What is Truth?

During this pandemic, I have been reading through the Gospels. I notice the details of events and words of Jesus and of others. I noticed the words that Pilate asked Jesus, “What is truth?” For most Christians, we give the nice quick answer that Jesus is the truth and we Christians know and have the truth. For the most part that is true. I do know that I have questioned what truth is.  For the past twenty-nine years of my life, I have worked with teenagers. When incidents occur among them, I try to search for the truth. I find myself asking, “What is truth? Who is telling the truth? How do you know this person is telling the truth and this person is not?” During this pandemic, these are all valid questions we all need to be asking of the media, the “experts,” the politicians, and even our own selves.

Facts prove truth. This can be true, but if you have read enough crime and drama, you know that facts can prove truth for both sides of the argument. There are some facts that are true, such as the coronavirus is a virus that affects human beings. Argue all you want. That is a true fact. There could be more details to that fact, but it is a fact that is true. The details can sometimes bring in the areas that make some more facts, that could be debatable. Then, we have a problem, so I ask, “What is truth?”

The Internet is full of facts. Some of the facts are skewed to fit an agenda whether that agenda is political or religious, but they are facts. People will claim that since these facts exist that they are true. Do we not remember that scientists called it a fact that the earth was flat? Now, we call people lunatics that believe that the earth is physically flat. The truth had to be discovered. Maybe that is it. Maybe instead of sharing articles or memes, we need to be searching for and discovering the truth. That will take time.

Time is what we have. Time proves truth. In time, the guilty confess to their crimes. In time, science is proven as bacteria grows or dissolves. With time, we can read entire books that teach us the truth of history. With time, we can watch historical documentaries that have facts. Sometimes, in time, the truth gets distorted.  People forget facts. Some people no longer exist that knew the facts. Time can prove facts, but it can also distort facts. We need to be wise with time and look at the entire context.

Truth gets distorted when we hear the facts but we don’t want to hear them because we have believed different facts all of our lives. We have to question if what we learned was truth or someone else’s version of the truth. I wonder how many young people in twenty years will be wondering what truth is with the facts that we are dispensing to them today. For me, these questions came when I went to Washington D.C. for the first time with my private school in 2013. I taught at that school, and as an adult, I was hearing stories, reading stories, and seeing archives for myself and wondered why I was not taught any of these truths in school. I didn’t learn them because the truth was distorted when people wrote about history without going to historical places or without much research. Besides, most of our history books are like reading a pamphlet on a detailed place, which is never going to dispense many facts or truth.

The truth becomes distorted when human beings begin to give their viewpoints. The truth becomes distorted when people want to hide facts in order to have people believe their viewpoint or believe their agenda. The truth becomes distorted when we only see the facts that benefit our agenda. The truth becomes distorted when we refuse to listen to the other person in the argument. The truth becomes distorted when we refuse to research for ourselves. We have to stop distorting the truth.

The truth is always revealed. It may not be in our lifetime, but it will be revealed. Having worked with teenagers, I take my time to discover the truth. I want to err with being slow in investigating instead of quick to a wrong verdict and demean or question a person’s character that is not deserving of that. This is how I also have remained in the truth of Christ. I had to discover what were human created rules, rituals, and laws, and what the actual truth is in the Bible and in Christ.

Even though Christians have injured my spiritual life, I have always searched for the facts and the truth. It has taken research, time, and building community with other people, both Christians and non-Christians. I have discovered that with the truth of Jesus, even though people distort His words, it does not mean that His words are not true. It means that we as human beings, need to listen to the truth of Jesus and begin living the truth of Jesus, and then others will see the truth of Jesus. There is a caution though in discovering the truth of Jesus: it will no longer be safe or comfortable, but it will be the truth.