The Lausanne Global Conversation is on the World Wide Open Network
Author: iTalker
Date: 20.10.2010
Category: Truth and Pluralism
It’s really quite frustrating to be here at the Lausanne Congress. It is almost impossible to get on to the Internet. I think that they must have not fully appreciated the demand that participants would make on the wifi.
I made a post yesterday but when I tried to post it the system crashed. So here I go again.
The theme that was being developed yesterday was the question that Pilate asked ’What is truth?’ flowing from this was the question, how should we Christians best explain and convince the unbeliever about the Truth of the Gospel?
All this discussion takes place in a world where the prevailing culture where says there no objective truth. Truth today is seen as relative. "My truth may not be your truth, but it is just as valid as your idea of truth.
I’m sitting in a session that is seeking to explore how the search for truth can be put into the public domain. A Scottish film company has been working on a television series, they hope to allow people to think more clearly about the search for truth. The series asks the question "Does science leave space for God? Could our universe be invented by itself? What happens when we die? Why do we believe what we believe?"
This session seeks to take seriously the importance of the visual language to explore the truth issue. What they are seeking to do is to let the philosophical arguments about God speak for themselves.
There seems to me to be a tension in the conference between those who see the need for the church to be clear in its proclamation of the Gospel by using words and giving the answers. For this group truth is about adhering to a series of biblical propositions. I was some what disappointed to hear Os Guinness, whose books I read as a young man and found so helpful, to appear to be so dismissive of those who engaged in what might be called ’Social Gospel’. It seemed to me that the Church is often working out the principles of the Gospel truth in our works of service to the poor in spirit and the poor in wealth.
Others wish to see the Gospel incarnated from mere theoretical words to objective actions of service in the world. Often they don’t see the place of the biblical proposition in helping to frame the gospel action.
For me the discovery of truth has become a journey. When Jesus said he was the way the the truth and the life, he put the journey or the way before the truth. Not because one was less important but I think Jesus was seeking to help us understand truth is more than words. It is to be encountered. He indeed is the objective truth encountered not by words alone but by the life giving vitality of the Spirit at work in the world and indeed in his person.
Jesus once told a woman ’when the Spirit comes he will lead you into a truth. Perhaps we all need to see the importance of the ’Journey’ with Jesus in the process of truth being revealed. After all as John Bell once said Jesus never said he was the answer. He said he was The Way. Let’s keep discovering more of the truth as we journey together with Jesus at the centre of the Church.
Views: 3782
Comments: 19
Recommendations: 2
Conversation Post Comment
United States
What is Truth?
Spiritually....Jesus is the way, the truth and the life...John 14:6 but
naturally...the truth is relative. You are correct....my truth, may not be your truth and vice versa...but there is always an absolute truth...just different perspectives on how we receive it.
Now our responsiblity as believers is to trade our natural thinking to be spiritually minded. Allow the Spirit of God to lead you to His truth and allow Jesus to be that conduit to God’s will for our life...the absolute truth.
19.07.2011
United Kingdom
@ marcus14:
Hello Marcus
thanks for taking the time to post a comment.
Let’s keep living the journey and the truth will out!
19.07.2011
United Kingdom
@ marcus14:
Hello Marcus
thanks for taking the time to post a comment.
Let’s keep living the journey and the truth will out!
19.07.2011
United Kingdom
@ marcus14:
Hello Marcus
thanks for taking the time to post a comment.
Let’s keep living the journey and the truth will out!
19.07.2011
United Kingdom
@ marcus14:
Hello Marcus
thanks for taking the time to post a comment.
Let’s keep living the journey and the truth will out!
19.07.2011
United Kingdom
@ marcus14:
Hello Marcus
thanks for taking the time to post a comment.
Let’s keep living the journey and the truth will out!
19.07.2011
United Kingdom
@ marcus14:
Hello Marcus
thanks for taking the time to post a comment.
Let’s keep living the journey and the truth will out!
19.07.2011
United Kingdom
@ marcus14:
Hello Marcus
thanks for taking the time to post a comment.
Let’s keep living the journey and the truth will out!
19.07.2011
United Kingdom
@ marcus14:
Hello Marcus
thanks for taking the time to post a comment.
Let’s keep living the journey and the truth will out!
19.07.2011
United Kingdom
@ marcus14:
Hello Marcus
thanks for taking the time to post a comment.
Let’s keep living the journey and the truth will out!
19.07.2011
United Kingdom
@ marcus14:
Hello Marcus
Let’s keep living the journey and the truth will out!
19.07.2011
United States
@ italker:
Yes indeed, the reward is for those who keeps on the journey and endureth until the end. Blessings to you.
