Does Truth Exist

Class 4A on page 23. Okay, so class 4A on page 23. Tonight we're gonna talk about, does truth exist, okay? So when Pontius Pilate was before Jesus, bloody and battered, Pilate wants to have a philosophical conversation with Jesus. What a jerk. And he asked Jesus, what? What is truth? That's not the time to have a philosophical conversation, okay? Jack Nicholson said, you can't handle the truth. Jesus said, I am the truth. And some people at universities tell kids, there is no truth. Truth is what you make it. Truth is relative. Truth is whatever you believe. Two plus two is five. Hey, if that's good for you, that works for you, then that's your reality, that's true. That's the world that we live in, relativism. So tonight we're gonna talk about, does truth exist and relativism? So first of all, let's define truth. Now we all know what truth is, but if I were to ask you what is truth, you'd go, yeah, okay, truth. What is truth? Well, number one, truth is anything that corresponds to reality. So if I said, hey, there's Santa Claus. Say, no, there's no Santa Claus there. It doesn't correspond with reality. If I say, you know, hey, dad, your fly's down. And his fly is down. Zip, sorry about that. That corresponds with reality, right? If I say, Graham Church is in Perry, Michigan, corresponds with reality, it's true. If I say, the state of Michigan is in Russia, you'd say, no, that doesn't correspond with reality. So truth is anything that corresponds with reality. So we all know that, right? So if your son says, I'm doing awesome in school, and he comes home with all Fs, we know that's not true. It doesn't correspond with reality, right? So truth is anything that corresponds with reality. Another way of saying it, number two, it is the way you say it is. It's true. So if I say, Graham Church is in Perry, Michigan, that is the way I say it is, it's true. If I say, you know, President George W. Bush is the President of the United States, you say, no, he was, but he's, so if it is the way I say it is, it's true. Now sometimes, now, look familiar? Sometimes when we talk about subjective truth or objective truth, we kind of get confused. What's the deal between subjective relative truth and objective truth? So last year, I was at Rite Aid, and I was at the counter, and I looked at the magazine cover, and I said, wow. Now that's an example of subjective truth personified on a magazine cover, why? Why can Bruce Jenner, a macho man, Olympian, I remember watching him as a kid, right? Macho man running the marathons and all that. So look at the cover. Transforming from male to female, Bruce Jenner, he's finally happy. So why can a man become a woman? Because he's finally happy. That's a perfect example of what subjective or relative truth means, okay? I, the subject, I, I in the center, I determine what's true. So back a long time ago, right? You can't turn into a woman, you're a dude. You can't do that. I mean, there was a sense that there was an objective standard of right and wrong, that God existed, that God is the determiner of what is true. There's a fixed object in the universe called God, and because God is a fixed object of reality, that God has determined male and female. God has determined marriage. God has created genders. God has created marriage, that there's an object, there's a center, there's a reality of something that is determining what is true. So now that God is out of the picture, the word of God is out of the picture, the only one left to determine what's right and wrong is yourself. So if you feel like you have feelings for X, Y, and Z, you wanna change gender, well, there's nothing out there whatsoever to grab onto to say, well, that determines for me what is true or false. This is how I know right and wrong. I'm the center of the universe. I'm my own reality. I am the determiner of what is true. I, the subject, if I feel feelings, then it must be true. I mean, this is the slippery, slippery slope we're headed on. Can you imagine your husband or wife coming home and saying, I don't feel like I love you anymore. I have homosexual thoughts, and because I feel them, therefore, I'm gonna, can we do any better than that? But that's the direction we've gone to, because I feel it, it's gotta be true. But before, there was an objective stake in the ground that said, okay, no matter how I feel, that's my fixed point of reference that determines how I should feel, and I need to keep my eyes on that. But because that compass, that fixed point of reality is totally gone in our culture, all that's left is people's feelings, and that's the breakdown of our culture. So that's what subjective truth means. I, the subject, determine what is true. Okay, so what does objective or absolute truth, so sometimes we, those get thrown around too. Well, that's subjective. Well, that's absolute. What does that mean? Okay, does the, okay, this is kind of techie, technical a little bit, but does the object or thing I'm perceiving correspond to reality, okay? So again, if I say I drive a red 2015 Ford truck, that would be awesome, but I don't. I drive an old 1999 Toyota Camry, and so we can go and look and see, Aaron doesn't drive a nice Ford truck, he drives an old Beater. We can go and see and