“What is Truth?” Pilate asked Jesus. It is the fundamental question to answer when discussing the nature and scope of the theory of knowledge (also called epistemology), because knowledge is meaningless without knowable truth. Truth is the actual state of things. It is absolute, independent, and not determined or affected by subjective interpretation, nor by emotions, culture or perception. Truth exists because God, who is the only self-existent being, exists. In fact, God is truth (1 John 5:6, 20; cf. John 4:24). Truth is knowable only to the extent that God reveals it to those who can know this truth. God is the source of all things and the comprehensive source of knowledge (Ephesians 3:9; Genesis 1:1). Humankind, therefore, as created by God, can only possess knowledge derived from God (Acts 17:28). God has revealed truth to the human race (Deuteronomy 29:29), and though there is a limit to human knowledge (Isaiah 55:8-9), there are certain truths which are common to all people.
Humans are created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26, 27; 9:6), and thus derive certain characteristics from God, including the ability to reason (Isaiah 1:18), a sense of morality (Romans 2:14, 15) and a longing for eternity (Ecclesiastes 3:11). Man can know what God has revealed (Romans 1:19; Daniel 2:21, 22; Hebrews 1:1-2; Psalm 19:1-2), and God has revealed certain facts through the created order: men know that God exists and that He is omnipotent (Romans 1:20). However, this knowledge is suppressed by those who refuse to believe (Romans 1:18). In fact, Romans 1:20 assumes that the existence of the physical world is certain (“clearly perceived”) evidence of the existence of God. To deny the existence of absolute certainty is thus as much a lie as denying God. In an epistemic sense, belief is not defined as wishful hope, but as the acceptance of what is true. Knowledge entails this belief, so it follows that refusing to believe that which is true is self-contradictory. This is significant, because not only is God’s existence certain (from natural revelation), God Himself is knowable with certainty through special revelation, God’s revealed Word, which is truth (John 17:17). Knowing God is the highest goal of human existence (John 17:3), and God is knowable through the person of Jesus Christ (John 1:18). This is the heart of Christian belief, based on knowable, objective truth (John 19:35) which is clearly revealed in Scripture. Yet people refuse to believe. Why this self-contradictory behavior, given all the resources of reason and fact? The answer lies within sin and its effects.
Man is hindered from knowing God (Psalm 82:5) because he is a being affected by the Fall (Genesis 3) and sin, and he has been blinded from truth by God as judgment for his rejection of it (Luke 10:21; Romans 1:21-22; 1 Corinthians 1:18-19). Also, humans are affected by satanic blindness which prevents them from understanding the gospel of Christ (2 Corinthians 2:3, 4) without God’s merciful intervention. Internally, man is separated from life and truth by his own sin and hardness of heart (Ephesians 4:17, 18), dead to spiritual truth (Ephesians 2:1-2). Obviously before God can be known, the hindrances to truth need to be removed. This cannot be internally motivated change, because man’s every resource, even his reason itself, is controlled by the blinding effects of the Fall (Jeremiah 13:23).
This is why Jesus presents the necessity of new birth (John 3:3). Comprehending spiritual truth, which entails knowing God in the glories of Christ’s person, requires the work of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:12, 13) who is the agent of regeneration and new birth (John 3:5-8, Romans 8:8-10). The means which the Spirit uses is God-given faith (Ephesians 2:8-9) based on the gospel of Jesus Christ (Romans 10:17) which is the penal substitution of Christ on behalf of the sinner, through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:1-4; 2 Corinthians 5:21). The gospel is objective, life-giving truth, centered on Jesus Christ, and revealed in Scripture (John 14:6; John 20:31; 2 Corinthians 5:17). This is why the only solution to man’s absolute disability is to reason through Scripture with a confident hope that God will bring life to the soul (Acts 17:2; 18:4, 18:19; 19:8-9).
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