You can't handle the truth.

Most of the upcoming blogs stem from the fact that I've been taking a class titled 'Understanding the Times,' which is an analysis of each major worldview, and how to understand it, and relate it to winning people for Christ. It's a pretty impactful course/book, and I've found it quite intriguing so far, even if it is a lot of material to keep up with.

This blog is going to be about a very short, yet problematic word: Truth.

Most Christians have pointed out the conundrum in the humanist philosophy of the statement 'There are no absolutes,' when in fact, that is an absolute statement. This is a little off-track already, but I think Christians miss the point when they point that out because the actual statement is not the basis of the entire worldview. Detractors could just retort with 'the only absolute is that there are none,' and all Christians would be left with is trembling lips.

Truth is an interesting concept: What constitutes as true? The aforementioned book that I am studying postulates that in the Bible, Jesus states that He is the way, the Truth, and the life. Jesus is truth, and the essence thereof. This is, in fact, a true statement. Jesus cannot lie, and therefore be the opposite of what is true, because untruth is imperfect. It would then also stand to reason, that since Jesus is truth and the essence of everything true, anything untrue with contradict with Jesus' divine nature.

The bigger question is: What divides truth from the falsehood? Where exactly does the line stand?

In the essay Playing With Fire by Walt Russell, he describes a growing epidemic in the general public of America, as well as America's churches: Relativism. As an example, he uses an adult Sunday school class to illustrate:

"Twenty-four year old 'Janet' was angry at my emphasis on seeking to discover authors' intentions when we read their texts. She was an evangelical Christian and a second grade teacher in a public school. She prided herself in helping her 20 students learn to love literature. She would read them a story as they gathered around her, and then ask each child, "What does the story mean to you?" She prodded them to come up with their own unique meanings. With such strong encouragement, the class of 20 would eventually have 20 different meanings for the one story. Janet sensed that I was opposed to such "love of literature." Pouring a little emotional gasoline on the fire, I said, "Janet, you're certainly doing your part to insure that these 7 year-olds will never recover from a radically relativistic view of meaning!""

Russell then goes on the describe the shift in literary perspective from the author to the text itself.

I get the feeling that I'm reaching for a cookie jar too high on the shelves with this attempt at coherency, but that was one of the hardest paragraphs I've ever had the displeasure of reading through. To realize that it was very true, and yet very false all at the same time. Is that up to me to decide? I'm not sure, but here's where I'm coming from:

I believe that the Bible is the infallible, true, God-breathed Scripture imparted to us to channel our relationship with God. And while some passages allow for interpretation, some scriptures can be very dangerous when taken out of context, especially when seeking personal justification. However, I fail to understand how the truth of Jesus Christ can render an interpretation of a piece of artwork untrue. I'm not just talking about paintings, I'm talking about stories, lyrics, and almost especially poems. On one hand, wonderful things such as these can be used to tell a story personal to the author, unraveling a thread of their existence, but on the other hand, regardless of what the author's intention was, when different people few the same piece of art, very different conclusions are always reached. Who are we to say that the way a person feels about a piece of artwork is wrong?

My mom and I were discussing this in the car, and she came up with this much simpler explanation:

"Is art God?"
"Well...obviously not."
"Then why should art hold to any standard of truth? Art is neither true nor untrue, but exists purely for the experience of the creator and the viewer both."

Well, I'd have to agree, except I just had to go and think about it some more. What about the crossover CCM bands that write truth about relationships with God, yet, oftentimes they will get misconstrued and interpreted as being a relationship with a girl?

I think I may be over analyzing at this point, but these were just a few thoughts I had.

Next post: You will find how much of a geek I actually am, and how much I am not.