look and say, well, that's not true. We can test and see this objective thing, that's not a truck, that's a car. So does the object or thing I'm perceiving correspond with reality? If it does, then no matter what someone feels or thinks about it, it is still true because it matches reality. Two plus two is five. I can take four objects, add them up, and it doesn't equal 20, it equals five. I have two children, I have one dog. I mean, we can look and test and see these physical realities and say, that's objectively true, I can see it, they're objects, they're out there, I can see them, I can touch them, they're real. So here's subjective truth. Subjective truth would be like, why would anybody love chocolate over vanilla? I mean, that's bizarre. Vanilla rocks, you gotta love vanilla. Vanilla shakes, woohoo, love vanilla. Hate mushrooms, okay? You gotta love vanilla, hate mushrooms. That's my subjective world. I, as a subject, say I hate mushrooms, love vanilla. I love vanilla more than chocolate. Amen? Anybody? Okay, no, okay. So that's my subjective reality. Me, the subject, says I love vanilla more than chocolate. But if I say vanilla shakes are made out of rocks, we can test them and see that, no, it's not rocks, it's shakes and milk and sugar. So objective truth means it's still true, we can test it no matter how we feel or think about it. So what we're gonna do tonight is that I'm gonna go over, I've collected over the years 16 objections to objective truth. And these are slogans that leave Christians speechless. They are showstoppers. You can give someone the gospel and all they have to do is say, well, that's true for you, but not true for me. And we go, we're done. We don't know what to say, they're huge. And that's our culture today, okay? So let's talk about that. The first one is, well, you know, there is no truth. What do you say to that? Now remember, I do the tactics class, class three, because even if tonight you go, hey, I can't do all that. I can't remember all, I'm not good like that. Always got your tactics, right? What do you mean by that? What else could you say to this? Yeah, you're all set, you guys are pros. Okay, but if you wanna go up a little bit up the notch, you can say, hmm, fly like a fox, right? Is that true? That's right, young, it is a contradiction. See, what happens is, is that people feel so pompous when they say these things. Well, there is no truth. They're claiming something is what? True. At the same time, they're saying there is no truth. That's called a contradiction. So when someone says there is no truth, they just claim to be something true. Is that true? And sometimes when you say it to people, they go, I mean, they've never even thought of it, right? Okay, the next one. Next one, there we go. How about, well, there's no absolute truth. I mean, yeah, there are truths like planet Earth is in the Milky Way galaxy, I guess. So I go, okay, I saw your, yeah, there is truths. Like, yeah, I grant you that. But there's no absolute truth. Like, you can't walk up to somebody and say, this is how you should behave. This is how you should believe. Absolutes, there are no absolutes. Yes, he was. Absolutely. There is no absolute truth. Absolutely. So when they're telling you there's no absolute truth, they're just making an absolute statement that they believe should be true for you, true for everybody, and true for them. They're the ones making an absolute statement as well. They're the ones making it. Now, your brain might hurt a tad tonight. I'm sorry about that. But I got some fun stuff planned tonight to warm up your brain so it won't hurt so much, okay? So tonight really is called logic, okay? A little bit of logic tonight. There's no absolute truth, absolutely. Okay, all right. Truth doesn't exist, come on. You Christians, you're so in the dark ages. Truth does not exist. Is that true? Tell me more. It's like, come on. People, again, people, if people are, see, we grew up in church, and we grew up in a objective world. We grew up in a world where there's the Ten Commandments. You know, thou shalt not, that's the world that we live in, black and white. But it's just hard for us. If some of you, I don't know if any of you here grew up in a world without God, but people who grew up in a world without God, it is so difficult for them to grab on to reality because they grew up in a world where they believe truth doesn't exist, there is no truth. And all you have to do is say, is that true? And they've never thought about it. Well, that's a contradiction. If I argue you were wrong, would you argue your view is the truth? Again, a little bit of logic there. If I argue you were wrong, would you argue, okay. Whatever, okay, next one. Look, look, okay. In the end, no one can know the truth. I mean, we have some idea of the truth, but you can't know-know. You can know about the truth, but you can't know-know the truth. I mean, you can't really know truth. You can know some things about truth, but nobody in the world knows all truth. There is, you can't really know truth. How do you know that? Hmm, how do you know that? Right, because this person is claiming that they know something. They're telling you, you can't know anything, but yet at the same time, they're telling