Preserving Sound Doctrine

By Dr. Thomas Kehn

THE TRUTH ABOUT TRUTH – Confusing Truth with Deception                            

Growing up as a child in the 1960’s, I had plenty of opportunities to watch my favorite TV shows. One game show I enjoyed watching was titled, To Tell the Truth. It was on ABC and hosted by Bud Collyer. The show featured celebrity panelists who tried to decide between three individuals going by the same name, having the same job title while claiming to be the “honest to God” person being discussed. The panelists asked a variety of questions directed at all three individuals in an attempt to determine who was telling the truth and who was not. I was often surprised by who turned out to be the actual true person. The other two false impersonators were quite good at deceiving the panelists, the audience and the rest of us TV spectators. Each person’s answers were very plausible, totally believable and seemed to be so truthful. In spite of all their charm and persuasive powers, two of then were, literally, “lying thru their teeth.”

Sadly, down through church history and up to our society today, there have been many who appeared To Tell the Truth but were only telling lies. They were merely “wolves in sheep’s clothing.” Such false prophets and teachers were a major matter of concern during Christ’s ministry and the early church. Not long after Christ’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem to begin the Passion week, Jesus was asked by his disciples, “What will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” He replied with this alarming statement, “Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah, and will deceive many” (Matthew 24:3-5).

I have witnessed Jesus’s predictions coming true in my lifetime. There were several false Christs who rose up to prominence during my late teens and early adulthood. You might say they were a “Who’s Who?” of religious imposters which included Charle’s Manson in the 60’s, Jim Jones in the 70’s and David Koresh in the 80’s. Each one gathered a following of people who were, apparently, in need of a “savior” of sorts so they were easily deceived. Appallingly, the became like “lambs being led away to slaughter” by their cultic type of leaders. Sadly, most came to a lethal, disastrous ending. Truth or Consequences was the name of another game show I watched as a child. The show’s telling name painfully shows the reality of people who are unable to discern truth from lies or good and evil and, tragically, experienced the consequences of their penchant for deception. Charles Colson laments, “If we hope to preserve what makes life worth living, we as a church must preserve the ability to know the truth ourselves.” ¹

I heartily agree with Keller. We cannot depend on others to tell us what is true and what is not. What appears to be true is nothing more than “smoke and mirrors” designed to cloud what is spoken as being true. Consider these truthful statements in the Bible depicting Jesus Christ:

• “You are the Son of God.” Luke 4:3
• “Jesus…you are the Holy one of God!” Mark 1:24
• “Jesus, Son of the Most High God.” Mark 5:7
• “You are a man of integrity and…you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth.” Matthew 22:16

As truthful and accurate as each of the above statements are, you may be shocked that the first three were spoken by demons and the last by a Pharisee who, during the Passion week, were seeking to trap Jesus, turn the crowd against him so that they could arrest him and eventually have him killed. Have we too soon forgotten the words of Jesus who spoke these startling words, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father…Many will say to me  ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!” (Matthew 7:21-23). Make no mistake about it, there are those in our world today who profess to be speaking the truth but are full of lies and who “are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, always learning but never able to come to the knowledge of truth…thee teachers oppose the truth” (2 Timothy 3:6-8).  

The Apostle Paul gave this warning to Titus, his fellow missionary companion, “There are many rebellious people, full of meaningless talk and deceptions…they must be silenced” (Titus 1:10-11). It is my intention that through this book I can help to silence some of the lies and deceptions being spread abroad in the world today, even in the name of Christ. Paul continues in his discourse, “This is true…pay no attention to myths or to human commands of those who reject the truth…They claim to know God, but by their actions, they deny him” (Titus 1:11-16). Paul’s words serve as an indictment against today’s self-proclaimed prophets and Apostles that preach a prosperity gospel. According to Paul, their gospel “is a different gospel – which is really no gospel at all” and worthy of God’s condemnation (Gal.1:6-8).

