Monday: Knowing Truth
Read John 8:32, John 7:17, and John 17:17. What promises does Jesus give regarding knowing truth, and where is it found?
God’s final appeal to His people is to flee the errors of Babylon and walk in the light of eternal truth found in His Word. The key to everything is the Bible. As long as people stick to the Bible and follow what it teaches, they will not be deceived in the final crisis, particularly regarding the Sabbath.
The message of the second angel appeals to us to accept truth rather than error, Scripture rather than tradition, and the teachings of God’s Word rather than the errors of false doctrine.
image © Linda Lovett from GoodSalt.com
The third angel’s message, which follows the first two angels, presents a warning against the mark of the beast. Throughout the prophecies of the Bible, a beast represents a political or religious power. The sea beast of Revelation 13:1-18 and chapter 14 arises out of Rome as a worldwide system of worship. Eventually this Roman power extends its influence over the whole world and will lead out in a movement to unite church and state. The goal will be to achieve world unity at a time of economic upheaval, natural catastrophes, social turmoil, international political crisis, and global conflict.
And, the United States will eventually take the lead in this global confederation. “Through the two great errors, the immortality of the soul and Sunday sacredness, Satan will bring the people under his deceptions. While the former lays the foundation of spiritualism, the latter creates a bond of sympathy with Rome. The Protestants of the United States will be foremost in stretching their hands across the gulf to grasp the hand of spiritualism; they will reach over the abyss to clasp hands with the Roman power; and under the influence of this threefold union, this country will follow in the steps of Rome in trampling on the rights of conscience.” — Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, p. 588.
These messages conclude with an urgent appeal for Christ’s faithful followers to keep the commandments of God through the living faith of Jesus dwelling in their hearts (Revelation 14:12).
| How do you understand Jesus’ words that “the truth shall make you free”? What does that mean? How has the truth set you free? What does it mean to be “free” in this context? |
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I don't know how many sermons I have heard from the pulpit that have latched on to some recent event to emphasize the nearness of Jesus' return. Such tactics border on sensationalism and the problem is that most of them are dead wrong. I won't go into the details here because it would be a distraction to what I really want to say. Even when you are born a Seventh-day Adventist and have been working for the church for over 40 years in the belief that you doing your bit, you become somewhat cynical about such tactics. This is what Jesus said:
And when it comes to preaching(living) the Gospel in a language that everyone can understand, we have a long way to go. Jesus said, "Occupy till I come!".
When the excitement of the next great sensation is over and we are dealing with the disappointment, what have we got to offer.
Listen to what Paul has to say on the same topic:
I like Paul; he is a man with his head screwed on the right way around!
Truth is a synonym for freedom! How much do you and I want to be free? Free from prejudice, suffering, time, place, and self! That's another level of concept! Nothing is more precious than the freedom of choice that God gave us even before birth! Perhaps the second most precious thing, then! Because due to our own decisions, He even gave us His Son, so we could be reconciled to our original state and choose again between His Love and not love!
Allow me to present my take on Monday's question:
People are always seeking the truth. Whether it is the truth about themselves, about other people, about the universe, no matter how people view it, truth is primarily a property of propositions. It is the ultimate goal in all of our questions and pursuits. Winston Churchill once said in warfare, truth is the most valuable thing in the world, so valuable that oftentimes is protected by a bodyguard of lies; lies that are so overwhelming that make us feel we have been robbed of our freedom to have the truth about life.
In the quest for the truth, we employ two theories to test the truth. There are two broad theories that we should adhere to: 1) Correspondence theory; 2) Coherence theory. When you go into a court of law where the witness is being asked to give answers, the attorney is looking for two components here. Are the answers corresponding to reality? When all of the answers are put together, is there a coherence to these answers? By then, it can be acknowledged that there is a correspondence and coherence. Both of these two aspects have to converge.
Then, how do we know if the truth is true? We apply three tests to check the truth:
1) Logical consistency: Is the truth logically consistent?
2) Empirical adequacy: Is there an empirical way to verify the truth or is it just an assertion that is not even falsifiable?
3) Experiential relevance: Is there any experience or relevance to the truth?
As we are searching for the truth about our life, we apply these theories and three tests to the main four questions of life:
- Origin: Where do I come from?
- Meaning: What gives my life meaning?
- Morality: How do I differentiate good from evil?
