Tag: Discovery of Truth

The discovery of truth for any discipline that must interface with reality for success depends on the percentage and degree of biblical laws of truth that can be followed. How many of the laws are followed? To what degree (amount of data) can they be followed?

Bible and Science Merge

Creation, Evolution or Creative Evolution

Preface

First, I would like to thank friends on Facebook for the healthy discussion of these great topics. Since Facebook does not give much space, I suggest we continue our discussion on this website. The form will be brief. To cover the main components of evolution and creation in only five pages is succinct.

THE TRUTH

It is easy to see such topics in black and white—all false or all true—especially when our circle of people does so. However, we have a higher calling: to seek truth.

How do we know the truth? Please see Chapter 3 on this website entitled “Truth Reveals Reality.” In that chapter, 5 basic laws for discerning truth are discussed in depth. These laws are so powerful that every just judicial system throughout history must use them to lay a foundation of truth, as well as, all science, technology, economy, theology, medicine . . . every discipline that must interface with reality for success must have these laws in the foundation of their functioning. Conversely, every system (Nazism, Islam, JWs, etc.) that must keep its people in the darkness of falsehood must break one, and usually all, of these laws on a consistent basis.

In a nutshell, these laws are (1) thorough investigation of the facts, evidence, and proofs; (2) multiple eyewitnesses (scientific discovery requires multiple experiments by experts before any hypothesis is considered true); (3) eyewitnesses of good character such as people who were there or experts in their fields; witnesses who do not lie and their testimonies corroborate each other’s without collaboration (getting together to falsify a story); (4) listen to both sides (in a courtroom, or in science one must investigate the major hypothesizes or opposing theories); (5) the decision-maker must be pure (such as a judge, a scientist, or us–we must seek truth above all else and reject bribery, prejudice, bias, hearsay, conjecture, speculation, traditions, old habits, unsubstantiated assumptions, coercion, pride, . . . anything that would suppress the truth).

Truth is defined as the clear and accurate mirrored reflection of reality. I once asked a five-year-old boy this question, What is truth? He said, “Truth is what really happened.” Truth reveals reality. A child can understand truth.

The degree of truth we can discover is based on the quality and quantity of application of the laws of truth. By holding an in-house court, I can discover all the facts I need to know about which child stole the cookie. However, the amount of truth we know about the vastly complex subject of black holes is still small. We simply do not have all the facts.

The laws of truth were first written down 3,400 years ago by Moses in the Bible. These are God’s laws that he gave us to discover the truth not only about this universe, but about him. To discover and confirm the truth on any subject in this universe, whether one believes in God or not, we must go through his laws to know what is happening in reality.

EVOLUTION

It is easy to see a subject as complex as evolution in black or white. I heard a pastor declare it was all false. I heard a science professor declare it was all true. Neither applied the laws of truth. They simply followed and proclaimed what they had been taught by other authority figures in their circles.

First, what is the truth about evolution? Second, does it disprove or prove the existence of a Creator (God)?

Evolution is a system of parts. Let us look at six (6) of the most major parts to determine its truth or falsity. (I will go from the least to the most important relevant to our two questions.)

(1) Mutations

The fact that mutations occur has been proven by scientists across nations many times over. However, 99.9% of mutations are lethal. The .09% that are not lethal are detrimental. Our daughter has a genetic mutation in her chromosomes that has left her with an I.Q. of 36. It is the .01% of mutations that can be beneficial to the organism. When a pathological virus mutates, it enhances its chances of survival by avoiding antibodies that would attack it. This is a small mutation in a small organism, or as Darwin would say, only one small step. There are no X-Men. There is no evidence of giant leaps—multiple mutations all at once–making numerous changes in an organism. Genetics involving gene flow, genetic drift, recombination, etc. occur.

Verdict: Mutations are true.

(2) Natural Selection

Traits that promote the survival and reproduction of a species become more common in generations of a population. In London before the introduction of smoke stacks for factories, the white moth was numerous, whereas the black moth was rare. The walls on houses were white. Thus, white moths were camouflaged from birds. When smoke blackened the walls, white moths almost disappeared, and black moths became numerous. Birds quickly saw white wings against black walls and ate them. Thousands of such scientific investigations have proven the process of natural selection across some plant and animal forms. (It does not take into consideration intelligence, where the weak survive because of hospitals and medicine.)

Verdict: Natural selection is basically true.

(3) Ontogeny Recapitulates Phylogeny

This is the observation that the development of the embryo of an animal from fertilization to birth (“ontogeny” means “coming into being”) goes through stages that represent successive evolution of species across history (“phylogeny” is the history of species on a family tree).

