If you had one last breath in your lungs and you were going to leave behind young children or grandchildren to grow up without you, what would you tell them? What would your final words be to them?

A few things that come to mind might be to love one another, be kind to others, listen to your mother or father, stay in school, just say “no” to drugs, or don’t get pregnant before you get married!

Sure, loving others, being obedient to your parents, getting an education, making good moral choices; these would all be helpful for successfully navigating adulthood in the 21^st century, but would any of them be worthy of your final breath?

I pray your last breath isn’t coming any time soon. The point of this post isn’t to prepare you for dying, but instead to help better prepare you for living today like you were about to die. What I mean by that is if you knew what the most important thing was for you to leave with your children / grandchildren why would you not be sharing it with them right now, today, BEFORE you take that final breath?

So, what would I argue should be our final / most important words?

“Seek Truth and live it out.”

One of the biggest problems facing our youth today is they’re not on a quest for the truth. I’d argue this is also true for most adults. Instead, the majority of people are on a quest for happiness.

People almost invariably arrive at their beliefs not on the basis of proof but on the basis of what they find attractive.

Blaise Pascal

George Barna, Professor at Arizona Christian University and Director of Research at its Cultural Research Center, has been doing research focusing on worldview assessment and development, and cultural transformation for decades. In a study titled, “The End of Absolutes: America’s New Moral Code” he shared some troubling survey data related to what adults believe is life’s highest goal.

Figure one illustrates the “happiness quest” I argued most adults are seeking. Barna’s research shows 84% of adults agree with, “The highest goal of life is to enjoy it as much as possible.“

There’s nothing wrong with happiness. In fact, I’d argue when you know the Truth, happiness is an automatic outcome.

If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

Jesus, John 8:31–32

In a 2020 study on “Perceptions of Truth“, Barna reports, “Past generations of Americans viewed God as the basis of truth and morality. Not anymore. . .most Americans reject any absolute boundaries regarding their morality, with a majority—58% of adults surveyed—believing instead that moral truth is up to the individual to decide.“

Let that sink in. . . moral truth is up to the individual to decide. If one truly believed this, then how could they, for example, negatively respond to a pedophile molesting a child who thinks to do so is morally okay?

Barna writes in a similar study in 2016, “According to a majority of American adults (57%), knowing what is right or wrong is a matter of personal experience. This view is much more prevalent among younger generations than among older adults. Three-quarters of Millennials (74%) agree strongly or somewhat with the statement, ‘Whatever is right for your life or works best for you is the only truth you can know.‘”

In other words, you have your truth and I have my truth and that’s okay. But is it okay to have our own personal truths? Is it even possible for each of us to have our own version of the truth? I would argue, no, it’s not possible and it’s not good for our society.

What is truth?

We need a starting point to dig deeper into the problem and what better place to start than with a definition of truth. Google defines truth as, “that which is true or in accordance with fact or reality.” In essence, truth reflects reality.

It is true you are reading this blog right now. It is not true (I hope) that you are currently driving a school bus full of children. Reality defines truth. The challenge becomes determining how one defines reality.

I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Jesus, John 14:6

How do we come to know truth?

Apologist, speaker, and author James Sire before his death in 2018 used to conduct a seminar titled, Why should anyone believe anything at all? He would start the seminar with the question, “Why do people believe what they believe?”

The responses would fall into one of four categories Sire would use to help participants better understand how people come to know truth. Table 1 summarizes the four source categories.

Sociological Reasons	Psychological Reasons	Religious Reasons	Philosophical Reasons
Parents Friends Society Culture Social Media News Media	Comfort Peace of Mind Meaning Purpose Hope Identity	Scripture Pastor Priest Imam Rabbi Guru	Logic Evidence Science Reason Consistency Coherence

Next, Sire would ask questions regarding the quality of the truth sources. For example, a student might say they know something is true because their parents told them it was true. To which he would respond, “Just because your parents said it’s true is that a good reason to believe it’s true?” Of course, they would say, “no” that’s not a good reason. Parents can be wrong sometimes.

Some would say a truth makes them feel good, or what Sire would describe as psychological reasons for truth. You may feel that God exists and cares about you, which makes you feel safe and secure, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s true.

Students may also cite the Bible or the Quran as a source of truth, what Sire described as religious reasons. However, they both can’t be true since they contradict one another in many ways. One such way is Jesus’ crucifixion. The Bible says Jesus was crucified (1 Corinthians 15:1-8), but the Quran says he was not crucified (Sura 4:157). They both can’t be right.

