The Orchard Group

by Paul S. Williams
President, Orchard Group Inc.
Updated Weekly 

What Is Truth?

Every now and again my mind is drawn back to a burning question, the only utterance of Pilate's life to be remembered: "What is truth?"

I roll those words in my reflective mind. What is truth? Can there be such a thing as "objective truth?" Most of us believe in objective truth, but is there anyone other than God who is objective enough to perceive it?

We are all subjective creatures, to be sure. We all perceive truth through some particular lens. For some it is the Enlightenment, for others postmodernism. For still others it is the particular way they have been taught to read the Bible. Everyone has a cloudy lens. That is why we desperately need one another. Rigorous open study of each other's work allows us to pursue the truth with everything in us.

I was with a friend in Nashville who has spent his life in the upper echelons of the Christian music industry. Somehow he has managed to keep his soul, a difficult thing to do in the music industry. He asked if I believed in "absolute truth." I was taken aback. I thought people in Nashville were only interested in perfect harmony.

I asked why truth needed "absolute" as a qualifier. Did the word itself not carry enough weight? He said he did not know. He was just a musician. Later I had a thought. Could "absolute" be to "truth" what "perfect" is to "harmony"?

One of my mentors, Byron Lambert, a wise and brilliant philosopher, was uncommonly careful in his language. He frequently said, "It is hard to tell the truth." I always heard at least two meanings in the statement. Byron is with the Lord now, and I miss the truth he told.

When Pilate asked, "What is truth?" I am not sure what he was asking. Was he seeking objective facts that would bolster his case? Perhaps he was looking for some explanation of Jesus' life. Did his understanding of truth even remotely resemble my own?

This much I know. When Pilate asked, "What is truth?" he had no idea that truth was the sweating, wounded man standing in front of him. And he is the Truth by which all truth is measured.

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"Used with permission of Christian Standard, where this column first appeared."