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What is Truth?

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“What is truth?” Pilot asked Jesus (John 18:38). Ask a typical evangelical Christian this question and the likely answer will be “The Bible is truth”. What we generally mean when we say this is that we believe that the Bible is the source of truth. Consider for a moment, though, how Peter, Paul, or John would have answered that question. In terms of scriptures, all they had was what we call the Old Testament. We know how the apostle John would respond to such a question because he wrote ‘For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.’ (John 1:17-18)

 

Church leaders only finally recognised the collection of writings of the New Testament as ‘truth’ in the fourth century. In 367 AD bishop Athanasius listed the current twenty-seven books of the New Testament in his Easter letter. Later, the councils of Hippo in 393 and Carthage in 397 fixed the Canon of scripture, for the Western church. So then, what would the early Christians have regarded as their source of truth?

 

The Lord Jesus was quite clear in His idea of truth. He said “I am the way and the truth and the life”. (John 14:6) It is ironical that when Pilate asked his question, the truth was actually staring him in the face!? Jesus often said “I tell you the truth” and His disciples recorded what He uttered. Yet, truth is more than what Jesus taught. You see, Jesus himself is the source of truth.

 

This is a critical understanding. If we regard the Bible as the source of truth then we will expect to find truth only in the form of propositional statements. The Pharisees of Jesus’ day believed that the Old Testament scriptures were the source of truth yet Jesus said this to them; “You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.” (John 5:39-40) We tend to regard the Pharisees with patronising condescension yet we often make the same fundamental mistake they did.

 

I believe in the inspiration of the Bible. I am convinced that it is the God-given documentary record of the truth. I am equally convinced that Jesus, himself is The Truth. Therefore, I come to the Bible not just to interpret its truth but also to find, in and through it, the one who is the truth, Jesus Christ the Lord. There are big differences in these two approaches to the Bible. On the one hand, we view the Bible through Christocentric spectacles. On the other hand, we view Jesus through biblical spectacles. Of course, the two concepts are intertwined. It is hard to ‘see’ Jesus without the aid of biblical spectacles. Equally, it is hard to know how to use biblical spectacles unless we focus on Jesus. The Bible is the God-given forum for encountering and learning about and from Jesus, and the Lord Jesus is the interpretive key to understanding the Bible.

 

The great Protestant reformers did the church a great service by rescuing it from corruption, ignorance, and religiosity. In their zeal for truth, they brought the scriptures to the fore and made them accessible to all. However, they shifted the focus from personal truth to propositional truth and from experiential encounter to doctrinal understanding. I am not saying that this was their intention but it certainly seems to be the effect that they produced.

 

We need to recover the early church’s focus on encountering Jesus whilst holding fast to sound doctrine and practice. Most of us have been trained to think in ‘and/or’ terms. Either ‘this’ is right or ‘that’ is right. What is more, if ‘this’ is right then ‘that’ must be wrong. However, the Bible contains many conceptual contradictions and constantly challenges our commitment to and/or thinking. We need to learn to hold two concepts in dynamic tension. Jesus is truth. The Bible is truth. For me, the challenge is to comprehend the source of truth. Jesus is the source and all other forms of truth are therefore derived.

 

So, Pilot’s question should have been, “who is truth?” The answer is, “Jesus is the truth”. The Bible is the record of the truth, the documentary repository of truth, and the inscripturated Word of God. Jesus, in Himself, is the source of truth, the Word made flesh, the eternal Word of God. If we hold fast to this understanding then we will have little difficulty in interpreting the scriptures. What is more, Bible-study will be more than an academic exercise; it will be an encounter with the living Lord of the scriptures.

 

 

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The Light of the World

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“For the rest of my life I want to reflect on what light is.”
This statement is attributed to a twenty-six year old Albert Einstein shortly after formulating his famous General Theory of Relativity. His statement is understandable because both his theory of relativity and his foundational work in quantum physics came about because of the known but mysterious qualities of light.