What could we do to determine which of these accounts of Jesus’ crucifixion might be true? We could look at proofs outside these writings to evaluate the evidence and data for and against Jesus’ death. This, concluded Sire, is the fourth category, philosophical reasons, which is the best way to determine truth.

“Buy truth, and do not sell it; buy wisdom, instruction, and understanding.”

Proverbs 23:23

When you remove opinions and feelings, and focus on facts, you’re more likely to get to an unbiased version of the truth.

I would argue social, psychological, and religious sources of truth are great starting points to uncovering and discussing reality, but ultimately one needs to back it up with reason, logic, and evidence to confirm opinions and feelings.

Does absolute truth exist?

Using Sire’s classifications of truth it’s easy to see why subjective truth reigns in our modern times. If I get to pick who I believe in and what I believe in that leads to personal happiness why would I not choose to do so? It makes perfect sense why so many have fallen in love with creating their own truth, but that doesn’t make it real.

In fact, I’d argue subjective truth is one of the most destructive forces in our world today, and with a larger percentage of younger people believing in subjective truth the destruction in society will only increase in the future if they don’t embrace the reality of absolute truth. This is why it is so critical our children understand and believe all truth is absolute.

For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

2 Timothy 4:3–4

Where do we start in teaching not only our children, but adults around us who believe in subjective truth that reality doesn’t provide a basis for believing truth is subjective? We need to start with a definition of absolute truth to ensure we have a common understanding.

AllAboutPhilosophy.com defines absolute truth as, inflexible reality: fixed, invariable, unalterable facts. For example, it is a fixed, invariable, unalterable fact that there are absolutely no square circles, there are absolutely no round squares, and time absolutely cannot be purple.

Another thing we can do is show others the contradiction in believing subjective truth exists. Absolute truth is a logical necessity. According to AllAboutPhilosophy.com, “You can’t logically argue against the existence of absolute truth. To argue against something is to establish that a truth exists. You cannot argue against absolute truth unless an absolute truth is the basis of your argument.“

Here are a some classic arguments and statements made by those who argue against the existence of absolute truth:

• “There are no absolutes.”
  • First of all, the relativist is declaring there are absolutely no absolutes. That is an absolute statement. The statement is logically contradictory. If the statement is true, there is, in fact, an absolute – there are absolutely no absolutes.
• “Truth is relative.”
  • Again, this is an absolute statement implying truth is absolutely relative. Besides positing an absolute, suppose the statement was true and “truth is relative.” Everything including that statement would be relative. If a statement is relative, it is not always true. If “truth is relative” is not always true, sometimes truth is not relative. This means there are absolutes, which means the above statement is false. When you follow the logic, relativist arguments will always contradict themselves.
• “Who knows what the truth is, right?”
  • In the same sentence the speaker declares that no one knows what the truth is, then he turns around and asks those who are listening to affirm the truth of his statement.
• “No one knows what the truth is.”
  • The speaker obviously believes his statement is true.

Is your head spinning yet? Can you see the contradictions in these statements often used to make an argument for subjective truth? It simply cannot be done without contradiction.

Truth = Love

As a society, giving in to the belief truth is subjective is one of the most unloving things we can do. To do so is to lie to others, and what could be more destructive to society than lying to our children by telling them what we know to be false is true.

This is especially true when it comes to eternal things. If my children want to believe time can be purple I will try to convince them otherwise, but it won’t be something I continue to argue with them about up until my dying breath because it has no eternal consequence.

However, there are matters in this life with eternal consequences, and they are worth arguing over in a loving way to show others what is true and why it’s true.

Some of Jesus’ final recorded words point to determining how to discern who’s truth is most important.

For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.

Jesus, John 18:37

Listen to Jesus’ voice to hear truth that matters. Remember, you have to listen first (seek truth) and speak second (live it out). You can’t speak truth if you don’t know truth. Speak truth in love, not pride to outsmart others. Be humbly confident in speaking truth.

The world needs more humbly confident followers of Jesus speaking and living out the truth regardless of the temporal consequences that may follow.

What do you say?

Are you ready to speak truth or are you going to let the lying continue?

The choice is yours.

Either seek truth and live it out, or become complicit in the lies ravaging the world today.