselves. Man left to interpret and handle his own issues of his heart is only left to induce self-sabotaged behaviors and self-destruction which is why Jesus Christ is needed as the remedy for the evil consciousness/heart and mind of man.

Furthermore, subjectivism and relativism become very problematic within a society because it removes the barriers of absolutes and universal truths resulting in a society where autonomy becomes the standard which gives permission for subjectivism and relativism to thrive. This subjective relativistic worldview promotes the practice of everyone being their own standard of truth; henceforth, the person becomes their own god. Another dilemma of subjectivism and relativism today in our post-modern society is that they want the Christian believer to be coherent in answering truths about God, but they expect for you to believe incoherent responses about all issues pertaining to life itself because they have no coherence of consistency in their pursuits of truth.

Genesis 2:15-17 “And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”

Within the Garden of Eden, God gave simple instructions to Adam which was do not be your own god. He was simply instructing Adam to not be an autonomous being who attempts to decide what is his own personal truth. God was instructing Adam that I am the absolute verifiable truth and if you obey me, then your life will be fulfilling. He further enlightened Adam that the moment he attempts to break God’s absolute’s truth, then he has subjectivized his reality suppressing the knowledge of the truth that was given to him by God. In other words, he has defined his life to mean what he wants it to mean rather than allowing God to be his definer and purpose of life by obeying God’s absolute command of truth. This spiritual forewarning is still given to humanity today, but many individuals rather disobey and suppress this truth, than obey and live in the truth of God. The defiant behavioral pattern and disobedience of Adam and Eve towards God’s commandment is seen in Genesis 3. Adam and Eve’s choice to redefine absolute truth and call it relative truth in the beginning is the current contaminated spiritual impurity of all humanity today, which can only be healed by the gospel of Jesus Christ.

To live life rejecting God and Jesus Christ as the truth is catastrophic spiritually, psychologically, emotionally, and eventually physically because all humanity is fallen and sinful with distorted thinking, imperfect behaviors, flawed perspectives, and defected pleasurable pursuits. If any individual becomes their own god, they are only left to ultimately self-destruct because there is no good thing naturally within humanity according to the scriptures, which is why there is a need for God as the absolute truth of perfected morality and standard of all good through the knowledge of Jesus Christ’s life, death, and his resurrection. When God is removed as the absolute truth and Jesus is not accepted as the perfected manifestation fulfillment of truth, then we lose our moral absolutes, purpose for life, and our ethical obligation to each other as humanity.

Reference

Wilhelmsenm, Frederick (1956). Man’s Knowledge of Reality: An Introduction
to Thomistic Epistemology. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

“The essence of any religion lies solely in the answer to the question: why do I exist, and what is my relationship to the infinite universe that surrounds me? … It is impossible for there to be a person with no religion (i.e. without any kind of relationship to the world) as it is for there to be a person without a heart. He may not know that he has a religion, just as a person may not know that he has a heart, but it is no more possible for a person to exist without a religion than without a heart.” – Leo Tolstoy, 1879