[03/23/19]
A matter almost as critical to understanding reality as is the nature and existence of God is the nature and existence of Truth. I shall capitalize the term because it is an ultimate, as God is ultimate. An understanding of Truth is needful to the understanding of reality. It is needful to any effort to find meaning. It is therefore needful to any attempt at communication. The grand assault on Truth in our time is in fact an attempt to destroy meaning and bring an end to any useful communication. Remove Truth and each individual is reduced to possessing a collection of baseless opinions, each as valid as the next. Unfortunately, in such a setting the equal value of each opinion is established, but established as nil. Opinion without Truth is a nullity. It is but empty words conveying nothing. It cannot convey anything because that which establishes meaning has been removed.
Truth in a lowercase sense is utterly needful for communication. Words must have a true meaning. They cannot simply mean whatever we wish them to mean. They have definition. In order to have definition they must have truth. Otherwise, even our language is reduced to nothing but opinions and we cannot convey anything of significance, or even of utter insignificance to one another. We may as well revert to incoherent grunts and utterances of animalistic noise, for they would convey just as much information to the hearer as anything we claim as language under such circumstances.
A. Essential Nature of Truth
Truth is, we must recognize, found amongst those essential characteristics of God. He IS Truth, and this fact is demanded by His being. He cannot not be Truth. To cease being Truth would be for Him to cease being God, which we have established as an impossibility. Here is something to understand in regard to those essential characteristics which define the godhead: They are essential in their own right. That is to say, they are what they are in totality. They cannot be any less than totally what they are, and to remove even the least bit from or to add even the least bit to their essential quality would be to eliminate the thing itself. Truth diminished is no longer Truth. Truth augmented is no longer Truth. We might say the same of Love, of Holiness, or any of the other essential characteristics of God. Like God Himself, they are perfect. One cannot add to them or take away from them.
One may be possessed of degrees of such essential characteristics, but to possess in part is to possess but a part. They are not the essence of you in this case. In God alone do we find them fully and perfectly realized.
But I am concerned primarily with Truth at this juncture because it is Truth, the essential Truth which defines and is defined by God, which is my pursuit. This is the sole fitting subject for theological pursuit, the sole fitting definition upon which to establish doctrine. Doctrine is, after all, an attempt to discern and describe that essential Truth. If there is not fundamental, essential Truth, then any pursuit of doctrine is pointless. We can only arrive at opinions, and as I have observed, opinions, apart from essential Truth, are empty, pointless things. Doctrine, apart from a firm foundation in essential Truth is worse than empty, worse than pointless. It is potentially deadly.
I suppose I could handily argue that opinion devoid of truth is just as potentially deadly. It is readily demonstrated. If I form the opinion that I am capable of flight without benefit of any device, and on the basis of this opinion decide to jump off a high cliff and soar through the sky, the outcome is rather inevitable. The Truth will win, and I shall perish. If I convince myself that I am bullet-proof and on that basis confront some armed individual intent upon my destruction, I shall rapidly discover the value of my opinions. Recognition will, however, prove sadly brief as I face my demise.
I note that the examples I have chosen pertain to corporeal, temporal existence. Such pursuits of baseless opinion lead to temporal termination. Arguably, all such pursuits of baseless opinion trend in that direction. But, with doctrine, with attempts to understand this god being we have described, this being who is ultimate in authority, ultimate in power, utterly and irrevocably able to impose his will upon any and all, if we are not founded upon Truth, that essential characteristic of this god being, then we are in fact publishing lies about that very being. It cannot be supposed that so perfect a being will take lightly these slanderous declarations as to His character. Here, I insist, the danger run is not one of temporal demise, but of eternal import. That may, yet again, be getting far ahead of myself in terms of laying out my thoughts in orderly fashion, but it needs saying.
