The Search for Truth

The great French mathematician and philosopher, Blaise Pascal, 350 years ago, shared the following statement about truth that is still true today: “Truth is so obscure in these times, and falsehood so established, that, unless we love the truth, we cannot know it.”1

Pascal understood that unless truth is absolute it is no truth at all. Fortunately, we have a book that shares what is absolute truth called the Bible. The Bible is our source book for knowing truth and without this book truth sadly, becomes relative, and in reality no truth at all. In our woke society today, especially in America, truth and falsehood have become so intertwined that there is now no way to know right from wrong. With the Bible being put on the shelf we are left with manmade standards of truth and the results have been catastrophic.

I believe that when Pascal said, “unless we love the truth, we cannot know it,” he was spot on. Our society today is not in search of the truth but in search of satisfying feelings and what seems right in their own eyes. Since we humans are fatally flawed by sin, we cannot on our own trust ourselves to know truth. (Proverbs 3:5-6) gives us the secret of knowing truth from falsehood when it says: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.” If we lean on our own understanding, instead of the Lord and His Word, the Bible, our search for truth will not end well.

In any search for truth, we must realize that without the absolute standards found in the Bible we will hopelessly be groping in the dark and elevating falsehood as the new standard of truth.

In my search for truth, I have learned several important principles. First, I can’t know truth unless there is an absolute standard of truth – and fortunately we have that standard in the Bible. Second, since we know that mankind has a deceitful and desperately wicked heart (Jeremiah 17:9), it is foolish to think that unregenerate man can ever find or even want to know the truth. Instead, he is interested in satisfying his fleshly lusts. Third, the more I desire to know the truth, the more God will reveal it to me. And fourth, we must make truth non-negotiable, especially when it comes to the message of the Gospel.

This last point is so important because as Christians we hold the only key that can bring true freedom to a world of people living in counterfeit freedom. For most of the world truth is in the eye of the beholder, and leads to bondage. But thankfully, for the Christian, truth lies in the Lord Jesus, and leads to peace, joy, meaning, and “true” freedom!

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1 TOP 25 QUOTES BY BLAISE PASCAL (of 727) | A-Z Quotes (azquotes.com)