- Destiny: What happens after we die?
So far, all these theories and tests can only provide us with propositional statements. However, when you come to Jesus Christ, He is the embodiment and incarnation of all that is consummately true. When you take His words and apply them to origin, meaning, morality, and destiny with logical consistency, empirical adequacy, and experiential relevance, then and only then will you arrive at the real truth. You find that He brings to your life the consistency that you need to have so that you don't live a contradictory life, the existential relevance in the meaning that He gives and the adequate purpose that He gives to your life.
As we know, our greatest enemy is not the devil. It is not someone out there, our your neighbour, or your friends. Our greatest enemy lies within our own heart (Jer 17:9). Just like what the apostle Paul in Roman 7:13-24 (paraphrased): “ I do not know what I am doing. I end up doing what I am not supposed to be doing. Woe unto me, wretched man that I am. Who shall deliver me from this body of death?”
As we battle in our life, torn between our fleshly need and spiritual calling, Jesus Christ is the true answer in explaining our dilemma. He is the One who can understand and describe our heart. He is the One who provides to us in our malady. He is the One who equips us in our suffering. He is the One who puts meaning in every moment of our life. And He is the One who teaches us that time is merely a temporal thing. We are created for eternity (Ecc 3:11) and only Jesus alone who can take us through the cross, past the tomb, and into the very presence of God, where “eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” (1 Cor 2:9). Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Him. (John 14:6)
I am a bit surprised to find only JC and Maurice to comment on such a vitally important issue as ‘knowing the truth’. Is this not at the heart of our living soul’s search, knowing truth from error and so being set on sure footing as we go about our life?
Personally, there is nothing more liberating and empowering than knowing that we have a Creator and a Lord and Savior to show us Their Truth and Light; nothing more assuring regarding our worth as a human being then knowing the truth that we are children of the living God.
The adversary of God is doing his utmost best to obscure this truth and to discourage us from building a relationship with our living God according to His Light of Truth, which is our Life.
Maurice makes an interesting comment in that he states that ‘one can be born a Seventh-day-Adventist’. We know, though, man cannot be born a follower of the Father's Truth as testified to by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in His Gospel message.
Jesus, recorded in John 8:12; 31-32 lets us know: "I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the Light of Life.” “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, ‘If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Free from any type of bondage, any type of opression and coercion.
We were studying about preparation earlier. Part of that preparation is to study the Bible thoroughly, daily, continually, for the Sunday people have a lot of scripture to supposedly support Sunday as well.
The truth will make you free -- if we don't know the scriptures thoroughly, when people present deception using a lot of scripture, we will be confused and filled with doubt. But if we know what we believe is in scripture, and why those confusing texts don't validate the opposite, then we will feel free to follow Christ with all our hearts.
It's a settling into truth, so we know what we believe, and why.
Christ will free us from doubts, from sin, from confusion, from fear and from eternal death.
I understand what you are saying Ulrike but one of the issues I have come up against is that people can become very convinced that they are reading the Bible and following what it is teaching and yet be dead wrong. Many cults spend a lot of time reading the Bible but end up in quite a bad place spiritually. I was quite unprepared for my first brush with some last-day "preppers" on how well read they were in scripture and how quickly they were able to give answers for their beliefs.
I would like to add that it is important that we listen to our wider community of believers and not fall into the trap of self-delusion.
Yes, there are many who use lots of Bible texts and come to wrong conclusions. So why did you not accept the teachings of that group of "preppers" even though they used Bible verses?
I would assume it's because you knew your Bible well enough to realize something was wrong.
So that shows all the more the reason we need to know WHY we believe what we believe on these issues of "the law and the testimony", because the same can happen when we are unprepared and face our first brush with influential people saying -"the Sabbath is just a legalistic, old covenant institution, it is gone, faded away ". They seem to be convinced that the Sabbath is doing despite to grace, and have attached every text they can find where the Bible tells us the law can't save, the old covenant is passed away, as proof we shouldn't keep Saturday as our special day of worship in honor of our Creator God.
If we know our Bibles we realize the texts do not lead to the conclusion these people are putting on the texts.
When the test comes there will be a lot of voices both from outside and from inside the church that those who insist on keeping the Sabbath have fallen into a trap of self-delusion.
