Truth Month - July 2024
Day 13 - All Truth is God's Truth
Truth is what corresponds to reality. It is not about what we feel, or determined by strongly held convictions. The foundational truth is that God cannot lie and that He is the author of all Truth. He can never contradict Himself, since He is the immutably good, all powerful, and necessary being.
Christians have often struggled with change. The enlightenment which fostered the scientific revolution has been hard for some to accept, especially when there are apparent discrepancies between the Words of Scripture and the discoveries of modern science. Who do we believe and where do we place our trust? Do we really have to choose between believing in God and facts discovered by the scientific method?
Fortunately, there is a third option — the realization that "All Truth is God's Truth." The God who created the whole natural realm and then chose to reveal Himself to us cannot, and will not, deceive us or communicate falsehoods. God did not give us evidence of a past history that never happened, nor did He give His revelation to mislead us into believing falsehoods.
Historically, Christians have held to a concept called "dual revelation", or the two Books view, which is well articulated by the Belgic Confession of 1561:
We know him by two means: first, by the creation, preservation and government of the universe; which is before our eyes as a most elegant book, wherein all creatures, great and small, are as so many characters leading us to contemplate the invisible things of God, namely, his power and divinity, as the apostle Paul saith, Romans 1:20. All which things are sufficient to convince men, and leave them without excuse. Secondly, he makes himself more clearly and fully known to us by his holy and divine Word, that is to say, as far as is necessary for us to know in this life, to his glory and our salvation.
Because both revelations come from the Creator God, there can be no inherent conflict between truths found in each. However, we need to be humble enough to realize that, as human beings, we can misinterpret one or both, and force a seeming conflict or contradiction. Also, it is possible that we simply don't yet fully understand portions well enough to be dogmatic about certain particulars.
The TLDR bottom line is this: We do not have to choose between having a love for studying the amazing creation that God has given us and loving God with all our hearts and minds.
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