what is truth?

Years ago I wondered whether it were possible to formulate a meaningful definition of the word "truth" -- apart from any reference to God.  I found that to be a far more difficult task than I could have imagined.  After three days of thinking about nothing else but to resolve that difficult question, I arrived in my mind at a definition of truth, which definition I still believe it to be valid and therefore useful.  Here, then, is my "secular" definition of truth:

"TRUTH is that which can never, and therefore does never, change."

There are a few important things in that definition which I want to point out, namely:

1. It is possible to define "truth" without any direct reference to God.  Of course, that does not mean that truth can therefore exist apart from God; only, that one can speak of truth--in principle--without first having to discuss the existence and nature of God.
2. The definition, as such, asserts the existence of something called "truth".
3. The definition emphasizes the singular, essential qualification of "truth," that is, the principle of immutability (unchangeableness).
4. The definition includes no allusion to the content or identity of any certain thing which may or may not be supposed to be "truth"; but, the definition is useful to assert and to establish a meaningful and important idea, which is to say that "truth", in principle, does exist -- regardless of whether or not anything may be discovered which "...can never, and therefore does never, change".

The above definition, as above constructed and as I have construed the meaning of that definition, I believe is vitally important, as it stands.  Yet, it is made (unspeakably) more important by reason of the asinine ("extremely stupid or foolish") claims of so-called "Postmodernists," who deny even the possibility of objective truth ("objective" means, "independent of anyone's personal opinion").  Indeed, the central tenet of Postmodernism (can it at all be called a "philosophy"?) is, the rejection of the very principle of "objective truth".  "There is no such thing as objective truth," insists the Postmodernist; while foolishly ignoring the fact that his own statement, therefore, cannot (in view of his own objection) be 'objectively true'.

As a matter of fact, it is logically impossible to deny the existence of truth.  Just try it, thus: "Truth does not exist."  That statement refutes itself; if truth does not exist, then, even the claim, that "truth does not exist," cannot be true.  And if it cannot be true that "truth does not exist," therefore, it must be the case that "truth" does in fact exist.

On the other hand, the assertion, "Truth exists," is self-validating.  The statement logically allows for itself to be true.  Isn't "truth" thus a beautiful (and powerful) idea?

Postmodernists are incapable to refute the "logic" of the foregoing argument; thus, they can only then resort to objecting (as they do,) that the mere idea, of objective truth, is nevertheless meaningless: because (as the Postmodernist believes), it is impossible that anything can exist--much less does anything actually exist--which "can never, and therefore does never, change".

But why do Postmodernists believe that virtually everything is subject to change?  There are three (in their own minds, 'good') reasons why, namely:

1. Everything which mankind is by any means capable to observe, throughout the Universe, appears to exist in a state of inexorable, unrelenting change;
2. Which, that observation, strongly entices multitudes (of unbelievers) to embrace the claims of a host of supposed experts, so-called "Scientists," who insist that the hodge-podge of ideas belonging to so-called Evolutionary Theory, are true.  Thus, if those ideas, based as they are upon observable phenomena, are supposed to be true, then, it only seems reasonable (to such persons) to conclude that nothing exists nor can exist which is not subject to change.
3. Yet, by far the most important reason why Postmodernists (and other unbelievers) insist that everything that exists is necessarily in a state of perpetual change, is because they are willing to believe only what they want to believe.  Most important, what they desperately want NOT to believe, is, that the Word of God is "truth".  Their attempt to deny the existence of immutable (unchangeable) truth, has more to do with their overriding will to deny--not the idea of "god," but to deny the reality of the true and living God, that is, the God of the Bible.  Postmodernists (and other agnostics and/or atheists) suppose that, by wishing away, as it were, the very notion of 'objective truth,' they thus can justify their rejection of belief in God.

Having rejected to themselves the notion of a Supreme and Self-existent Being who created and who also sustains all things by his own divine power, how can unbelievers then understand the world and themselves in it?  They are left with nothing else but to rely upon their own ability, by means of their carnal senses (sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste), to make "sense" of their own existence and of the world around them.  "Science"--because it appears to manifest mankind's own miracle-working, god-like powers, has become by far the most prevalent religion amongst unbelievers.  And no wonder: for,  the "god" of that religion is Man himself.  How flattering to Man; how convenient to him; and how plausible a reason that is (in the minds of many), to renounce all belief in the Supreme Creator, the Lord Jesus Christ.  "There is no Reality which we cannot see with our eyes, touch with our hands, or hear with our own ears," they say.  If "Science" cannot observe and measure and test it, then, it cannot be known--much less believed.