Most of us are familiar with the phrase used in courtrooms, where the witness is asked to repeat the words: “I hereby swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.” Regrettably, now days there are numerous examples of deceptive lies being promoted as the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. The Bible is no longer seen as the source and final determination for what is truth and not. Compounding the problem is the absence of any other objective standard or clear consensus as what constitutes truth. This conundrum creates a real obstacle for unbelievers wanting to discover truth and for believers desiring to remain standing firm in their faith. If one doesn’t have a reliable source for determining truth, it can seem next to impossible to spot the severe abundance of counterfeits in the world today.

The early church was forced to deal with a growing problem of false teachers. Consider the warnings below from key leaders concerned about the spiritual welfare of persecuted believers scattered across nations.

• The Apostle Paul warned, “Keep reminding God’s people of these things. Warn them before God…Their teaching will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus who have departed from the truth” (2 Tim. 2:14, 17-18).
• The Apostle Peter bristled that, “there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord…bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. In their greed these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories” (2 Peter 2:1-3).
• The Apostle John pleads, “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit…because many false prophets have gone out into the world…and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God…This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood” (1 John 4:1, 5-6).

On the Apostle Paul’s first missionary trip to Barnabas, they came to a city of Paphos on the Island of Cyprus off the coast of Israel. There they encountered a Jewish sorcerer and false prophet named Bar-Jesus. When Paul and Barnabas were invited by the proconsul, an official of Ancient Rome, to come share the word of God with them, they were opposed by Bar-Jesus and “tried to turn the proconsul from the faith.” In response, Paul declared, “You are a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right! You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery. Will you never stop perverting the right ways of the Lord?” Acts 13:10

The devil and his compatriots are constantly looking for opportunities to trick and deceive those who are hungry to know the truth. They may appear to be God’s messengers but are instruments of the devil who fancies himself to be like God Almighty but is only “the god of this age” who seeks to blind “the minds of unbelievers” (2 Cor. 4:4).  Due to the bombardment of false teachers within both the early church and the current churches, there is a desperate need for believers to know the truth. As seekers of God’s truth, it is imperative that we can differentiate between the true teachings of Scripture and the deceptive teachings of those whose messages are littered with falsehoods. What is it that characterizes truth compared to untruth, lies and deception. This is an area we will explore shortly.

The author of Hebrews admitted, “We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food…But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil” (Heb. 5:11-14).

The inability to discern truth from false statments is indicative of Jesus’s encounter with Pontius Pilate. Pilate, the Roman Governor in Judea at the time of Christ’s hasty trial, rich with fabricated accusations and calls for his death. During Pilate’s interrogation of Jesus, he questioned Jesus about the accusation of him being king of the Jews. Jesus responded, “My kingdom is not of this world…You are a king, then! said Pilate. Jesus answered, ‘I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.’ ‘What is truth’ retorted Pilate” (John 18:36-38).

This is a question on the minds of many today. What is true and how can we be sure? Interestingly, Jesus was not shy in talking about the truth. In fact, he used the phrase, “I tell you the truth” over 80 times as recorded across all four Gospels. It was profusely clear that throughout all of Jesus’ ministry, he made a point of declaring truth and professed to be the source of it. Jesus told his disciples, “I am the way, the Truth and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me” (John 14:6). However, in today’s society, many people take exception to Christ’s exclusionary proclamation. It seems, they would rather accept a watered-down version of the truth or even a twisted or distorted version of the truth, than be subject to a truthful, moral and just God. The Apostle Paul announced, “They exchanged the truth about God for a lie” (Romans 1:25).

The Greek word for truth is Alethia and integrates the following synonyms: “true, fact, integrity, correctness, accurate, and genuine,” It has the clear concept of that which is associated with “the reality of things or the opposite of error.” In similar fashion, Webster’s Dictionary defines truth as, “That which is true or certain concerning any matter or subject; the real state of things; fact; verity; reality.” ² In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word for truth is Emet and means, “to believe in that which is “reliable, has stability and firmness.” Two examples of this Hebrew word in the Old Testament are found in Isaiah 45:19, “I, the LORD, speak the truth; I declare what is right.” Jeremiah 10:10 states, “The LORD is the true God.”

