Question 3: What is truth?
Answer: Truth is that which exists in, and proceeds from, the mind of God, encompassing all that exists.
As we saw in our definition of theology, theology is fundamentally the practice of receiving God’s truth about himself and his works. I hope and trust that this thesis will be proved again and again in the course of these studies. But this presents us with an immediate question that we need to answer, that being: What is truth? This is an important introductory question when it comes to theology, because theology itself is the activity of receiving truth. To begin to understand what truth is, one needs first to understand the concept of reality. Reality is that which exists. Genesis 1:1 teaches us that God himself is both eternal reality or being and the source and definer of created reality. In himself, he is the self-existent one – being without beginning or end. Eternal. Unchangeable. Self-sustaining (these are all things that we’ll consider in more depth later in the course of our theological study). Before God created anything, when created reality was not, he himself was all that was real.
Since God has now created things, however, we can also say that this creation too exists and is therefore likewise real. The difference between Creator and creation, of course, is that the creation is entirely dependent upon God for its existence. God himself, on the other hand, is self-sustaining, dependent on nothing, and exists as the Holy One infinitely above and beyond all that he has created. God spoke, and all things came into being, and were he to withdraw his power, all created things would expire and cease to exist (Job 34:14-15).
With this basic understanding of reality in our minds, then, we can ask our main question again: What is truth? Truth is a slippery term, and the reason it’s slippery is because we often use it to refer to a set of distinct yet related concepts. At any point we might use the word “truth” in slightly different ways, so it’s important to have a set of definitions in answer to our question. I’m going to try and set those definitions out in order for us.
Now, typically we as Christians tend to think of truth as that which is “objectively real.” Take, for example, the statement that my house exists. Now it is “true” that my house exists whether I said it existed or not. So then, the term “true” here is referring to the objective reality of the house. The theologian Herman Bavinck calls this the first category of truth, which is “truth or veracity in essence” (Bavinck, RD Vol 2, p.208). We might call this first category simply “objective truth”.
On the other hand, the term “truth” can also be used in reference to the things that we say – rather than the things themselves. For example, “my house exists” is a “true” statement, and yet the house and my statement are not the same thing. The statement that “my house exists,” is a verbal expression which may or may not comport with objective truth (i.e. it’s either a true statement or a lie). Using the term in this way, then, denotes that it is not the existence of my house itself that is the “truth,” but rather it is my statement that is the truth. Bavinck calls this the second category of truth, which is “truth or veracity in expression” (Bavinck, RD Vol 2, p.208). We might also call it “propositional truth”, or even “word-truth”. In the helpful words of John Frame:
“… propositional truth can be seen as an implication of metaphysical truth. It is a property of language, rather than reality in general. But true language is language that rightly represents reality, that expresses the way something “really is.” Truth in this sense is the proper correlation between language and reality… There is no higher standard than God against which his truth may be measured. So God’s metaphysical ultimacy implies that he is the standard of propositional truth” (Frame, Doctrine of God, p.477).
Finally, there is also a third category of truth, which Bavinck calls “truth or veracity in knowing” (Bavinck, RD Vol 2, p.208). This refers to our inner perception, reception or rejection of either essential truths or statements of truth. It’s our “inner response” to word-truth when others speak to us, and it’s our inner response to objective truth which we see around us. It’s also the basis of the word-truth (or lie) that we speak to others. We might call this third-category “perceptional truth”. In all these different categories of truth, we’re using the same term the whole time, but we’re using it in reference to at least three distinct concepts. Trouble is, most people aren’t particularly self-aware of these distinctions in general use, and clarity of thought and expression suffers as a result.
One step further is required here. These ideas of truth are not mere philosophical theorising. They are, in fact, personal. I say that because truth is first and foremost not about created reality or our perception of it, but about God himself. Our troubles with the idea of truth really arise because we divorce the concept of truth from the personal reality of God’s existence. Truth is not some objective concept that exists over God. It is not some law of reality that exists beyond both him and us. Truth is rather the consequence of his being. Please re-read that sentence, it’s very important. Truth is not an objective philosophical reality, it is a consequence of God’s being and person. I think I need to open this up a bit more, which we will do in our next article.
In light of what’s been said, however, let’s at least begin here: Truth, in the most basic sense, is that which exists in God, and proceeds from God. That’s a summary statement of everything that’s been said, and it makes perfect sense when we consider that our Lord said: “your word is truth” (Jn 17:17), because God’s words are naturally the expression of his mind – which is the fount and source of all truth. All the other concepts that we might express using the term “truth” must have this concept as their foundation: truth is that which exists in God, and proceeds from God, encompassing all that exists. In the words of one commentator: “truth is grounded ultimately in the existence and character of God” (Fugate, God’s Words to you, p.313). We now have a working thesis, it’s time to explore and establish the case more fully - stay tuned! SDG.
Q3. What is truth?