What is truth?

Last week, my capable assistant took the class to the Gospel of John:

So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” (John 8:31, 32)

What "truth" is Jesus talking about, here? Is He talking about brute facts like "the sky is blue" and "two plus two equals four"? Do truths such as these set one "free?" And what did Jesus mean by "free?" Free from what? This verse raises a plethora of questions for which I was hoping the kids would have answers, but instead of being a review, it wound up being an impromptu exegesis. But that's okay, I love spontaneous lessons!

I broke the verse down phrase by phrase:

"Continue in my word" — we're commanded to not be hearers only, but doers of the Word (James 1:22–25). 

"...then you are disciples of mine" — We can't rightly call Jesus "Lord" if we don't do what He says (Luke 6:46ff). Clearly, just having head knowledge of what the Bible says is insufficient to set us free...whatever that means.

"...you will know the truth" — now here's our first intersection with the homework question I sent home two weeks ago (the one about science). What is this "truth" of which Jesus speaks? Is it mere brute facts? Is it just the text of the Bible? Certainly, the more time we spend in the Bible, the more familiar with it we will be, and in that sense we certainly will know the truth. But, I think it goes way deeper than this. Pilate once asked Jesus, "Quid est veritas?" I asked the class the same thing. After much coaxing, a number of stabs in the dark were offered, and one person stumbled upon the "correspondence theory of truth" (i.e., truth is that which corresponds to reality)...which, I'm sure you can see, ties into science and the scientific method. But, let's interpret Scripture with Scripture:

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. — John 14:6

Do you see the connection? Let's rephrase John 8:31, 32 in light of Jesus' words in 14:6:

So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know me, and I will make you free.” (8:31, 32)

Now what's this talk of "free"? Free from what? Or is it free to? Oh, these are deep waters into which we've just waded. I could go on and on, but let's let Jesus complete the thought he started in John 8:31, 32:

Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed. — John 8:34, 36

Take some time to read Romans 6; it ties right into this theme: every one of us is a slave to something: whether slaves to sin or slaves to our Lord Christ Jesus. When we are regenerated by the Holy Spirit, we who were dead in our trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1, 2) are set free from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:2) which holds us in bondage, and we are set free to eternal life in Christ (Romans 7 & 8).

Quid est veritas? Iēsūs est veritas.

If that doesn't get you fired up, your wood is most assuredly wet!

What is “Science?”

Now, with all of this "review" done, we have a basic foundation upon which to build. The homework was to answer the question, "What is science good for?" But in retrospect, I've gotten ahead of myself. We first need to answer the question "What is science?"

The word "science" comes directly from the Latin word scientia (skee-EN-tee-uh) and it means, quite simply, "knowledge." In fact, we can see on display in 1 Timothy 6:20:

o Timothee depositum custodi devitans profanas vocum novitates et oppositiones falsi nominis scientiae (Latin Vulgate)

O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you, avoiding worldly and empty chatter and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called “knowledge”— (NASB 1995)

O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called: (KJV)

Okay, so science is really just knowledge. Got it. Easy peasy lemon squeasy. Now cogitate, if you will, on the following two verses in light of what we've learned thus far:

The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of knowledge — Proverbs 1:7a (LSB)

in [Christ] are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. — Colossians 2:3

After reading all of this aloud, I asked the class, "Since science is knowledge, and the scientific method is a methodology by which we gain knowledge of the physical world through observation and experimentation, and since Christ Jesus is the beginning or foundation of all knowledge, does that mean that atheists cannot 'do science'?"

I could've cut the tension in the room with a knife.

It seems like most scientists are atheists these days, so it doesn't seem that the answer to this would be "No," but on the other hand, we're talking about the Word of God here, and He is never wrong. Our understanding of His Word may be in error, but when properly exegeted, it is infallible. The room stayed good and quiet for what seemed like an eternity...until my assistant spoke up:

"I suppose that depends upon what you mean by 'knowledge'."

Indeed it does, sir. Indeed it does.

What is knowledge? Where does knowledge come from? How do we know when we have knowledge (as opposed to an intuition or a lucky guess)? Put another way, how do we know that we know and how do we know when know? This, my dear reader, is what is called "epistemology," which is a fancy word that comes from two Greek words, epistēmē (knowledge) and logos (word, study, discourse)—it's the study of knowledge. I bet you didn't even know there was such a thing, did you?

I didn't have enough time to really get into the answer in class, so guess what? You guessed it, this will be the homework assignment due next week.

Homework

What is knowledge? What are the defining characteristics that distinguish it from superstition or a lucky guess?

WAIT! Rather than just diving for the Googles, I would encourage you to really wrestle with this question with your child(ren) and see if you can lead them to a good, working definition of "knowledge." You'll get a lot more out of this assignment if you grind the mental gears than if you just get the quick "fix" from your favorite search engine!