you that they know something to change your mind. Now remember, these are all issues that people throw at us to dodge the issue. If someone's a relativist, and they throw these things at us to dodge the issue, what are they trying to accomplish? Yeah, it is true, they might try to leave you alone. What else? In the gospel, you're telling them there's an absolute right and an absolute what? We're telling that there is a God that exists that they're gonna be accountable to. So if you relativize everything, they've just made sin and the Ten Commandments and God and Judgment Day all go away. And they live in a Star Wars land. They're Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, and lightsabers. They're happy as a clam, they're on the planet Endor. There is no truth, you can do what you want, you can believe what you want, that's planet Endor. It doesn't exist. We believe in a world where there's consequences of right and wrong, but if you believe so much in relativism, you can just create your own fantasy world. Oh, there's no objective truth, you can believe what you want, truth is ice cream, do whatever you want. But obviously, we all know there are things that we know to exist and not exist. So look, no one can know the truth. Well, how do you know that? Huh, never thought of that. Okay, you can't know, okay, you can know some things, but you can't know really anything for sure. You sure about that? Yeah, yeah, I've heard testimonies and know people where literally their whole world, I know you'll see a video later tonight where a guy wrote a PhD book at Oxford on relativism. This Christian professor sat him down and used these kind of questions and it totally melted his whole PhD work because he never thought of it. He never thought of the contradictions. All right, all right, here's the zinger. Here's the mountaintop of relativism. This is the big one. What's true for you is true for you isn't true for me. This is a hard one, I gotta admit. This is a hard one. When someone says that to you, you hear that, you know what you do? You steal their phone and you say that back to them. You steal their phone, I'm just playing, but it's true. You steal their phone and you say, look, what's true for you isn't true for me. What's true for me is that I need a phone, you don't. Well, I think you don't, but I do. So I'm gonna take your phone because that's my reality, that's my truth. And your phone's better than mine, I need a better phone, I have a family. So what's true for you isn't true for me, what's true for me isn't true for you, so I need a phone, I'm gonna take your phone. I said, okay, because that's true for me. There's no such thing as stealing. There's no sin, there's no right or wrong. Who says that's right? You can't judge me, don't judge me. I actually know a professor that did that back in the 70s, a long time ago. So this dude was like relativizing. I mean, I can't believe, there's no God, there's no truth. How can you know truth, there's truth for you, truth. He started spinning that tale. So the professor literally went into the kid's dorm back in the day, he stole his stereo, took his stereo. And they were like, hey, where's my stereo? They're like, oh, well, what does the name tooken mean? Oh, you can't, found him, you took my stereo. Yeah, I did, well, you can't take my stereo. Yeah, I can, you just told me an hour ago what's true for me is true for me, what's true for you is true for you. So I took, I need a stereo, I took it. What's wrong with that? And the kid got the point, right? All right, sorry, buddy, what's true for you isn't true for me. I mean, no one lives that way. Here's the point, okay, I'm having fun, but here's the point, okay? Nobody lives that way, right? I mean, you ever overdraw at the bank and go to the bank teller and go, look, you can't do that because what's true for me is what's true for me. There is no negative in my account. I mean, talk that way to a police officer. Look, buddy, what's true for you is true for you. You know, he gives you a ticket, you're like, get out of here. What's true for you is true for you. I mean, nobody, you can't live that way. So how would you answer that? You would say something like, look, it sounds good, it sounds right, but nobody can live that way. You can't have a boss, you can't have a job, you can't live that way without coming to those kind of conclusions, right? You can't run a family, you can't run a business, you can't run a government that way. It's impossible. Does that make sense? It's kind of hard to explain, but if you really want to get down to it, just say, hey, can I borrow your phone? You have a nice phone, can I have it? What's true for you is true for you, what's true for me? I don't think stealing is wrong. Kind of tricky, but that's the point, okay? Now, your brain might be hurting a little bit, so let's have some brain, some downtime. One more. Everything is meanless, before we get to our fun time. Everything is meanless. How would you answer that one? Even your statement, then? Right? I mean, every time someone tries to convince you of something, they have to believe what they're telling you. Even your statement, then? Okay. Yep. Logic ping pong, we could call it. You know what, in the end, doubt