How Can I Know What is True?

Absolute truth is something we're consistently being told doesn't actually exist. The world speaks of truth as relative. They say every individual has their truth and that just because something is true for you doesn’t mean it is true for me.

This is problematic on so many levels. If anything can be true then nothing is true. What if something that is true for me contradicts what is true for you? What if my truth says your truth is false and yours says mine is false? Who has the truth at that point?

For actual truth to exist there must be an ultimate standard from which absolute truth derives. Christians believe this absolute truth to derive from God. Packer says, "God is such a person: truth, in this sense, is his nature, and he has not got it in him to be anything else." He is truth and his Word is truth. God has revealed himself in the Bible and so this is where we find absolute truth about our world. God and his Word are the ultimate standards.

The truth of everything is that all truth is God’s truth. We live in God’s world that was created by him. Believers and unbelievers alike are subject to his rule and laws. One day we will all face his judgment. People can pretend that God doesn’t exist, but they can’t escape the truth he has written on their hearts. The believer knows this, but it is something the unbeliever denies.

The believer has an ultimate standard to appeal to for where she derives her ideas of logic, morality, certainty, and truth. The unbeliever has no such standard. He can only appeal to feelings or survival. In truth, the unbeliever has no basis to claim injustice or wrongs done by anyone to anyone. What we find are large inconsistencies.

Packer says, "Christians are independent folks, for they use the Word of God as a touchstone by which to test the various views that are put to them, and they will not touch anything which they are not sure what Scripture sanctions." Christians have a governing standard. They know that the best way to thrive in God’s world is to follow his instruction for how to live in it.