Truth

We are living in a time of incredible instability in almost every area of life: financial markets, family relationships, broken lives, and threats to our security, but the most vulnerable area is truth. Truth is under attack today like never before. Like Pilate, our world is asking, “What is truth?” Some even argue there is no such thing as truth. They say truth is what you make of reality and there is no such thing as God. Secularists and materialists who reject the idea of God say that matter is God—what you can touch and see. For others of us, creation itself is evidence of a God of creation who is the origin of truth.

In the first book of the Bible, the very first verses tell us the origin of our world: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters” (Gen 1:1-2).

When Moses wrote these words, the world was full of polytheism (the belief in many gods) and pantheism (the idea that everything is God). Our world has not changed much. Even today, when we can see far into the universe and discover incredible and intricate design in our universe, people still believe it all happened without a God of creation. Every schoolchild learns that Darwinian evolution is an explanation of our beginning, but it is just a way to defend atheism. Never mind that Darwin’s theory continues to be shot full of holes by the intelligent design scientists. The story of creation as told in Genesis is about God from end to end. Absent are all the elaborate myths and love affairs of the gods of Egyptian mythology.

All of us long to know our origin and the origin of our universe—it is here in the first book of the Bible, Genesis, which means book beginnings. The opening lines “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen 1:1) give us a firm understanding about God, the universe, our planet, and even ourselves.

We need truth more than anything today. The truth about life, death, our purpose for being on the planet, and our future. It is all in the Bible, and it makes sense. The Bible gives us the most comprehensible explanation of evil that can be found anywhere. Most importantly, the Bible, right from the book of Genesis, introduces us to God’s grace. It points out that we are flawed and even sinful, but it does not leave us there, it offers hope and redemption. Darwin’s theory offers very little hope. It declares that there is nothing beyond the grave. For me, there is too much evidence in this world that supports the existence of the God of the Bible. I want that hope, and I need that redemption that God offers.