everything, challenge everything, be skeptical about everything. You should doubt everything. Even your statement? Because if the person's telling you to doubt everything, then why in the world would I believe you? Yeah, that's right. Okay. Let's see what we got. I am here with Super Bowl champion Peyton Manning and NBA Hall of Famer Magic Johnson right here. They are about to face off in a game of egg Russian roulette. Now, here's how it works. In my hand, I have a dozen eggs. Eight of them have been hard-boiled. Four of them are still raw. You two will take turns selecting one egg at a time, smashing it on the top of your head. You won't know which eggs are raw and which are hard-boiled. Once you choose an egg, you must smash that egg on your head. No putbacks. First one to smash two raw eggs on their head loses. Peyton, since you're the champion, why don't you go first? Choose your first egg. Oh, my goodness. You sure? How's it feel? Are you confident? Dreamed growing up that I would maybe have a chance to play magic one-on-one someday. I never thought I'd be in Russian egg roulette. This dream's come true. Good to see you, buddy. Well, that's all the time we have, movie. You're no problem, buddy. No, no, no. Magic. He can't go back to the NFL. They're gonna kill him now. They're gonna kill him now, all right. Oh, my goodness. Peyton, I can't believe it. Oh, my goodness. Feeling confident? I'm feeling, I don't know. What is going on? This has never happened. In the history of the game, I can't even believe that this is real right now. Oh, my God. Thanks a lot. I'm so happy. Thanks for coming here. The next, the next, the next raw egg loses. Choose your egg wisely. Oh, my God. Oh, my goodness. Are you feeling good? We won the Super Bowl. No, no, no. You're a winner. You are a champion. Thank you. Please let it be yours. Oh, my God. Not looking good for you, man. You let me down, bro. Not looking good, man. Oh, my. Okay. Abracadabra. Let's go to the end. Okay, here you go. That's a block. Oh. You felt confident in that one. I'm not in your favor, Mr. Danny. Choose wisely. I know, I know. Good medicine, right? Yeah. No. All right. So, there is no truth. What would you say? Look, there's no absolute truth. Absolutely. All right. Look, truth doesn't exist. Is that true? Good. Look, no one can know the truth. Like, no know it. How do you know that? You can't know anything for sure. Are you sure about that? What's true for you isn't true for me. Can I borrow your phone? Okay. Everything is meaningless. Even your statement? You should doubt everything. Be a doubter. Doubt everything. Scrap. Start from scratch and doubt everything. Even your statement? All right, number nine. We're moving on to, well, you shouldn't judge. Whoo, that's a good one. How you gonna do that one? And some people like to quote the King James. Non-believer's favorite verse in the Bible is Matthew chapter seven in the King James. You ought not judge. You gotta get the head in there, too. Ought not judge. Okay, so we're gonna answer this question. So for the sake of time, we won't have you look in your Bibles. I'll put it on the screen if you can read it. So we're gonna answer this question about do you have the right to judge? When someone says you shouldn't judge. All right. Matthew seven, one through three, this is where this come from. Jesus said, do not judge. Or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged. And with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, let me take that speck out of your eye when all the time there's a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite. See, even Jesus was tough with people. You hypocrite. First take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove this speck from your brother's eye. So on first glance here, did Jesus say, kind of a trick question, but not really. Did Jesus say, do not judge? No, what he said was, do not judge, or you too will be judged for the same. He talked like almost a minute. See, what we do is that we are just, the world and the church, we're awesome at taking the Bible and splicing it into little section verses and taking verses out of context. So if someone says, do not judge, Jesus said, do not judge, you're just like, whoa, I guess he's right. But if you put it in context, he didn't say, do not judge. I mean, we'd be idiots, we'd be zombies. Because whenever you take a bottle and you go, oh, it says I can't take, you're judging, you're making a judgment. We have to have a brain to make judgments so we don't kill ourselves. We tell our kids, look both ways. You're teaching your kids to have good, right? We have to vote for a political candidate soon. We have to use what? Judgment. I mean, judging is part of life. Medicine, walking across the street, picking a spouse, picking a candidate. I mean, hey, honey, should we have pepperoni in our pizza tonight or sausage? I don't know, what do you think? Well, let's think about that. Which one has more trans fats, carbs, you know? We have to make intelligent decisions. That's making good judgment. Okay, so what Jesus is talking about here is not, you know, check out the door, don't use your brain, never think, never judge anything. No, he's actually talking about how to