Jesus, attempting to reveal himself as the Son of God, had many who believed in him; but a few Jews did not. To them, he said, "If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and truth shall make you free (John 8:31-32 NKJB)." To which, they responded that they had been faithful to their past as descendants of Abraham and challenged Jesus' claim about the truth setting a person free.
Truth is elusive, but it is interesting how Jesus equates truth with loyalty to God. In John 14:6, when his disciples questioned the way into heaven, Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." You have to wonder why Jesus didn't say something like, "I am the way, the peace, the love, the pathway" or something else similar. But he said "truth." Then, he further adds, "...I sanctify myself that they also may be sanctified by the truth (John 17:19)." In the midst of so many different religious views, Jesus declared that the way to know the "truth" about God was through him.
In addition, when Jesus was brought before Pilate for judgment, he said, "For this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice. Pilate said to him, 'What is truth?'" (John 18:37-38). Apparently, the verdict of Jesus' trial hinged upon "truth," not his teachings or his acts. A careful reading of the rest of the New Testament also reveals a strong emphasis upon the truth.
So, what exactly is truth? Well, simply put, truth is the opposite of false or wrong, but this still does not explain it. Too often, truth is sorted out by examining what is a person's feeling or emotional response as opposed to what are the facts of the issue. Some of this may be illustrated by noting the difference between observation and hypothesis. For instance, someone may see a bird and exclaim that since it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it must be a duck; but this does not prove it is a duck. It may be an excellent observation, but it is still just a hypothesis. On the other hand, if someone takes the same bird and examines it scientifically, the determination may be made whether it really is a duck or something else that merely resembles a duck.
In many ways, Americans have been subjected to a search for truth for the past four years. I'm sorry to have to report that almost every "fact check" I have read disputes most of what has been proclaimed by the Trump administration, starting with him. We have been told not to worry about coronavirus, that it will go away, or it is not really any more dangerous than the flu. And yet, here I sit writing this article while almost a quarter of a million people in the United States alone have died because of this virus with over 11 million people being infected. We also have been told that wearing a mask is not very important but, currently, a large number of the White House staff have tested positive with some going to the hospital, even the president himself. Hundreds, if not thousands of people, have been infected by covid-19 through rallies, private parties, chauffeuring various White House transportation vehicles, and now it has been reported that as many as one hundred Secret Service personnel have either been infected or exposed to the virus. Some of these people have died.
Americans have been told that they have a very corrupt election process and that the Democrats stole the election from Republican President Donald Trump, but that certainly has not been proven. The evidence suggests that the recent election was one of the best in recent history. And, to prove a point, a significant number of Republican Representatives and Senators won seats in Congress while President Trump was defeated. Taking umbrage, Trump fired the person in charge of speaking the truth about the election.
It is unfortunate that people tend to believe something is true if it is stated often enough, even though it may be blatantly false. This has happened so many times during the past four years that it is extremely troubling to have so many people continue to support President Trump's effort to retain the presidency when everyone in the United States can read the facts and know with certainty that he lost the election. One might excuse people in the public, but it is difficult to excuse those we have elected to a national office who choose to hide the truth in favor of propagating untruth.
As Jesus said, knowing the truth will set you free. Knowing the truth allows us to be free from our emotions and feelings in order to better understand exactly what we are experiencing at any moment in time. President Trump will not be judged on the basis of his tweets and verbiage but upon the "truth" of what actually happened.
It is unrealistic to believe that a new president can solve all of the problems we face in the United States and the world, but it would be a very positive start to at least rediscover the truth.
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Robert Box is the former chaplain for the Bella Vista Police Department and is currently the Fire Department chaplain. Opinions expressed are those of the author.