What is Truth?

Well, it’s that time again… Time for another presidential election. And from what I see on the news and social media, this is THE most important presidential election EVER. Apparently, no matter who wins, it is the end of the United States of America as we know it. And that may very well be true. There is no biblical promise for the continuation of the USA. It may be that we are simply voting for how our civilization comes to an end.

Therefore, I have no intention of attempting to sway your vote one way or the other. I probably couldn’t sway you, even if I tried. Like me, you have probably already made up your mind and have probably even voted (I voted in my state’s early election). I hope you do vote and that you vote your Holy Spirit-guided conscience.

However, this “most important election ever” has me contemplating what was perhaps the most important political debate ever and its implications for our lives as disciples of King Jesus. John the Apostle wrote that after Jesus had been handed over to Pontius Pilate by the Jewish leaders, the Roman Governor took Jesus aside to question Him. Rome (the human government of the fallen world) interrogated God:

Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?”

“Is that your own idea?” Jesus asked, “or did others talk to you about me?”

“Am I a Jew?” Pilate replied. “Your own people and chief priests handed you over to me. What is it you have done?”

Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.”

“You are a king, then!” said Pilate.

Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”

“What is truth?” retorted Pilate. With this he went out again to the Jews gathered there and said, “I find no basis for a charge against him. But it is your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at the time of the Passover. Do you want me to release ‘the king of the Jews?”

They shouted back, “No, not him! Give us Barabbas!” Now Barabbas had taken part in an uprising (John 18:33-40).

Rome had political questions for Jesus. Jesus had spiritual answers for Rome. Pilate wanted to know what Jesus’ political ambitions were. Jesus answered that His Kingdom and Kingship transcended earthly politics. Then, what occurred next was the greatest debate in politics, ever…

Jesus stated, “…the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”

Pilate retorted, “What is truth?”

There is apparently much disagreement over which presidential candidate in this election is, “…on the side of truth.” Pilate (the representative of human government in this debate) gives us a very telling rebuttal that explains much about human politics: “What is truth?”

What I believe Pilate was saying was, “There is no real truth in such matters, there is only what you make of it.”

And while we historically deride Pilate for his answer, I believe it may reveal more about our own government and politics than we care to admit. Pilate was simply stating what he had observed in human politics. For many, there is no real truth in politics; there is only what accomplishes their goal.

To that point, I would like to make a claim that you might not appreciate at first, but please grant me the opportunity to explain it… here it is,

“There are very few people who actually believe in truth.”

Now, there are a lot of people who say they believe in truth. But I would argue that most of those who say they believe in truth, only believe in what they already firmly believe, and therefore, they believe that what they already firmly believe is true. Unfortunately, most people cannot consider that the things they firmly believe could be false, and therefore, they believe that they believe in truth.

My favorite definition of truth is “an accurate representation of reality.” Truth is therefore absolute, regardless of anyone’s opinion about it. Truth doesn’t bend to our feelings or desires. We must align to truth; we cannot simply align truth to that which we already believe to be true.

Thus, the only people who truly believe in truth are those who can consider the possibility that even their deepest-held beliefs could be proven false, and that if those deeply-held beliefs were proven false, they would change their beliefs and actions to reflect that which has been proven to be true.

To claim to believe in truth because you believe what you already believe is true, is circular reasoning and confirmation basis, two logical fallacies. Other ways to describe logical fallacies are word games or verbal gymnastics. This is important because Jesus clearly prohibited His disciples from engaging in such word games in Matthew 5:33-37.

“Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but fulfill to the Lord the vows you have made.’ But I tell you, do not swear an oath at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.”

Some have taken this passage to be forbidding the taking of oaths. But if you look closer, Jesus is forbidding His disciples from playing word games. He is pointing out that people of His day would base the veracity of their oath on that which they had sworn the oath. In other words, they would argue that their “yes” was actually a “maybe” based on how they had said it.

In our culture, we have adopted a style of speaking that allows us to have plausible deniability. We say things in such a way that we can go back and argue that what was understood was not what we meant to say. In case you haven’t noticed, much of the current political coverage is people stating that the candidates did not mean what you think they meant when they said something, and that they actually meant something completely different.

That is what King Jesus is prohibiting His followers from doing. And notice where He says such word games come from; “the evil one.” In John 8:44, Jesus spells it out a little more clearly:

“You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

When we play word games or engage in verbal gymnastics, we are lying and speaking the language of Satan. If we take King Jesus at His word, it is a lie and a sin. As the Proverb states:

“The Lord detests lying lips…” (Proverbs 12:22).

In case you haven’t noticed, politicians of all flavors play a lot of word games and engage in verbal gymnastics; that is to say, they lie. What are we to do as disciples of King Jesus when no matter how we vote, we are voting for a liar who is speaking the language of Satan?

First, what we are not allowed to do is repeat their lies or lie for them. The trap we fall into is that to justify voting for someone who is clearly a liar, we pretend that they are not. This goes back to the original premise that we will believe that something is true simply because it aligns with what we already believe to be true. Similarly, if we believe that a candidate will promote what we hold to be true, we can have a tendency to accept anything that candidate says as true, or we will explain away things they have said or done that do not align with what we believe to be true. Dallas Willard wrote:

“Fanaticism—in art, politics, sports, or religion, to name some of the main kinds—is the result of inherently meaningless lives becoming obsessed with performance and then trying to take all of their existence into it. Being ‘a fan of . . .’ is treated as something deep and important. Because those who do this do not have a whole soul directing their lives toward good, rooted in God, they allow a ‘flow’ they find outside themselves to take over their thoughts, feelings, behavior, and social relations. That flow intoxicates them. They absolutize the flow and no longer subject it to ordinary tests of truth, reality, and tried-and-true human values.”[i]

Unfortunately, too many supposed disciples of King Jesus have absolutized the flow of politics in such a way that they no longer subject what their favored candidate says to ordinary tests of truth, reality, and tried-and-true human values. Like Pilate, they decide that there is no real truth in politics, only the means to an end.

In contrast, what I have decided to do is to openly admit that the candidate I voted for is most likely lying about certain things and is completely wrong about others. To state that I voted for the lesser of two evils is to admit that I voted for someone evil. Therefore, I should be honest about why I believe they are evil. Just because I voted for a liar does not mean that I need to implicate myself in their lies by repeating them or by creating further lies to justify my vote. In fact, I am prohibited by King Jesus from doing so.

After interrogating King Jesus, Pilate looked for a political way out of the spiritual problem he found himself in:

…he went out again to the Jews gathered there and said, “I find no basis for a charge against him. But it is your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at the time of the Passover. Do you want me to release ‘the king of the Jews?”

What Pilate did not anticipate is that the Jews decided in favor of their own political solution over a spiritual one:

They shouted back, “No, not him! Give us Barabbas!” Now Barabbas had taken part in an uprising.

The Jews were looking for a political kingdom instead of a spiritual kingdom that transcended politics. Therefore, they chose the man who promised a political revolution instead of a spiritual one.

Choosing truth over lies in politics is choosing a spiritual revolution over an earthly one. By refusing to repeat or make lies about the candidates for which we vote, we demonstrate that our allegiance is to King Jesus alone. That is revolutionary.

[i] Dallas Willard, Renovation of the Heart: Putting on the Character of Christ, 20th Anniversary Edition (Colorado Springs: The Navigators, 2021, Kindle Edition), 212.