judge. Jesus is teaching you not to judge. He's teaching you how to judge. Because the end of the verse, he says, look, before you can, Jesus is using funny language here, right? Specks and planks sticking out of people's eyes. It's kind of funny, actually, right? So if you have a plank in your eye, it's like, whoa, look out, you know? You can't even, you're gonna hit somebody you can't even see, but when you get a piece of sawdust after, you know, guys, right? You saw and you get, man, you get that sawdust in your eye? It's like, come here, come here, come here, come and get that out, right? Before you can help somebody else, you gotta be able to see clearly before you can help somebody else. So at the end, Jesus says, you hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. So he is teaching that you can judge, you can help somebody, you can help somebody see their flaws, but what Jesus is talking about is you better make sure that you don't have the same problem. Stop yelling, will you stop yelling? You stop yelling, you're so impatient, you're impatient, right? How can you help somebody with impatience and yelling when you have problems with patience and yelling? Jesus is teaching people how to judge, not so much not to judge. Judging is part of life, you all have to judge. So when someone says you shouldn't judge, well, I got a question for you, why are you judging me right now? So when someone says you shouldn't judge, they're making a judgment, they're the one judging. Now, that's not a bad thing. Judging people is not a bad thing. You judge your wife or your husband. You know, are they gonna be a good husband? Are they gonna have kids? Do they snore? I mean, do they wanna, you know, it's like we can make judgments all the time, good and bad, okay? So, but when someone says you shouldn't judge, they're the one making a what? So you can say, well, why are you judging me right now? Because you're the one making the judgment. All right, here's a showstopper. Christians shouldn't judge, okay? Class, let's use our brains on this one. Someone says, you hypocrites, you shouldn't judge. Yeah, Ann, good. Are they making a judgment about you? Are they making a judgment about Christians? Are they standing in God's place telling you what to do? They are, that's a judgment. You say, okay, I hear what you're saying, but let me ask you a question, is that a judgment? It is. Look at John 7, 24. Jesus told the Pharisees, stop judging by mere appearances, but instead, judge correctly. Yeah, we make judgments all the time that we're wrong, right, when you met me and I met you, we had judgments about each other. That's just normal human nature, but stop judging by mere appearance, but learn to judge correctly, okay? How about this one? There's no truth in anything but science. Gotta love science. Science is a supreme thing in the universe, you know? Well, this is kind of a tough one, but let's talk about this one. Can you scientifically prove that? Okay, there's no truth in anything but science. Well, can you scientifically prove that? Okay, let's, oh, there it is, boom! I saw that idea, I got it, I got that idea. Okay, we're gonna put that idea in the test tube, and we're gonna analyze it. There's that idea, I see it, yep, it says it right there. There's no truth in anything but science. I see it right there, okay? Science, remember, can only test and observe physical things, right? This is a statement, this is an idea, this is a philosophical claim. See the contradiction here? They're telling you there's no truth in anything but science, but they're using an idea, a philosophical claim, to debunk their own idea. Am I making sense? It's okay if you didn't grab all these tonight, it's okay. Christians shouldn't push your views on others. That's a big one, right? Christians shouldn't push their views on others. What in the world would you say to that? Yeah, then why are you pushing your views on me right now? See, what's happening is that people do the same thing that they don't want us to do, but they don't see it. So if you do it nicely and gently, and you're trying to help people, now, if you got your hands on your hips, and you're like, then maybe it won't go somewhere. But if you're trying to do it graciously and help people, then these are not just funny slogans, these are actually things that really help people. Because again, people live in these Star Wars realities, some people, that they've never been challenged or really consider that their relativistic view of reality is false, okay? And I think there's a couple hundred thousand people in colleges all around the world that believe this stuff, and it matters, okay? Yes, sir? Yes. Calling me a Christian? What's that? This one? So help me understand, I don't see where I'm calling him a Christian. So this could be, let's say this is atheist Mr. Atheist, okay, he's Mr. Atheist, and he's trying to shut me down. He's trying to make me look stupid. So he says, Christians shouldn't push their views on others. So he's an atheist, he's an agnostic, he's a skeptic, he's a humanist, he's angry at religious people, he's trying to shut me down by telling me that I shouldn't push my views on others. Christians, right, so he's putting his view on me, which is that I