An Exit Strategy

Verifying the Truth

    We innately want to know what is true. When we shop, we want to know and verify if the claims made for a product are true. When we listen to politicians we want to know and verify if their claims are true. The same should be true of religions, or religious beliefs: we want to know and verify if what the leader of any given group is saying is true. Or, we ought to want to know. Not everyone wants to know the truth about certain things. 

    But if we do want to know the truth, particularly about Jesus, how we go through the process of verifying what can be believed is similar to what the apostle John presents in his compendium of Jesus’ life. John gives us his personal testimony, telling how living with Jesus, both seeing him and hearing his words, impacted his life, 1 John 1:1-3. He also uses the testimonies of others, including Jesus himself, the word of God, and the works of Jesus.

 In everyday situations, regarding purchases, or  politics, we use similar methods. We use our senses to determine and verify validity. What did the person say? Does anyone want to back up his claims? Is there evidence to verify what is being touted? Can we see it? Touch it?

    In 2017, my husband and I were each confronted with a cancer diagnosis. We received much advice, some good, some not so good. How could we determine what to do? Since we believe in a God who answers prayer, we prayed. We also listened to people who had been through something similar, interviewed Doctors, and got tested (we needed something that could see what we couldn’t).

    In short, we used our ear-gate, eye-gate, and brain-gate! Not everything can be seen or touched, so we had to rely on x-rays, and blood tests. The brain-gate, as I call it, is the gift of reasoning that God has given us to determine unseeable things, like emotions, motives, courses of action, and beliefs. Most importantly, however, God has given us revelation--telling us about things we would otherwise not be able to know about, unless He reveals it to us.

    In the same way, history is not repeatable, unless you are Alley-Oop, the primitive caveman who can travel back into history with the help of a time-machine and a brainy professor. We must use all the faculties that God has given us, the ears, eyes, and brain, to look back and determine if what one claims happened in history is true, i.e. verifiable. We must also consult His Word, the Bible, for truth that only He could know and reveal.

    The book of John, known as the gospel of John, was written with the express purpose of helping a person know the truth about Jesus so that that person could “believe that Jesus is the Christ, [the Messiah], the Son of God.” The stories were selected for the reason on pointing people to the truth of Christ, John saying, “many other signs Jesus performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book, but these are written that you may believe...  and that believing you may have life in His name,” John 20:30,31.

    This “life” is no ordinary life, but eternal life. It is something you receive the moment you believe, John 5:24. It means that when you die you will not perish and suffer eternal separation from God (John 3:16), but instead you are promised a place with Christ in heaven, John 14:2,3; it means the moment you die you will still live and never die again,  John 11:25,26. 

    If you are going to believe something of such incredible significance you are going to also want strong proof that it is true. John provides strong, verifiable proof in this gospel, and it is my hope that you will be convinced, to be convinced of the truth is to believe, and to believe is to receive the promise of eternal life.