Satan is out to deceive the whole world and he is very capable of using Scripture to make his points. And his biggest prize would be to deceive, and try to disconnect from Christ, the very elect.
Who are the elect? 1Peter 1:2 The ones God foreknew would love and obey Him, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.
I think that you are missing the point that the interaction with people who are part of my faith community, who are willing to provide me with feedback on my ideas about what the Bible is saying are also part of the way the Holy Spirit works. I am not suggesting that I rely on others to interpret the Bible for me. I know how easy it is to convince one's self that his or her interpretation of scripture is right. I also have a good understanding how relying on a single leader can also lead to a cultic interpretation that is evil. But the community interaction where members of the community work together for a better understanding avoids some of these pitfalls.
The Seventh-day Adventist church grew out of such community interaction. It was not perfect and there were some pretty feisty arguments along the way, but I believe it helped us grow spiritually.And I believe it is still important today. That is one reason I think Sabbath School discussions such as this one are important/
I'm not so sure that is correct because it sounds as though a knowledge of the facts regarding the Sabbath is enough to save us from deception. And I don't believe that is true.
"In the final crisis," none who know only the facts about the Sabbath will be safe from being deceived. Only those who have a living relationship with Jesus and are led by the Holy Spirit will be safe. An intellectual knowledge is not enough because the truth will lie so close to the path of error as to be discernible only through the Holy Spirit.
Paul speaks of being deceived for lack of *love* for the truth. (2 Thess 2:10-13) Love, in this text, is more than intellectual assent. And I believe that truth is more than words. The deception happened to others, and it can happen to us if we do not *love* the truth.
Yes, we need to immerse ourselves in biblical truth because it is the voice of Jesus to us and it is one of the means by which He transforms us into His image. And that immersion is more than intellectual knowledge.
This reminds me of something that happened in Samoa about 12 years ago. Seventh-day Adventist were faced with a choice as to which day was the true Sabbath. The majority chose one day and a few chose another. I'm not going to say who was correct, because that's not my business, but this is an example of a situation that does not come with clear choices. It seems to me that the Samoan Adventists faced their Sabbath crisis much earlier than the rest of us. (See The Samoan Sabbath Dilemma ) Who knows what kind of crises we will face. Let's not be over-confident in our "knowledge." Let's trust fully only in the guidance and wisdom the Holy Spirit provides.
I'm in full agreement it's good to get together with our faith "community" and interact and study together. That's what Sabbath School classes are all about, to dig deeper, together. We also need the guidance of the Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth. (John 16:13)
We want to know the truth from scripture, not just echo what is popular in the religious world, but to really understand what is the truth.
What I'm talking about is the opposition we get from the religious world that tries to negate the 7th day Sabbath. The lesson stated As long as people stick to the Bible....they will not be deceived Yet how easy it is to get confused by the use of scripture we are so often subjected to by popular religion, and yes they have amassed quite a lot of seemingly logical reasons to reject the Sabbath.
There is a mountain of material on the web, in books, on religious radio and TV, specifically building a case against the 7th day Sabbath and they use lots of scripture.
I've seen people I love influenced by the misuse of scripture, turn their backs on truth, give up the Sabbath and just about everything else. They've tried to get me to turn my back on it all as well, presenting me with a whole list of texts!
Nothing generated my desire to find the truth more, I had to find it from the Bible. Did the Bible say what they said it did? Was what I understood wrong? I had to see all those texts the opposition used, in their context, and yes I did find help from the "community of believers". But it had to be from the Bible and my own pursuit for truth!
We do need to settle into truth, so we know what we believe, and why. We need to know the context of things in scripture. Once we get certain things settle in our minds it doesn't mean we close the door to further study, not at all, nor do we depend on ourselves, there's always more to learn and we definitely need a greater outpouring of the Holy Spirit. But we also need to KNOW what we believe and why, or we just get blown around by every wind of doctrine. (Ephesians 4:14)
That is a different point to the one where we started. I have to say that most of the "opposition" to my attending church on Sabbath is not about which day I go, but the fact that I go to church at all. "You actually go all religious all Friday night and Saturday as well. Unbelievable! When do you get to watch the footy?"
Religious people that I interact with simply accept that we are different and mostly we talk about the things we hold in common; even Catholics. In my working days I worked with Catholics that could teach me a thing or two about faith and working in Christian love. They would never negate the Sabbath day to me.