Timothy Keller, in his book, The Reason for God – Belief in an Age of Skepticism wrote these revealing words, “People are opting instead for a non-religious life, for a non-institutional, personally constructed, spirituality…Therefore, the population is paradoxically, growing both more religious and less religious at once.…We have an impasse between the strengthening forces of doubt and belief.” ³

Doubt and disbelief were evident even among Jesus’s closet disciples. They had difficulty contemplating and digesting Christ’s prediction of his soon-coming arrest, death and departure. In seeking to lessen his disciples doubts and fears, He prayed for them using these illuminating words, “Father, sanctify (set apart) them in truth: Your word is truth” (John 17:17). He also gave this promise, “I have much more to say…more than you can now hear…when the Spirt of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth” (John 16:12–13). In today’s culture and society, it is evident that doubt and confusion exist when grappling with what comprises truth and what does not. Assuredly, this is a distinction that needs to be made. As believers, seeking to stand firm in our faith, we must be able to discern, from a biblical perspective, the difference between truth and its counterfeits.

When confronted by the Sadducees regarding their disbelief in the “resurrection of the dead,” Jesus responded, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God” (Matthew 22:29-31). If we truly want to avoid errors in our theological and doctrinal views, we will need to know the Scriptures and know them well. I contend that we can stand on the solid premise that “truth and only the truth” is found in Christ as the living Word and in Scripture as God’s revealed written word. Our beliefs and theological convictions need to be founded on the truth of God’s word and not on our limited understanding or based on the opinions of others. Taking personal responsibility for our own doctrinal stability will be discussed further in upcoming chapters.

Still, the over-arching question remains, ‘What is Truth?’ We need a reliable source for identifying truth and its basic characteristics. Lee Strobel, a former atheist, gave a fitting description of some of truth’s qualities. In his book, The Case for Faith, he explains, “The clear implications of Jesus saying he’s the way, the truth, and the life are that, first, truth is absolute, and second, truth is knowable. His claim of exclusivity means categorically anything that contradicts what he says is by definition false…to deny the exclusive nature of truth is to make a truth claim and is that person then not arrogant too?” ⁴

Below I have provided a checklist of characteristics of truth from a biblical perspective, both what truth is and what it is not (i.e. counterfeit truth). Naturally, this means relying heavily on the Bible as the main source for identifying true truth. In some passages, the word “truth” is used while in other passages the idea of truth is clearly implied. Although most of the ideas and terminology used below are my own, I am indebted to Lee Strobel for his helpful insights.

WHAT TRUTH IS!

Truth is EXCLUSIVE! It is exclusionary since it must eliminate anything that is not true.

Jesus declared, “A time…has now come when true worshipers…must worship in Spirit and in truth” (John 4:23-24). Jesus said, “I am telling the truth…believe me” (John 8:45).

Ravi Zacharias, stated it succinctly, “Truth, is by definition, exclusive. If truth does not exclude, then no assertion of a truth claim is being made; it’s just an opinion that is being stated. Anytime you make a truth claim, you mean something contrary to it is false. Truth excludes it’s opposite.” ⁵

Truth is ABSOLUTE! It is unending and unchanging, staying true over time and space.

“I tell you the truth…Heaven and earth will disappear, but my words will never disappear” (Matt. 24:34-35 NLT).  “God never changes…He give us his true word” (James 1:18 NLT).

Truth is VERIFIABLE! It can be verified by personal observation and experience.

“Jesus said, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31-32).

Truth is COMPLETE & ETERNAL! It is both comprehensive and lasting.

“Here is eternal truth…go directly to the Father and ask him…and he will give it to you, because of your relationship with me” (John 16:23 TPT).

