Every Man's Truth Is His Own

by Bobby Garner
June 1, 2004

"No valid analysis of truth is possible within a false frame of reference."

Some make the argument that there is no absolute truth. Others take the position that there could be no such thing as truth if it were not absolute. Still others argue that the truth is different for each person, saying that whatever a person may claim to be true, is in fact true if only for that person. So, what is truth?

According to thefreedictionary.com truth is:

1. a fact that has been verified. OK but, What manner and quality of verification would you accept?
2. conformity to reality or actuality. Conformance to whose reality? and What does actuality mean?
3. a true statement. This would be clear enough if we only knew what was meant by the word true.
4. the quality of nearness to the truth or the true value. This one seems to take us full circle back to the original question, What is truth?

Such abstract ideas as truth have always been difficult at best, but presently we have to contend with the deeply rooted New Age "cultural relativism" which holds that matter of fact statements such as "murder is wrong" have no "truth value", and therefore cannot be determined to be true or false. Whatever you think about this, unless you take it into account when you present your thoughts and ideas, you will fail to grasp that your audience goes away with completely different conclusions than what you intended. No matter how clear your argument, or persuasive your presentation, people will decide to agree or not according to their own definitions of the words you use.

Your audience may fully agree with everything you say, yet see no need to make any changes. In fact the more likely it is that your audience will agree, the less often they will see the need for change. this is true not only because of differing definitions of terms, but also because the audience attempts to understand everything within the context of something they already believe anyway. So, regardless of how wrong the belief is, and in spite of your desire to change it, the belief ends up being reinforced instead. This explains the phenomenon common among many groups, which we call "preaching to the choir", and it is further evidence of the divisive, and thus evil nature of religion.

From the Tower of Babel To the New Age

Apparently, God gave Adam a pure language which he taught to Eve, and it was the defacto universal standard for communication. It's effectiveness is attested to by the fact that God deemed it necessary to confuse that language [*] when Nimrod "a mighty hunter" who opposed God by establishing his own kingdoms tried to construct what became known as the "Tower of Babel". (Genesis 11:4) "And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel" (Genesis 10:9,10) The many different languages which sprang from that event did not originate with God, but were devised by men who wished to find a way to continue their own agendas.

It is not reasonable to try to place these events as a single action as a literal reading would suggest. What this historical account records is a process of social disorganization. We have our own modern day example of how it works by studying the progression of events over the period of the 1950's to the present. By nearly all accounts of that interim period, the New Age influence and it's "Moral Relativism" was perhaps the most important enabling factor.

Following World War Two, but most notably in the late 1950's, and the decade of the 1960's, the anti-establishment, "Sex, Rock, Drug, Counter Culture" movement, which began on our college campuses, unwittingly implemented the dialectic process of introducing the antithesis of the established social order. This was characterized at the time by such phenomena as groups of teenagers and young adults known generally by names such as Beatniks, Hippies, Flowerchildren, Punks, etc. Love and peace was their common theme, but they advocated anything and everything that the social norm opposed as wrong, indecent, or immoral. Much of their activity resulted in just the opposite of love and peace however, manifesting as gang related crime, and violence associated mainly with the developing drug trade.

The apparent ineffectiveness of many honest and nobel attempts at propagating truth among this existentualist/relativistic generation has led me to conclude that language as we know it is the worst enemy of truth, whatever the truth happens to be. The result is that the deceivers work is essentially unobstructed, because language is designed to achieve his needs. The rest of us have merely adapted it to other uses with only minimal success it seems. A lie may be accomplished with very few words, but volumes will need to be written to refute it, and then only with very marginal results. This led King Solomon to declare; "I have seen all the works which are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and striving after wind! What is crooked cannot be made straight; and that lacking cannot be numbered." (Ecclesiastes 1: 14,15) and "...my son, be warned: The making of many books has no end, and much study is the weariness of the flesh. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep His commandments; for this applies to every man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with all that is hidden, whether it is good, or whether it is evil." (Ecclesiastes 12: 12-14)

Truth is an abstract quality that lies behind everything whether good or bad. Even a lie itself will not stand if it has no support in some truth. There is truth in everything, it is simply a matter of degree.

There is an absolute truth. That one, profound absolute truth which defies complete understanding is God. If it were not so there would have been no need for Satan's first lie. The lie is behind every deception and the purpose of deception is to cause the truth to be hidden from view if only temporarily. "DECEIVE implies imposing a false idea or belief that causes ignorance, bewilderment, or helplessness." (Merriam Webster's 10th Collegiate) The evidence of the one absolute truth is distributed throughout the creation. The entire universe is solidly built upon it, and that is the "hidden" truth against which "every work" will finally be judged.

The degree to which our own personal truth aligns with that one absolute truth is an individual accountability problem which is pretty much immune to external influence, but truly reflects the inner heart of each individual. This is why deception absolutely cannot work unless we willfully submit to it. Thus in the judgment, we stand accused or excused by nothing or no one but our own knowledge and understanding of truth and the degree to which it aligns with the one absolute truth. That responsibility cannot be shared or distributed among society, but must be met individually with "fear and trembling" — Philippians 2: 12.

So, believe what you will and justify it as you may, because it is your own responsibility in the final analysis. Every mans truth is his own, and you will sink or swim by your own version. It really is as simple as stated in Proverbs Chapter 2:

"For if you cry for discernment, lifting up your voice for understanding; if you seek her as silver, and search for her as hidden treasures, then you shall understand the fear of Jehovah and find knowledge of God. For Jehovah gives wisdom; out of His mouth are knowledge and understanding. He lays up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to the ones who walk in integrity, to guard the paths of judgment, and He protects the way of His saints." - Proverbs Chapter 2: 3-8, Green's Literal Translation

The implications are clear. Truth cannot be propagated from one or many sources, but must be discovered by each individual for himself and no one else. Because of it's distributed characteristics throughout all of creation, it cannot be contained in a book or even a set of books. Those who claim that the writings of some holy book is THE truth are ignorant of the fact that "the Word" of God was the force behind the creation. It is not confined to a written document anywhere. A written work claiming to be the Word of God is at best only a starting point, and even there, the truth is not contained in the words so much as the thoughts and ideas they present.

Persuasion is a one way street leading to deception. There is no effective communications tool for reversing that process.That's true because the process of deception is not a communications problem, but a case of willful complicity. Reversing the process is a personal individual problem that each one must deal with. My only hope is that I may assist in shedding some light on how one may go about doing that, not for others, but for oneself.

Updated 16 November 2006

Bobby Garner is a researcher on the phenomenon of One-Worldism with an emphasis on the methods and techniques employed in it's attendant deception. He may be reached via E-mail from his Website at www.congregator.net. He welcomes your comments. This article may be posted in it's entirety on any website provided this statement remains attached.