Seeking Truth and Having Faith

“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” Hebrews 11:1 (NIV)

Have you ever thought about truth? What is truth? Wikipedia says the following about truth. “The word truth has a variety of meanings, from honesty, good faith, and sincerity in general, to agreement with fact or reality in particular. The term has no single definition about which a majority of professional philosophers and scholars agree, and various theories of truth continue to be debated. There are differing claims on such questions as what constitutes truth; what things are truth bearers capable of being true or false; how to define and identify truth; the roles that revealed and acquired knowledge play; and whether truth is subjective, relative, objective, or absolute.”

What about all of those philosophers who have been seeking truth for the last 2000 years? They seek the truth to the universe and a reason for life within themselves and their finite minds, but they cannot even agree on the definition of what they are searching for. But Hebrews says “by faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what is visible” (11:3). There is no way for us to understand how everything works in our own minds in our one lifetime. God has slowly revealed information to us over the centuries in His own time and His own plan. There is a reason why humans did not travel to the moon 1000 years ago. We do not know what it is, but God does. Isaiah wrote “for my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord” (55:8). And Jeremiah writes “ ‘for I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’” (29:11). We do not have the capacity to understand the mind of God, not here on earth. Charles Spurgeon wrote “in heaven our knowledge will be perfect, but the Lord Jesus himself will be the fountain of it. Dark providences, never understood before, will then be clearly seen, and all that puzzles us now will become plain to us in the light of the Lamb” (Morning and Evening).

So it becomes apparent that truth will be revealed to us only if we have faith. But we cannot have faith in unseen things if we seek truth in our own minds and in earthly revelations. It is a bit of a “Catch 22” for those who so arrogantly seek truth within themselves. Superficial “religion” and “beliefs” are human systems that must become relationships with Jesus Christ. The closest to truth that we will get here on earth is the knowledge and belief that Jesus was the son of God who died for our sins, rose again, and ascended to heaven to prepare a place for us there. If we believe this in faith, God will reveal His truths to us through His Word. Psalm 145:18 says “the Lord is near to all who call upon him, to all who call upon him in truth.” Charles Stanley said that the Bible gives us enough information to know everything we need to know about how to live and how to die even though we may still have questions. That is sound information for anyone looking for truth. Learn how God wants you to live and die, and the rest will come in time.