If Jesus is "the Way, the Truth, and the Life," as he claimed about himself, if no man comes to God apart from Christ, if there is no other name under heaven given to men by which they may be saved, then Truth is absolute. It may well be argued that Jesus is not God. It may well be that absolute Truth is founded on or in something else than Christ. But these arguments do not interest me at the moment. They take us afield from my point. The witness of the Scripture, the Tradition, the Church is clear: Jesus is God incarnate, is Lord, and is the Truth. Thus Truth is absolute. Truth is also exclusive. All that denies Christ is false, is death.
Truth is also a Person. That is to say, Truth is not merely propositional. It is relational. It entails obligation, responsibility, action. Which is just a roundabout way of saying Truth is Love. Thus Love says "Yes" to God's image and likeness, but says "No" to that which destroys and wounds that image. Jesus said, "I do not condemn you," while also saying, "Sin no more." Love says, "Be free, only do not become entangled again in sin." Love refuses to allow freedom and personhood to be bound by behavior. Rather freedom and personhood are to bind behavior to Love. Jesus loved and dined with prostitutes. He did not allow them to continue to fornicate.
It is true that fallible humans do not always get the Truth right. They make errors. They sin and wound. But this neither negates the absolute nature of Truth nor argues for the impossibility of knowing it.
But just because the Truth is a Person, is relational, it does not mean that Truth is relative. There is no such thing as "my truth" and "your truth." These "truths" can never ultimately coexist peacefully. Relative "truth" always devolves into power. It seeks majorities. It makes "organization men." It idolizes "process" and "dialogue." But it is always about power. Nietzsche prophesied, indeed gloried in, this. Then he went mad. And we have seen his prophecy's fulfillment in our own day, in our cities, in our churches. Are we not also growing day by day ever more mad?
For those for whom "truth" is relative, the Lordship of Christ is no more central--aside from personal inclination--than is the prophethood of Mohammed or the enlightenment of the Buddha. For those for whom "truth" is relative, "truth" indeed is merely propositional, an idea, a language game. "Truth" cannot be personal for relativists because personhood demands boundaries, integrity, something relativity cannot offer. In the end, relativists can only offer their own self-satisifaction. They cannot offer love, because the "yes" of love also demands a concomitant "no." All relativists can offer is a cheery, "Whatever." They cannot draw distinctions between person and behavior. So because they will not hate the sin, they can only hate the sinner. They do not intend to do so. They intend that "consenting adults" be free to practice what Scripture and the Church have always called sexual immorality. But look at the consequences. STDs. "Crisis" pregnancies. Out of wedlock births. Fatherless, motherless children. The killing of innocent life in the womb. Broken homes. Broken people. But it doesn't stop there. From sex acts between consenting adults is no small step to date rape and the molesting of children. If we cannot say no to one, how may we say no to the other? Case studies? Opinion polls? "Whatever."
No, Truth is absolute because Truth is love. Truth says, "Make disciples. Teach them to obey everything I've told you." There is evil. There is sin. But the love that is Truth strengthens us against these, teaches us to say, "No." And gives us the grace of saying "Yes" to wholeness.
Posted by Clifton at April 11, 2003 04:19 PM | TrackBack