I am not a scientist, but even from a layman’s perspective I can see how utterly mysterious light actually is. To start with, light is both a wave and a particle, at the same time. It does not move between these two states, it is concurrently a wave and a photon, a quantum of energy. This is much like saying that the world is both a sphere and a square; it defies common sense and it violates the rules of logic. In the theological universe we have a similar mystery – Jesus Christ is both fully God and fully man, simultaneously and eternally.

God is associated with light throughout scripture. In the exodus from Egypt He went before the Israelites as a shining pillar of fire. When He met with Moses in the tent of meeting it shone with his shekinah glory. When Solomon dedicated the temple the Lord’s presence was so bright that the priests could not continue with the service. In the New Testament God is also associated with light. For instance, Paul writes; ‘God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honour and might forever. Amen.’ (1 Timothy 6:15-16) The apostle John makes the connection even more strongly in 1 John 1:5-6 where he writes; ‘This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.’

I am informed that in terms of Newtonian physics, the old science, space, time, and matter were considered as the primary realities in the universe. However, both quantum and relativity theory suggest that light is even more fundamental, primary, and foundational. Yet we cannot see light. We can only perceive its point of origin and its point of destination where it releases its energy. With light we seem to have reached the threshold of know-ability. It is beyond reason and common sense.

Jesus is LightThe fact that light appears to be the ‘first’ building block of our physical universe should not surprise us because Genesis 1:3 records God’s first creative act as; ‘And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.’ Equally, we shouldn’t be surprised that the nature of God’s most fundamental creation is beyond our comprehension because He has told us; “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways… As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9)

God, like light, would be unknowable and incomprehensible if He had not chosen to reveal himself to us. He did this by incarnating in human flesh; by becoming a man while still remaining fully divine. Fully God and fully man – like the wave and photon of light; both simultaneously.

When Jesus, the ‘true light’ (John 1:9), pardoned the woman caught in the act of adultery he could of said any number of things to the gathered crowd. He could have said, “See where sin gets you!” or perhaps, “Judge not lest you be judged”, but He chose so say something surprisingly different. He said; “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of light” (John 8:12). On another occasion He came upon a man who had been born blind. He made mud from the dust on the ground and his spit and put it on the man’s eyes. I think he was forming new eyes in the same way He had made Adam at the dawn of time. Just before doing this, and giving the man his sight, Jesus said this to his disciples; “While I am in the world, I am the light of the world” (John 9:5). On the mount of Transfiguration Jesus’ ‘face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light.’ (Matthew 17:2). After He had ascended back into Heaven Jesus appeared to Paul (then still Saul) on the road to Damascus and his appearance was so bright that Paul was blinded for several days.

In Jesus we see light! In Jesus we see the radiant face of God!
When we behold Jesus we behold God. When we come to know Jesus we come to know God. Jesus does not just reflect the light of God, as the moon reflects the light of the Sun, He is the light! Oh, if only Einstein had seen this!

 

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About Me

My name is Christopher Peppler and I was born in Cape Town, South Africa in 1947. While working in the financial sector I achieved a number of business qualifications from the Institute of Bankers, Damelin Management School, and The University of the Witwatersrand Business School. After over 20 years as a banker, I followed God’s calling and joined the ministry full time. After becoming a pastor of what is now a quite considerable church, I  earned an undergraduate theological qualification from the Baptist Theological College of Southern Africa and post-graduate degrees from two United States institutions. I was also awarded the Doctor of Theology in Systematic Theology from the University of Zululand in 2000.

Four years before that I established the South African Theological Seminary (SATS), which today is represented in over 70 countries and has more than 2 500 active students enrolled with it. I presently play an role supervising Masters and Doctoral students.

I am a passionate champion of the Christocentric or Christ-centred Principle, an approach to biblical interpretation and theological construction that emphasises the centrality of Jesus

I have been happily married to Patricia since the age of 20, have two children, Lance and Karen, a daughter-in-law Tracey, and granddaughters Jessica and Kirsten. I have now retired from both church and seminary leadership and devote my time to writing, discipling, and the classical guitar.

If you would like to read my testimony to Jesus then click HERE.