Does Truth Exist?
Christian Apologetics 101 • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Answering the Question “Why do you believe?”
Answering the Question “Why do you believe?”
Suppose someone at school comes up to you and asks you “Why do you believe in the God of the Bible?”
What are you going to say?
Is what you are going to say going to be effective in convincing them that the God of the Bible is the one and only true God?
What if they began to give you counter arguments such as:
“How can believe in God when Evolution and science has proven he isn’t real?”
or
“How can you claim that your God is the one and only God, when there are so many other religions out there, what makes you think your religion is more right that theirs?”
or
“How can you claim that a loving and caring God exists when bad things happen to innocent people?”
or
“How can you claim that the Bible is the Word of God when it has been changed countless times since it has been written?”
You may not have been asked these questions yet, but as you all grow up you will be confronted with them, especially as you all graduate high school and enter into college and the workforce.
If you don’t know the answers to these questions do not be alarmed, there are answers to these questions believe it or not, and that is what we are going to be discovering over the next few weeks.
By the end of these weeks if you pay attention, and take notes, you will be more prepared to defend your faith in front of any opposition.
The Biblical Mandate
The Biblical Mandate
Speaking of the Bible, what does it say we should do about these questions?
15 but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,
The Bible commands us all to be ready at all times to be prepared to make a defense for the reasons behind why we believe.
This word defense used here in 1 Peter 3:15 is the greek word apologia and it is where we get the word Apologetics from.
Apologetics is a area of christian study that deals with defending the christian faith. What we are going to be learning is how to do Christian apologetics.
If the Bible is very clear that we should be ready to give a defense, the question is now how? How do we defend the God of the Bible? Given all these attacks against the God of the Bible, how do we prepare ourselves to answer?
This my friends is what we are going to be diving into, the how behind answering these questions.
Before we begin I would like to say this:
Some of you may have struggled with some of these questions, or questions that are similar. There is nothing wrong with asking these questions, do not be scared to ask these questions, we have all asked them at some point, it is completely normal. And we should ask these questions.
What matters is the answers we find to these questions. Be advised there are good answers to these questions and there are bad answers to these questions. There are true answers to these questions and there are false answers to these questions. We will be going over the good and true answers and staying away from the bad and false.
The System
The System
In order to get someone to believe in the God of the Bible all we need to get them to do is properly answer 4 Basic Questions:
Does Truth Exist?
Does God Exist?
Are Miracles Possible?
Are the New Testament Documents Reliable?
Thats it. These next few weeks we will dive into each of these questions and answer them properly and at the end we will see that beyond just our personal experience, the God of the Bible is real and is the only true God?
Are you excited? I’m excited.
Does Truth Exist?
Does Truth Exist?
This week we will be answering the question, does truth exist?
Now you may be thinking, what does this question have to do with the price of rice. Of course truth exists!
Some of us may know that truth exists, but having a full understanding of what truth is is fundamental to proving that the God of the Bible is real because at its very foundation, when we say that the God of the Bible is real we are making a truth claim.
Since it is a truth claim, we must properly understand what truth actually is, and surprisingly there are many horrible definitions. But as we will learn there is only 1 true definition of truth.
Here are a couple definitions of truth out there:
Relativism:
Probably among the most popular definition of truth out there today is relativism.
This definition of truth states that “all truth is relative” which basically means it is a matter of ones own opinion.
You may have heard this before in school or on tv, “your truth is different from my truth, and my truth is different than your truth” What this definition is trying to say is that nothing can be objectively true meaning that everything is only a matter of opinion.
For example, the relativist may not believe that the God of the Bible is the only God because that is just a matter of our opinion.
Correspondence Theory of Truth:
Correspondence theory of truth says that truth corresponds to reality, in other words it is telling something like it is.
For example, if I said that I am wearing a gray shirt, if I was indeed wearing a gray shirt then that would be a true statement because it corresponds to reality. If I wasn’t wearing a gray shirt and I was wearing a blue shirt that claim would be false, because it does not correspond to reality.
When we say that Jesus rose from the dead, and that He is the one and only true God, we are saying that that actually did happen in reality, and that in reality He is God.
Correspondence theory of truth is the only definition that is not self contradictory. Who can tell me what a contradiction is? When a claim is self-contradictory, that means that it is self-defeating. It is a gun that when you shoot it, it shoots right back at you.
All relativism claims are self-contradicting:
“All truth is matter of ones own opinion” to see the contradiction just ask, “is that your opinion?” If all truth is a matter of opinion, how do you know that is true if it is just your own opinion?
Another one:
“Truth is not knowable?” Just ask “How do you know that truth is not knowable, if truth is not knowable?” It is self-defeating.
“Truth does not correspond to reality” just ask “is that reality?”
Do you see a pattern here?
The pattern is that when you breakdown, every truth claim it is in fact claiming that whatever it is claiming is in fact a reality. Therefore, the only definition of truth that stands without being self-defeating is that “truth corresponds to reality”
So when someone asks us how do we know that God Exists, our first answer is “Because truth exists”