Many Beliefs, but Not Many Truths

(or, “Is Truth Only for Those Who Believe It?”)

Christians believe that a human being is, from conception, an eternal transcendent soul enfleshed in a physical body, a special creation of God, every one of them—created by God, for God, and in the image of God. A human being is a moral agent accountable to God, endowed with free will and duty-bound in various ways to God and to other human beings.  This reality of what a human being is underlies all Judeo-Christian morality.  The rules of right and wrong are the way they are because a human being is what a human being is.  We should live this way; we should expect others to live this way; we should vote consistently with these rules; and we should expect all human behavior to be judged by God according to these rules.

Now, a well-meaning Christian might say, “That’s what Christians believe. But not everyone believes that.” 

To which I say, “Yes.  And so what?”

“Well, you can’t make people believe something they don’t believe, and you can’t force your beliefs on others.”   

Again, yes, and so what? We’re not talking about beliefs, we’re talking about what is true.  For where there is truth, it applies to every person, even the ones who don’t believe it. It’s just that the ones who don’t believe the truth are wrong.

To this well-meaning Christian I say, “Stop talking about beliefs!”  It doesn’t matter what you believe, or what I believe, or what another person believes.  What matters is what is true.  If I believe something because I like to believe it, because it suits me, say, then I have no right to impose it on another.  But if I believe it because it’s true—that is another matter entirely. If it’s true, then I must believe it, even if I don’t like it, and moreover, I should expect others to believe it also, even if they don’t like it, and if they don’t believe it, I can most assuredly say they are quite wrong.

Christians are not dealers in “belief”—as though it doesn’t matter what one believes just as long as one has faith in something. Even less are we dealers in uniformity of belief, as though it is important that everyone believe as we do. Christians are dealers in Truth, things that are so, even if no one believes them. Christians ought not to care what others believe, but we must care if others are wrong, even when it becomes clear that we’re never going to persuade them to change their minds.

But what about the person who says something like “We all have our truths. Jesus is your truth, and I’m fine with that.  But He’s not my truth.”  What do we say to that?

What we say is that they’re wrong, plain and simple.  They may be kind, they may be sincere, they may be thoughtful, but when they say, “We all have our truths,” they’re wrong.  No we don’t. That is not true, and we cannot let that stand.  Jesus is not our truth.  We are not inviting them to make Him their truth.  That Jesus is Lord is just true, and that does not change whether anyone believes it or not.  Christ does not become true for us Christians because we believe it.  We become Christians because we believe the truth about Christ.

Now, to what seems like a big problem: Our society does not believe there is such a thing as religious truth at all.  Therefore, it is contended, when it comes to matters of religion and morality, there is no truth to believe, but only beliefs. Therefore, when someone says “We all have our truths,” what they are really saying, since there is no such thing as truth, is that “We all have our beliefs.”

Notice that there is simply no debating such a person about God or gender or abortion or marriage or homosexuality or almost anything sexual, for that matter. Even if they acknowledge that we Christians are strongly opposed to such things, and even if they grant we may have good reasons to oppose them, no matter. Not everyone believes the way we do, so that is that. 

But we Christians know better, and we know that “not everyone believes the way we do” has nothing to do with it. We live and speak and act and vote based on truth, not on what we believe, nor on what others believe, nor on what others might be convinced to believe. Another person may believe—let’s go farther, every other person may believe—that an unborn child is just a clump of tissue, and so of course a woman has the right to terminate her pregnancy if she desires.  Now, I don’t believe that, but it wouldn’t matter if I did.  What matters is that it’s not true, that an unborn child is just a clump of tissue.  What is true is this: a human being is, from conception, an eternal transcendent soul enfleshed in a physical body, a special creation of God, every one of them—created by God, for God, and in the image of God.  Therefore, a woman cannot terminate—or rather, kill—this being merely because she so chooses. To do so would be wrong. Of course. It doesn’t matter what she believes.  It doesn’t matter what I believe.  It doesn’t matter what her doctor believes. It doesn’t matter what anyone believes.  The only thing that matters is what is true.

James D. Burns
Pastor, First Lutheran Church (LC-MS)
Benton, Arkansas