shouldn't push my views, which in fact, he's the one pushing his view on me. Yeah, so what, yeah, again, and what they're, yeah, a little bit tricky here, I understand, but again, this matters because, again, if you, when people say these things to you and you hear them on the news and you hear them from teenagers and millennials, if you go, you know, it's game over, right? There's no gospel presentation there because they just shut you down. So there is, this stuff does matter, okay? All right, whatever you believe is true. Okay, I'm not gonna tell you what to believe, believe anything you want, whatever you believe is true. Can I tell you a fun story? Okay, all right, all right, fun story, okay. So I wasn't convinced, I'll tell you anyway, okay. So there was a seminary student that had to do a project to investigate other denominations other than his own. So he chose the most liberal denomination there is, the Unitarian Universalist Church. I mean, they baptize dogs and pray for their pets and marry dolphins, I mean, anything goes, okay? So he investigated, he called the church, said, Kate, pastor, can I come and just watch your service? He said, yes. So on his way out, the pastor shook his hand, thank you very much for coming, young man. What'd you think of the service? What'd you think of the message? And the young seminary student goes, I don't wanna offend you, I really don't wanna say. And the pastor goes, look, you heard my message, whatever you believe is true. Go ahead and say it. So the young man went up to the pastor's ear and went, I think you're going to hell. That's a made up story, but you get the point, right? Just because you believe something or say something doesn't make it what? I'm a fairy, I'm a fairy, you know, come on. You know, just because you believe something doesn't make it true, right? Okay, I think your statement is totally false. It's like, whatever you believe is true. Okay, I think your statement's false. Bingo. It's like, whatever, all right. It's just ridiculous, okay, but it's important to understand the relativistic mind, how to debunk it, how to talk to somebody, and it's good for our own thinking, okay? Okay, I'm really frustrated here because you think you know the truth. You do, nobody else, everyone else in the world is wrong but you, you alone think you know the truth, you do. What would you say to that? I do. Do you think you know the truth? Because they obviously wouldn't be talking to me trying to change me if they didn't think they had the truth themselves. Look, everybody has beliefs and truths and opinions. That's what makes humans humans. We're not dogs, we're not ants, we're not slugs and moles and rats. We're human beings made in God's image who have a mind and intellect and a will and in man's fallen human nature, we take our intellect and we use it, but we use it wrongly, okay? So is it good to believe that you're right? Yes, of course. That's a very postmodern relativistic idea to make people feel bad about them knowing that last time I checked, people are spending millions of dollars going to college because we want to know what's what. True, because we want to get a job so we don't make mistakes and kill people. It's okay to know things and do right and have truth. So don't be ashamed about knowing the truth. I do, and I want to stick my claims on Jesus. You got anything better? No, really, do you have anything better? If you do, I want to know. I had an atheist call me up once recently. I wasn't in the mood. I just was like, I know where this dude's going. And I said, you're like an atheist evangelist, aren't you? He was like, how would you know? And I wasn't gonna have it, and at the end of it, I was just like, okay, I'm not that old, but I'm 43, I've gone through divorce, death, suicide, mental illness, loss. What do you got to give me as an atheist? He goes, reason? I go, I'm sticking with God, I'm sorry. You know, death, suicide, mental illness, divorce, and I'm only 43. I think God is a better option for me. I mean, you're gonna convert me to nothing? Awesome, love it, sign me up. Convert me to nothing. Convert me to blackness, emptiness, spaceless. Reason, I mean, what is that? How is reason gonna help me when I'm suffering loss? I mean, just nonsense, okay, whatever. Okay, you Christians, you think you're so right. Thank you, I do, I do. Do you think you're right? Right, I mean, they wouldn't think, I mean, if they thought they were false, right, if they knew they were, why were they trying to talk to you and convert you if they didn't think what they believe is true? Make sense? I get a lot of, I read the Bible a lot, and I was reading, you know, somebody's gonna have to back me up on this, so you're gonna think I made it up for the sake of the joke. How many people know Jesus had a little brother? Right, anybody know his name? What's his name? James. I was reading that, I was like, wow, how much pressure was that? Jesus, your big brother? How many times do you have to hear, why come you can't be more like Jesus, James? Because you know, everybody probably thought that James could do the same thing Jesus could do, but he couldn't, he was just James. He wasn't James Christ. Remember the wedding banquet? Right, Jesus turned water