Perceptions #200208

"HOW TO HANDLE THE TRUTH"
2 Timothy 2:14-21

by Norman Bales

During my high school English classes, I was introduced to the world of serious literature. I especially came to appreciate some of the poetry of William Cullen Bryant. In a poem titled, "The Battlefield", Bryant said,

Truth crushed to the earth, shall rise again; The eternal years are hers; But Error, wounded, writhes in pain, And dies among her worshippers.

I find those thoughts most challenging. Of course I didn't miss the fact that he personified truth and made her a woman; he also personified error and made him a man. I'm not sure I like that. But I like the poem because it because expresses confidence in the existence of truth and in the belief that truth will ultimately prevail.

We live in a time when things like truth, honesty and integrity are viewed quite cynically. According to one survey conducted within the last ten years, 67 percent of the American people believe there is no such thing as truth and 70 percent believe there are no moral absolutes. I question those percentages, but I don't doubt that we have an enormous number of people who don't think truth is recognizable. And it is a very serious thing, because if there is no truth, there is no meaning in life and there are countless numbers of people who think that life doesn't make any sense.

We can have a problem, however, in the way we handle truth. I came across a very interesting author named Ravi Zacharias. He is a native of India. His ancestors came from the highest Hindu castes. He is, however, a believer in Christ and writes books in defense of the Bible. He was invited to address students on the subject of faith at Harvard and Ohio State institutions that are not exactly famous for Biblical conservatism. Zacharias speaks passionately in defense of the truths of the Christian faith, but at the same time he is very critical of the way we handle the truth we know. He says that sometimes our talk about God is "emotional drivel bereft of reason." He says that communicators of the Christian message declare a lot of religious verbiage, but it is sometimes mindless, thoughtless, and heartless. Besides that he thinks they sometimes exploit people.

How shall we handle the truth? Here are a few brief suggestions.

1. We must be truth seekers.
2. We must handle information with objectivity.
3. We must avoid knee jerk reactions.
4. We must be willing to go wherever truth leads us.
5. We must be willing to change our lives to conform to the truth once we understand it.
6. We must not be so brazen as to think we have arrived at the point where we understand all the truth there is to know.
7. We must highly value the truth.

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