What is truth?
--Pilate, to Jesus
Truth is more concerned with one's perception of the nature or character of a thing than with the accuracy of one's knowledge of the facts related to a thing or event.
Satan doesn't spend his time trying to retell history--he spends his time trying to redefine what God has created.
"Lying" is not the opposite of truth. Lying has to do with the retelling of historical events.
Truth is more about clarity than accuracy.
Discovering truth is the experience of seeing a thing for what it is, NOT in knowing all there is to know about a thing. That is to say, it is about sight, NOT knowledge.
Story is the most effective way of communicating truth.
Many times, if not most of the time, clarity contradicts the observable.
Seeing Jesus in a thing is the same as finding Truth.
(The lunar eclipse mosaic above was compiled from an eclipse that was observed in Turkey on April 4, 2006. Here's the link.)
Nice!
ReplyDeleteVery well articulated, I might have to steal that.
I was talking with some friends about this tonight. Our conclusion was that human laws are primarily concerned with the facts.
ReplyDeleteDid you steal? Did you speed?
In a legal sense, truth is determined by validation of the facts. But the law is incapable of determing one's nature.
Did you steal? and Are you a thief? are two different questions, and truth answers each of them differently.
This is how we tend to live our lives, as if truth is primarily a legalistic term (as in, did you steal?).
This highlights the problem with the Law compared with the New Covenant. The Law could only operate in relation to events. It could not judge nor could it change the character of the person.
The New Covenant changes everything by moving Truth from the level of events/actions (the visible) to the level of identity/character/the heart (the invisible).
It turns me on when you talk like this.
ReplyDeleteMy best friend from high school did 5 years hard time for statutory rape for having sexual relations with a 15 year old girl when he was probably 24. And now you know him. He's a rapist. A violent criminal. An ex-con. That's the truth, right? It goes like this.
ReplyDeleteHave you ever been convicted of a felony?
[ ] Yes [ ] No
If the answer is yes, we know you. Well, we may not know everything about you, but we certainly know SOMETHING about you. It is as simple as this.
My sister hates him. I don't know if she ever really liked him, even when he and I were hanging out. But now she really hates him. I think the conviction justifies her hatred.
I bet if I told you his whole story, you'd like him. If he told you his story, you'd like him even more. Especially if you listened with a desire to know him, as opposed to knowing what folder to put him in. Especially if you were skilled in the art of surgically removing justifications and guilts from a story so that you could actually hear the story part of the story.
Sometimes when I look at people being presented with information, I can see right through their head to the wheels spinning. They're searching through all the definitions they know:
thief n. - one who steals
rapist n. - one who rapes
ex-convict n. - one who has spent time in prison as a result of a criminal conviction
The problem I see is the craving we have developed for conclusions about things and people. We have lost our appetite for the stories.
I'm looking at the third statement here - the first part...
ReplyDeleteCould you give an example of that?
Maybe the second statement too? :-)
I read on someone's blog that
"our country wasn't founded as a Christian nation"...I wondered where they ever got that idea so I started reading and discovered they are
rewriting history. Part of that is omitting any mention of god in the text books - even when they are quoting historical documents
Thanks for posting, JP.
ReplyDeleteSatan doesn't spend his time trying to retell history--he spends his time trying to redefine what God has created.
"Lying" is not the opposite of truth. Lying has to do with the retelling of historical events.
I think those are the quotes you're talking about.
I'm trying to recognize a distinction between something that is true and "truth. Between "history" and "identity."
History concerns itself with what happened. Identity concerns itself with the nature of a thing.
We seem to be preoccupied with accuracy (a historically-relevant term) but ignorant of the "mythic reality" of things. "Who are you" is so much more critical than "what did you do?"
So, in the case of what Satan is up to, when he said to Eve, "Did God really say..." I don't think he was suggesting that God didn't really say it (rewriting history). I think he was suggesting to Eve that God's intentions weren't what she thought they were. He was redefining God in her heart, by revealing to her the part that God left out ("you won't really die--you'll actually be more like God").
Regarding lying. We generally tend to view a person as truthful if they get the facts straight. I am suggesting that a person can be false, but still tell accurate facts and not rewrite history (lie).
The opposite of true is false. Those words are concerned with history.
The opposite of truth is falseness. Those two words are concerned with the nature of a being.
Does that make things more confusing?
I would like to muse on the jp’s and steve’s thoughts. This may take us even further from where jon was originally going. One is a liar if one is very likely to lie again when a situation presents itself to lie. One is a thief if one is very likely to steal the next time a situation presents itself that is conducive to stealing. Determining these truths or characteristics about ourselves and other is the tricky part. If my neighbor’s kid stole from me once is he a thief and I need to keep everything locked down and not let him visit in my house or is it a one time thing and I don’t have to be so vigilant.
ReplyDeleteIf he is not a thief great, life goes on pleasantly and we remain friends. But what about the “sin” of the one theft? That damage is done and real. In some ways it can never be amended. The time I lost confronting the theft even if I get the stolen items back I will never get back. However, if the neighbor kid tries to make amends by mowing my loan on balance I might get the time back and in my mind everything is better and completely restored. If I am willing to let bygones be bygones and the kid doesn’t steal again than I don’t see why anyone else would judge him negatively.
The question gets harder with something like rape. Even if the person never rapes again can what is lost or changed in the 15 year old child ever be amended. Is a child of that age even in a position to know whether it had been amended? I would think it would take many years for the person to mature to the point of even making that judgment. No mater how charming or wonderful the person who raped the child’s life may have become I’m not sure it changes the damage done. When would the good deeds done by or punishment received by the perpetrator reach a point where the girl/woman might reasonably say “it’s good. He has made up for it. The loss/change I suffered from being rape was amended because of the good deeds done or punishment received.”
This could go a lot of different directions at this point but I think I will stop this muse here. A single act can do a lot of damage and that is a fact that can not change even if we change our character and the truth about our self.
JP, sorry my reply has been so long in coming. I think I understand and agree with your #1. But I am forced to play my hand regarding #2.
ReplyDeleteIf your only means of enlightenment is the light of the Law, then you have no other choice than to know a person (a child) by his deeds. For what else can the Law do? It cannot see, judge, or change the heart.
The Law examines (and judges) a man by his deeds, and generally it condemns him, for the Law can always find a misdeed. The bit of wisdom from Proverbs was written in the spirit of the Law. So I will suggest that there is now a better standard--it's the new covenant.
I'll post more later on the rest of your points.
John, I think you're stuck in the paradigm of the scales of justice. Jesus' "seventy times seven" approach requires a completely new paradigm. Hebrews 9 and 10--the better way. The new paradigm. The new covenant.
Jon
Hmm…I will think about this. Do you feel that the concept of a single data point of the theft verses the concept of a person being a thief that is has the propensity to steel again is getting to your point of the truth of a person? That is what the person really is.
ReplyDelete