Belief

Quid Est Veritas?

John

John 18:37–38 CSB

“You are a king then?” Pilate asked. “You say that I’m a king,” Jesus replied. “I was born for this, and I have come into the world for this: to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” “What is truth?” said Pilate. After he had said this, he went out to the Jews again and told them, “I find no grounds for charging him.

What does it mean to have a Biblical Worldview?

How does this differ from other worldviews?

Worldview: A particular philosophy of life or conception of the world.

Or: The way someone thinks about the world.

A Worldview defines:

Reality

Knowledge

Human Nature

Human Problems

Solutions to Human Problems

Human Value

Human Purpose

Ethics

Suffering

Meaning of Life

Human Desires

Common worldviews are broken down into several categories:

Christian Theism

Deism

Naturalism

Nihilism

Existentialism

Eastern Pantheistic Monism

The New Age

Postmodernity

To form belief there must be a standard: Truth must come from somewhere.

To believe in something it must be truthful.

Avoid the false news narrative

Not just for politics

Jesus was married

Jesus was ordained as God by the council of Nicea

There are other Gospels just as important/popular as the four in the Bible.

There was no “Bible” until the time of Constantine.

John

1 John 5:13 CSB

I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.

John 20:30–31 CSB

Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

The core of our knowledge of Christianity is limited to answer basic questions about the Bible.

We focus on our desire for spiritual milk and meat and never realize that we need to equally exercise our spiritual faith.

We can answer the question about our faith, but do we really understand how to apply it?

I want neither terrorist spirituality that keeps me in a perpetual state of fright about being in a right relationship with my heavenly Father, nor a sappy spirituality that portrays God as such a benign teddy bear that there is no aberrant behavior or desire of mine that he will not condone. I want a relationship with the Abba of Jesus, who is infinitely compassionate with my brokenness and at the same time an awesome, incomprehensible, and unwieldy mystery. - Brennan Manning

I. Truth is unchanging.

- An inch does not cease being an inch just because you measured in correctly. There must be a standard.

Truth is not relative and only apply in one place.

The law of the land is not universal truth.

For their to be belief there must be truth. We act on faith, but while it maybe blind, it is not unfounded.

John 17:14–18 CSB

I have given them your word. The world hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I am not praying that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.

Psalm 119:160 CSB

The entirety of your word is truth, each of your righteous judgments endures forever.

Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology Sanctification

The generic meaning of sanctification is “the state of proper functioning.” To sanctify someone or something is to set that person or thing apart for the use intended by its designer. A pen is “sanctified” when used to write. Eyeglasses are “sanctified” when used to improve sight. In the theological sense, things are sanctified when they are used for the purpose God intends. A human being is sanctified, therefore, when he or she lives according to God’s design and purpose.

II. Truth is not limited to context.

Truth of scripture applies to all people at all places at all times.

Right truth is called orthodoxy in the context of Christianity.

John 4:

John 4:21–24 CSB

Jesus told her, “Believe me, woman, an hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know, because salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth. Yes, the Father wants such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and in truth.”

III. Truth is never to be denied outright or accepted blindly.

“Trust but verify”

2 Timothy

2 Timothy 2:15 CSB

Be diligent to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who doesn’t need to be ashamed, correctly teaching the word of truth.

Acts 17:11 CSB

The people here were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, since they received the word with eagerness and examined the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.

John 16:13 CSB

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth. For he will not speak on his own, but he will speak whatever he hears. He will also declare to you what is to come.

Caveat

It is not truth or grace, it is truth and grace.

John 1:

John 1:14 CSB

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Application

Some want to be told what to believe, others want to learn how to decipher truth.

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I - I took the one less traveled by and that has made all the difference - Robert Frost

“The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with his lips and walk out the door and deny him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.” - Brennan Manning

John 14:6 CSB

Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

John 3:16 KJV 1900

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.