“I’ve taught you everything I could about God’s eternal plan and I’ve held nothing back… is all that you need to become strong…the message of his grace” (Acts 20:27, 32 TPT).

Truth is REVEALED! Truth is knowable because God has chosen to make it known.

“The gospel I preached is not of human origin. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ” (Galatians 1:11-12).

“God…made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God…to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us” (2 Corinthians 4:6-7).

WHAT TRUTH IS NOT

Truth is Not PLURALISTIC! It is singular in its focus, it is not accountable to any other sources of authority, nor is it a combination of contradictory views existing together.

“There are [obviously] some [people masquerading as teachers] who are disturbing and confusing you [with a misleading, counterfeit teaching] and want to distort the gospel of Christ [twisting it into something which it absolutely is not]” (Galatians 1:6-7 AMP)

Truth is Not RELATIVE! It is not affected by time, space, circumstances or viewpoints.

“Jesus Christ is [eternally changeless, always] the same yesterday and today and forever. Do not be carried away by diverse and strange teachings…which bring no benefit or spiritual growth to those who observe them.” Hebrews 13:8-9 AMP

Truth is Not PERSONALIZED! It is not based on one’s beliefs, as sincere as they may be.

“Knowing this first of all, that no…Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:20 ESV).

Truth is Not PRAGMATIC! It is not considered real if it works for some, some of the time.

“Let us not love [merely in theory] but in action and in truth…By this we will know [without any doubt] that we are of the truth and will assure our heart and quiet our conscience before Him” (1 John 3:16, 18-19 AMP).

Truth is Not CULTURALLY DETERMINED! It is not based on constantly changing cultural values, situational ethics or majority consensus.

“See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception according to the tradition of mere men, following the elementary principles of this world, rather than following [the truth—the teachings of] Christ” (Colossians 2:8 AMP).

Tim Keller, in his book The Reason for God – Belief in an Age of Skepticism, argues that truth is not culturally conditioned. He explains, “When you claim to have the truth, you are trying to get power and control over other people…if you try to explain away all exhortations of truth as something else you find yourself in an untenable position.”

Similarly, C.S. Lewis, wrote in The Abolition of Man, “You cannot go on ‘explaining away’ forever: you will find that you have explained explanation itself away.” ⁵

Mercifully, it is not our responsibility to try to convince those who refuse to “face the truth” or accepts God’s as the true standard for truth. Paul mused, “What does it matter, then…Their lack of faith won’t cancel God’s faithfulness, will it? Absolutely not! God must be true, even if every human being is a liar…you are right in your words” (Rom. 3:3-4 CEB).

Yes, we can find encouragement and have complete confidence in God’s written revelation to us and Jesus Christ as his living revelation to us (Hebrews 1:1-3). Scripture meets all the qualifications necessary to be declared true truth. If there are any who still question the truthfulness of the God’s word, consider these additional true statements:

“Every word of God proves true…Do not add to his words, or he may rebuke you and expose you as a liar.” Proverbs 30:5-6 NLT

“We can know the true God. And now we live in fellowship with the true God…his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the only true God” (1 John 5:20 NLT).

It is my sincere hope that the concepts, biblical passages, scholarly quotes and characteristics of truth given will provide you with increased confidence in turning to the Bible to find truth for living out our faith victoriously. In the next chapter, we will consider a related obstacle to standing firm in our faith, doubting the Bible’s reliability.

Resources cited in the order first used:

1. Community of Memory (2007), Charles Colson, article in Christianity Today Magazine

2. Webster’s American English Dictionary (2013). Merriam Webster, Federal Street Press

3. The Reason for God (2008). Timothy Keller, Riverhead books, New York, NY 

4. The Case for Faith (2000). Lee Stobel, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, MI

5. Jesus, Among Other Gods (2002). Ravi Zacharias, West Publishing Group, Eagan, MI

6. The Abolition of Man (2001). C.S. Lewis, Harper One, San Francisco, CA