Yet, their (unbelievers, including Postmodernists) reasoning is anything but rational and consistent.  For, while they insist that only those things are "real" which can be observed by means of the senses; nevertheless, without exception, every unbeliever will agree that there are yet other "realities" which cannot be discerned by means of the five-senses of man.  What is man's ability to "think"? or to "feel emotion"? or to "will"? or to "create"? or to "communicate"?  What are "ideas"?  Is none of those things "real"?  Only a few supercilious (if not insane) individuals will say, for instance, that love, or hatred, for examples, are not real things within the realm of human experience.

Postmodernism, especially, represents a belief-system and a state of mind nearest unto madness that it may perhaps be possible to approach, without actually descending into the abyss of complete mental incapacity.  Post-modernism should rather be termed "Pre-insanity".  That is a most serious and dangerous condition.  It is in fact the prevailing condition of by far the majority of persons living, especially, amongst erstwhile "Western" societies.  I speak particularly of American society; which has purposively been brought to decadence and lawlessness, by means of such antichrist ideas and philosophies (as I have been discussing herein), which have been inculcated and widely disseminated largely by means of a state-controlled "education" system, throughout the course of now several generations.    
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I do not intend this as a rant against Postmodernism or against public schools.  Rather, I mean to show not only that "truth" does exist, but I furthermore want to demonstrate what "truth" is, in fact.  In order to do that, we must first identify--if possible--something which answers to the definition of "truth" which I set forth, above.  Does anything exist which "...can never, and therefore does never, change".  Is there, in fact, such a thing?  Indeed, there is:

The above image shows a quote from the Bible (Hebrews 13:8).  In the above image, the words "the same" appear in small print; yet, they are the very focal point of the meaning of what that passage of Scripture reveals.  Jesus Christ--who is also identified, in Scripture, as the Word of God made flesh (John 1, Revelation 19:13, et al), answers perfectly to the definition of "truth" which I suggested, above.  Following, are several more verses of Scripture attesting to the immutable (unchangeable) nature of God and of Christ:

"For I am the LORD, I change not" (Malachi 3:6) 

"[F]rom everlasting to everlasting, thou art God" (Psalm 90:2) 

"Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands: they shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment; and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail." (Hebrews 1:10-12)

" My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips." (Psalm 89:34) 

Not only is God in his Person unchangeable.  But, for that reason, God's Word is also unchangeable.  And where humanity is concerned, that latter statement may actually be the more important to us.  For, while it may be supposed that some Supreme Being, God, exists and is unchangeable in his own Nature; yet, except that Being should reveal and thus make himself knowable to us (humanity), in some way that we are capable to perceive and to comprehend, we could not otherwise know that such a divine Person actually exists.  Thank God! he has revealed himself unto us, as he has caused that revelation of himself both to be recorded and preserved as the written Word of God, that is, the Bible.

THEREFORE: we conclude that the written Word of God must be supremely important and valuable to us--in order that we may know him who is "the truth".  And because that he is the Truth (as he is unchangeable), we also know that his Word is the truth; as Jesus Christ (in the Bible) plainly asserts:

"Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth." (John 17:17)

Jesus Christ said, of himself: "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me" (John 14:6).  Importantly, Jesus Christ is identified with the text of Scripture (the Bible): where, in Revelation 19:13, it is written of Jesus, that "his name is called The Word of God".  To say that Jesus Christ is "identified" with Scripture, does not mean that he is "identical" with that book called the Bible; God is not a book; God is not a text; God is not an abstraction or an idea.  But to say that Jesus Christ is "identified" with the text of Scripture, means that every word, every sentence, every idea contained in the text of the Bible, is no less true, in the written text of Scripture, than it is true in the very mind of God.  The Bible is intended by God, to be, as it were, the very voice of God speaking to us.

Since no man can come unto the Father, except, by and through Jesus Christ; and, since none can know who Jesus Christ is, except, by and through the Word of God: then, how ought we to cherish, as well as we should study so as to know and understand, the Bible?

What is truth?  The Lord Jesus Christ is the truth.  His Word is truth.  And the written Word of God (the Bible), which he has given to be "a lamp unto [our] feet, and a light unto [our] path," is truth.  But not because I said so.  No; but my pitiful effort to conceive a meaningful definition of "truth," I must confess, doubtless was illumined by what I already understood of Scripture, and of Christ.

And for that, I make no apology, but I give thanks to him "who loved me, and gave himself for me," that I might know the truth, and live.

"If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." (John 8:31-32)

Jesus Christ