19.07.2011
United States
This very thing has been on my heart for more than a week now. Doesn’t it seem like people are more intrested in what an exact truth should look like instead of just living it themselves. I for one, a student of theology, appreciate its deposits into Christianity, but I am also torn with its downfalls. I have used this same sentence in other comments on this sight, but here it goes again. Shouldn’t our relationship with the Lord determine our theology and not theology determing our relationship to God. Is it right for us to be on the cusp of experiencing God and having to stop and study whether or not God would do such a thing (of course within reason), or if He would act this or that way, or is that possible. I think that theology CAN be such a cop-out for relationship. Meaning, I think there are a lot of people who will meet Jesus one day and He says, boy, that was a lot of research you did. You should have just got to know me, that probably would have helped a lot. In bolstering my comment, I want to applaud the use of "way, truth, and life" critique in that the way had to be given first, then the truth would follow. It just seems to me that the truth is put before the way, so that the way can be perfectly experienced. Well, then no one can ever walk. how can truth be experienced without participating in the way. Excuse my ramblings as I am torn in this situation.
24.04.2011
United Kingdom
@ christopherhaymes:
Dear Christopher, thank you for making a comment on the post i made last year while at the Lausanne congress. I can well understand your frustration when surrounded by so many theological students. I studied theology at Glasgow University and also Edinburgh. I was taught systematic theology by a Greek Orthodox Profession called John Zizioulas,he is recognised by many as the most significant Orthodox theologian in the last 50 years. Zizioulas used always remind us that unless our doctrine had a practical implication for our everyday life then our doctrine wasn’t worth talking about. We need to learn how we make the connections between theology and everyday living. The most attractive thing about Jesus and his theology was that he was always living it out. When the disciples say, show us the father, he replies, " if you have seen me you have seen the Father" He was the Word come alive in the flesh. The word calls us in to action. It seems to me that the most significant type of proclaimation is to be a "Living Word, see and read by everyone ’ So while others get hot round the collar about a particular translation and how it should be preached, lets become men and woman of grace discovering how it should be lived. www.italker.org.uk
25.04.2011
South Africa
I think the real Problem in this age we live in is that we christians put ourself as the SPEAKER OF THE TRUTH rather than THE VESSEL OF TRUTH. from the start Jesus never say that you my disciple will REVEAL the TRUTH or bring CONVICTION of the truth to the world.....but He said : you will be my witness..AFTER you will receive POWER....who is the HOLY SPIRIT... I think the church has waisted a lot of time and resources by trying to convince the world about he TRUTH rather than Allowing the Holy Spirit to help us as a witness ..vessel of TRUTH. we all know that JESUS said that He is the TRUTH.....yet the problem is we the church has hijacked the place and the authority of HE..the HOLY Spirit as the one to REVEAL it to the unbeliever.......we try to reason with people rather than bear witness to the truth, and the result of that is the only TRUTH that this world will understand is our HUMAN WISDOM and RELIGIOUSITY . the more we try to define THE TRUTH to this world then we fail in our CALL to be filled with THE HOLY SPIRIT and then be THE WITNESS of the TRUTH.
22.10.2010
South Africa
I greatly appreciate your point regarding the Truth. We live in a globalised world where every body claims that they have their own truth. Indeed, this is a global challenge; how do we come up with relevant and appropriate ways of sharing and reaching the world with the TRUTH, in a worldly context that claims they have their own truth? Separating Gospel proclamation and social action to me makes the task even more complicated.
21.10.2010
Taiwan (ROC)
Yes. Indeed Jesus Christ is the truth Himself and he’s the Way. Jesus said words, but the more important thing is, He showed us the way by representing Himself to others. Philosophers like to seek for "truth" but it is interesting to find the "truth" in the end directs to the Lord, even philosophers like to use " --ism" to represent their ideas, often they cannot deny the very truth reveals itself and it is the Way Jesus shows to His people.
20.10.2010
South Africa
"The answer is Jesus! What’s the question?" I’ve often heard this quipped. Ironically, Jesus himself often met questions with questions...
Your point about "Journey" is crucial. Our journey into the Truth is Prevenient before we come to Faith, Propositional at the point of accepting our Faith, and Practical thereafter as we work out our salvation as He works out his salvation in us. Sounds like a journey to me!
PS. Welcome to our world of limited band-width. We lag somewhat behind, despite what our service providers say...
20.10.2010
South Africa
I think there is maybe another reason why Jesus did not call Himself "the answer": it is because people ask the wrong questions. :-) What is very important though, is that He is Himself both the Way and the Truth and evangelism is all about introducing people to the living Jesus and not first of all about giving answers. Sure, who Jesus is, does include many truths, but having a relationship with Him remains the most important way to learn these truths.
20.10.2010
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