into wine. Right, it was delicious, everybody was amazed by it. Right, but this is a little side note, which you might not know, the Hughes, right, where they got the water from was these things called water pots. And the water pots, they would set them at the door, and people would dip their hands in them before they went inside. They were out of wine, which means the place was full, which means the water was dirty. So he took some dirty water, made it clean and acceptable, and it was the best at the banquet, which is exactly what he does for us. But I'm thinking about James. What about the next banquet? Jesus probably wasn't there, right? They started running out of wine. I bet everybody looked at James. Hey man, your brother was here last time we ran out of wine, huh? You just gonna stand there with your sandals on, you're not gonna make no wine, nothing, just. And you know how little brothers are. I'm sure everywhere Jesus went, James followed him. That's what little brothers do. If Jesus went there, so did James. I bet one time, James almost drowned. This is probably the most logical, brain-hurting talk we'll do. Problem of evil, tad like this, but not as difficult. So if you can make it through this, you're good. So I save this lecture to the middle. So you're like, I can do it, I can do it. You know, it's like, okay. All right, all right, last one. Come on, guys. Truth is relative. What would you say now? Yeah, is that relative? Right, because if they say truth, that's the whole point of tonight's talk, right? Truth is relative. You can't know truth, truth is relative. Truth is what you make it. So if truth is relative, they believe that that statement is what? True, they think it should be true for you, true for them, true for the world. Truth is relative. But if they're claiming something to be true and absolute, but they say it's relative, then that's a contradiction. So is that relative? Well, let's conclude tonight with, does truth exist? Yes, if we say no, we just made a what? Yes, that's right, we made a truth claim. So you get the point, okay, you got it? Does truth exist? Yeah, so don't let anybody tell you it doesn't, because if they say they do, they just made a truth claim. Okay, yes, it does exist. So here's the point. Where do we find ultimate truth? Meaning of life, moral values, right? I mean, this is where it gets really serious. Like, can I marry my dog or not? Can I marry three women? Can I marry a man? I mean, where do I find objective morals in the universe? Where do I find meaning in life? I mean, if truth exists, where do I find truth? That's a great question. That's what Pontius Pilate asked Jesus. So what we're gonna do right now real quick is that since I'm gonna ask you guys to draw a little chart, see that whole space on the right side of your notes there, all that empty space on page 25? I'm gonna ask you to draw a little chart, okay? So we're gonna go on a little truth quest. So have you ever had anybody tell you, okay, if you believe in God, just ask God to reveal himself to you and he will. We can do better than that, okay? Number one, open your eyes. Hello, cardinals, sky, sun, water, food. God's screaming at you, I think. He exists, get a clue, silly. Pray about it. Hello, God's everywhere, okay? But how do you find God? How do you know truth exists, okay? Truth project, here we go. So top of your chart that you're gonna make, we're on the quest for truth, right? Does truth exist, okay? So when it comes to truth, the first thing you gotta ask about ultimate truth is this, is either there is a God or there is no God, right? So if you ask the question, where did everything come from? Either the world made itself or someone made the world. You can't have it both ways. You can't, it's like being almost pregnant. You know, either you are or you aren't. So either the universe, time, space, and matter got here by a creator or the universe created itself. So when you die, someone's gonna be wrong because you can't have it both ways, right? And by the way, it's not just atheists that don't believe in God. It's millions of people called Buddhists. The Buddha himself was not a believer in God. He denied the existence of God. I had such a hard time talking to Buddhists because they don't believe in God. Not all of them, but many of them don't. So this whole big question does God exist, okay? So let's just take this from, okay, so slow down. Okay, so let's say there's no God. So your little chart here, what does that mean? That all of life, all of life, life itself, the birds, the flowers, everything in life that exists is a what? It is not here on purpose, it is accidental. So if all of life is an accident, you know, we exist. Oops, sorry about that. Life exists, oops, we're just here, oops. Life is an oops. So if there's no God, the world created itself, we're here by accident, that means, follow the logic here in my great handwriting, you're an accident. Your daughter's an accident, your child's an accident, your husband's an accident, life is an accident. But that's not how humans, we can't, you will go mad and people have gone mad when they realize there's nothing to the universe, they're just waiting to die. There is no me and there is no life, there is no