“What is truth?” said jesting Pilate; and would not stay for an answer.
– Francis Bacon
IN OUR TIME, truth has fallen victim to the brutal knife of relativism. Ask almost anyone on the street if they think that truth exists, and the typical response is that “truth is nothing more than what each person defines it to be” or that “anyone who claims to know the absolute truth is arrogant.” This type of thinking is so pervasive that rarely anybody questions the obvious contradiction—if there is no such thing as truth, then how can one claim that the statement “there is no such thing as truth” is actually true? The irony is that this statement is itself a truth claim.
At its core, relativism is logically self-contradictory. The tendency of truth to be exclusive and particular is, by its very own definition, unavoidable (even in the mundane experiences of daily life). At a busy intersection, we trust that the definition of “red light” and “green light” remained fixed and objective instead of “as each person defines it.” When we fill up our cars with gasoline, we assume that “one gallon” is the same in Boston as it is in Los Angeles. And when a scientist presents his findings at a scientific assembly, his ability to persuade is based on the fact that his methodology and reasoning are logical and not based on the feelings of his “inner child.” As much as society nowadays tries to claim that truth is relative, the objective and exclusive nature of truth always seems to rear its head.
However, when these logical contradictions of relativism are presented to its adherents, something quite astonishing happens. The application of relativism often changes from relativism of logical truths to relativism of moral truths. That person will now say that he believes in the objectivity of logical inferences (such as mathematics) but relativism of morality. That position, however, strikes me as being arbitrary and disingenuous since those same people who believe in the relativism of morality rarely maintain that belief when they are the ones who are being robbed or raped. And people who deny the existence of moral truth rarely hold to that position when they are on trial for a murder they never committed. In these instances, moral truth (such as fair and equal justice) “magically” become objective and concrete. Mankind has a way of conveniently asserting the subjectivity of morality when the Moral Law imposes upon man’s sinful desires. However, when we are the ones who are injured by injustice and the sins of others, we are suddenly the first ones to point out the violation of the same Moral Law.
The History of Relativism
The post-modern rejection of truth did not begin with the writings of contemporary philosophers. The Bible clearly documents man’s repeated denial of truth throughout history. When Jesus stood on trial before Pilate, for instance, Jesus emphatically stated, “You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” To which Pilate gave the infamous reply, “What is truth?” Then Pilate walked away from Jesus (and seeking truth). What happened next is fascinating. After Pilate denied the existence of truth as a real category, we see that he also abandoned moral truth. Instead of seeking justice and defending an innocent man, Pilate handed Jesus over to an angry mob to be crucified, and attempted to assuage his burning guilt by symbolically washing his hands. Such results are often the case with relativism: with the denial of truth, firm moral conviction and courage are often lost.
If we look even further back in time, we see that relativism has been with us even from the very beginning of creation. When Satan was tempting Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, his main strategy was to contradict the reality of God’s truth by asking, “Did God really say…”
Relativism of God’s words was, in fact, the first lie.
Truth & Worship
Because truth is not relative, neither is our worship. It matters immensely that we know who God is and how He has chosen to reveal himself. When Jesus confronted the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4:4-26), he established that worship is vitally dependent on a correct understanding of God as revealed specifically through Jewish history. Jesus said to a Samaritan woman,
“You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”
The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
Then Jesus declared, “I who speak to you am he.”
Truth, therefore, was emphatically established.
