(courtesy ChristArt)
By Spencer D Gear PhD
If I told you that I went to the beach to fish off the rocks and then had a swim on Saturday and that’s a fact, what would you understand by my calling it a fact? This would mean that it happened. If you had been at that beach you would have seen me with my fishing rod throwing the line with the bait on the hook into the water. You would have seen me swimming between the flags.
The Lexico/Oxford Dictionary (2019. s.v. fact) defines ‘fact’ as:
‘A thing that is known or proved to be true’. An illustration could be, ‘Eloise has been playing tennis for four years, a fact of which she is very proud, especially since she has won 5 local tournaments’.
What are some facts in your world?
- Where do you work or are you retired?
- What kind of music do you prefer?
- In which suburb do you live?
- Which model and make of car do you drive?
These are facts.
However, we increasingly live in a post-facts world which is often a post-truth world. I’m using ‘post’ as a preposition meaning ‘after-’ such as postmortem, which means , ‘an examination of a dead body to determine the cause of death’ (Lexico.com 2019. s.v. postmortem). It takes place after death. P.S. = postscript; postgraduate; the post-1945 era, and post-election victory speech.
What does it mean to live is a post-truth world? Post-truth means a person is ‘relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief’ (Lexico.com 2019. s.v. post-truth).
I note how journalists can engage in post-truth manipulation against belief systems they don’t agree with. See this article by Peter FitzSimons and note how he does it: ‘Dear Mrs Court, honouring a homophobic zealot is problematic for us’ (The Sydney Morning Herald, 9 November 2019).
How, then, should we deal with facts and truth associated with Christianity? It was Jesus who stated:
- “Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’” (John 14:6)
- “To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, ‘If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free’ (John 8:31-32)
Stated briefly, Christianity is true because ….
- It matches reality like a hand in a glove.
- It’s description of human beings is a perfect fit, including the good, the bad and the ugly (fallen human beings in sin – Genesis 3).
- It’s explanation of how the universe began and the majesty of the universe are spot on (see Genesis 1-2; Psalm 19).
- It gives the only permanent solution I know for changing human beings – from the inside out – in salvation through Christ alone.
- It provides the absolutes for running nations (if nations would only obey them) – the 10 commandments (Exodus 20) and the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5-7). Francis Schaeffer described this as the thesis vs antithesis dilemma that God fulfills.
- As for a world and life view, there is none to match it.
- That’s why I know that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6) .
Recently I was reading a book by Ravi Zacharias, Jesus among Other Gods: The Absolute Claims of the Christian Message (Word Publishing 2000) in which he, a former Hindu ,was so disillusioned with life that he attempted suicide. He wrote,
I came to Him [Jesus] because I did not know which way to turn. I have remained with Him because there is no other way I wish to turn. I came to Him longing for something I did not have. I remain with Him because I have something I will not trade. I came to Him as a stranger. I remain with Him in the most intimate of friendships. I came to Him unsure about the future. I remain with Him certain about my destiny. I came amid the thunderous cries of a culture that has three hundred and thirty million deities. I remain with Him knowing that truth cannot be all inclusive. Truth by definition excludes (p. 6).
I highly recommend this as an excellent lay-level book to help people work through the challenges of multitudes of religions and gods.
However, there are many theological liberals (modernist or postmodernist) who don’t want this to be true. They don’t trust the God revealed in Scriptures and they want to denigrate biblical content wherever possible. Many of these do not believe in the reality of prophecy or the miraculous because their presuppositions exclude a God who would do that. They hack into the integrity of the Bible.
As I’ve examined their claims and the claims of world religions, I conclude where I began: The Christian worldview matches reality perfectly.
See also my articles,
Copyright © 2014 Spencer D. Gear. This document last updated at Date: 16 November 2019.