God, there is no afterlife, you're just waiting to die. It becomes hopeless, you commit suicide. This is where this progression goes. Okay, there's no God, life is an accident, you're an accident, everything's an accident, you're just playing cards on the Titanic while it's sinking. That's all life is, you're playing cards on a Titanic while it's going down, good luck, that's life. That's the atheistic worldview. And so obviously, if you're an accident, life's an accident, people are an accident, then there are no what, how would you say, there is no meaning, you guys got it right, no meaning to what, no meaning to life, okay? So this chart is an ironclad logical proposition to find truth, start with God and this is the progression you'll go. No God, life is an accident, you're an accident, there's no meaning to life, good luck. Now, I think we can do better, okay? I won't give evidence for the existence of God, that's gonna be in two weeks in our next class, so I won't talk about that tonight, let's just assume God exists, okay? God exists, like it, okay? I never was given arguments for the existence of God as a kid, I just saw nature and it was like, yeah, there's a God, it just makes sense, okay? So there's a God and if there's a God, then everything in life that man did not create, the birds, the sky, the fish, the food, all that stuff, right, that is here on what? By accident or what? It's on here on purpose. I mean, that's a really amazing way to live, to know that everything that you're taking care of, your child, yourself, the food you eat, your job, your health, everything is a gift of God, that God created, everything is here on purpose, that's pretty phenomenal, okay? But here's a problem on our quest for truth, yay, there's a God, thumbs up, like him on Facebook, yay God, so it's like telling someone they have a mother but never meeting their mother. I have a mother, check, but everybody wants to meet their what? Mother, I have a daddy, lots of kids know they have a daddy but they've never met their daddy, right? That's tough, that's hard, right? So you can only take this so far, there's a God, because people want to know who this God what? Is God noble, is God personal, can I know God? Okay, there's a God, check, but who cares? I want to know who this God is, okay? So if there is a God in Hinduism, I'll just put Hindu, in Buddhism, okay, and I'll put Islam down, okay, some of the great religions, okay? In Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam, there are certain things you can know about God, but you can't know God, God is too far above you, he's unknowable, he's not interested in you, God's not personal, or we not, God and these faiths are not knowable, they're statues, they're idols, they're ideas, they're polytheism mini gods, in Islam, they believe in God but God is so transcendent that he's unknowable, you can never have a personal relationship with him. So in Judaism, what do we have God doing? Adam, where are you? God's communicating, Moses, Moses, Samuel, Samuel, God's personal, God's talking, God's knowable, he's interested in humans, God's communicating, God's speaking, so in Judaism, we have this introduction that God is personal, that God is knowable, God is communicating, we have communication from the outside that God is knowable, okay? But it goes one step further, what's the last step? If God really, really, really wants to know you and communicate to you, if relationship, if you were an ant, he'd become an ant, if you were a dog, he'd become a dog, if you were an elephant, he'd become an elephant, what does John 1, 1 say? In the beginning was the word, Moses, Moses, Abraham, Abraham, this voice, this word, this word that people, they heard God, this voice, the voice of God was talking, they know God is talking, now in John 1, 1, it says, the word of God that they heard is now, has become what? Flesh, and is now dwelling among us. In the beginning was the word, this voice, the word of God, in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God, he was with God in the beginning, all things existed by him and for him, and the word became flesh, John 1, 14, the word became flesh, and made his dwelling among us. So if you wanna know God, I'll give you my little pet peeve, people say, well, if you wanna know God, pray about it, no, open the Bible and read about the God who didn't stay in the heavens, but part of the heavens came down, gave himself a face, gave himself skin and bones, flesh and bone, and said, how you doing? You can't get any better than that. So if you wanna know truth, you have to decide if there's a God, a lot of the major religions are out, the one that God has spoken to the most is through Judaism, he has communicated, but if you believe, if you believe like I do, that the most personal, communicative way that God has spoken to humanity is that the word, the voice of God, the word himself, the word became flesh, and made his dwelling among us. So now we can see God in the flesh. This is a logical chart to determine truth. Let's take 10, and we can talk amongst ourselves about what we learned, and let's take a mental break, and we'll come back for, is the Bible the supernatural word of God? So take a break, guys, and we'll see you in 10.