Evolution says that living organisms started with one cell. The next stage was multi-celled ball . . . a multi-celled simple organism (like a hydra) . . . added a tail (pollywogs) . . . added arms (frog) . . . etc. The human embryo to fetus follows a similar pattern: one cell in the womb, multi-celled blastula, pollywog-like form with a tail, added arms, etc.

This pattern between simple life to more complex life is vaguely mirrored in the development of the human (or other animal) embryo. It is observable. Therefore, according to the laws of truth, it is real—the reflection of patterns in the growth of one human embryo to fetus vaguely reflecting other species from a protozoa to a primate is empirically proven.

However, here is the trick: When does observation stop and conjecture start? It is one thing to observe what happens. This is fact. It is another thing to declare why it happens. This is conjecture—saying that chance, that time, that chaos produced both the complex hierarchy of living things as well as the development of the human embryo into a fetus is unproven theory.

At this point, we know what happens. We do not know why or how it happens.

Verdict: Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny is partially true (what we see) but unproven (why it happens).

(4) Progression of Evolution through One Small Step at a Time

In his classic book, Origin of the Species, Darwin stated the following:

“If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modification, my theory would absolutely break down.“

Darwin, Charles (1872), Origin of Species, 6^th ed. (New York: New York University Press, 1988) p. 154

Before I became a Christian, I was studying biology (including chemistry and physics) at UCD. Having heard a thorough presentation of evolution, I wondered if it was true. What would be the first step for one of the simplest living things—a bacterium—to start living and be able to reproduce? (Evolutionary theory says that organic chemicals were in a pool, struck by lightning, and turned into a living organism.) How simple was the first bacterium? It had to contain a DNA strand made up of hundreds of thousands of molecules in exactly the right order for the organism to live (take in nutrients, grow, excrete, adjust to its environment) and to replicate itself. As an agnostic studying science, I concluded, “This is impossible.” There is a vast complexity of hundreds of thousands of parts that have to come together in perfect order in the perfect environment even for the simplest of organism to survive. That contradicts Darwin’s theory requiring “slight modifications” one at a time over millions of years. Bacteria cannot survive without their complex cell membrane and cannot multiply without the vastly complex DNA. Darwin’s theory has broken down.

(7) Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) strands; DNA model showing molecules; Nobel Prize winner, Dr. Watson, for his discoveries about DNA

Darwin lived between 1809 and 1882. Watson and Crick received the Nobel Prize for uncovering the structure and components of DNA in 1962. Darwin never understood the extreme complexity and precision of interrelating parts required for even the simplest, much advanced organisms, to live. The simplest procaryotic cell needs a cell wall for shape encasing cystoplasm with water, enzymes, nutrients for digestion, the ability to excrete wastes, ribosomes, chromosmes, and plasmids. If it doesn’t have the wall, it doesn’t hold together. If it can’t digest food, it has no energy. If it can’t excrete wastes, the plasma becomes toxic. Without DNA, it can’t replicate. . . . DNA strands do not just pop into existence when amino acids are struck with electricity–as many scientific experiments have proven. (3)

One strike of lightning hitting one pool of chemicals and producing a highly complex organism such as a bacterium was just like dropping a bomb on a big junk yard and producing a Boeing 707. Scientific facts (the complexity of one cell) and scientific theory (a lightning bolt hitting chemicals) did not add up. It defied Darwin’s theory insisting on “slight modification” starting with something very simple and building up little by little to very complex. No life is simple. To start with a highly complex bacterium negated Darwin’s theory according to his own words.

Scientists discovered that even in the simplest cells there is an “irreducible complexity” that is required for life. Many complex parts have to function perfectly from the beginning for life to start. One cell is more complex than all of New York City. Millions of molecules, proteins, and parts do not just suddenly come together in perfect order for perfect functionality out of blind chaos.

The idea of “given enough time, enough trials, enough chance” a complex organism will suddenly come together, live, function, and reproduce contradicts Darwin’s explicit words on how evolution occurs. It is like putting a hundred monkeys at typewriters and coming out with Tolstoy’s War and Peace or Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary. The simplest organism is more vastly complex than scientists understood in Darwin’s day. Darwin never suggested that an organism of great complexity would suddenly pop into existence given time, opportunity, and chance.

The organism has to start as a whole in order to live. A whole requires millions of molecules and organs functioning in perfect order. Darwin said that unless that organism was built up one step at a time “my theory would absolutely break down.”

For a full scientific investigation into irreducible complexity (complete wholeness from the beginning for a bacteria, a virus, a sponge, . . . a plant or animal to live and reproduce), read Dr. Michael J. Behe’s book, “Darwin’s Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution,” (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996) p. 39.

Verdict: Life Does Not Evolve One Little Step at a Time, Thus According to Darwin—His Theory Breaks Down

(5) One Species Evolving into a New Species

Evolution explains this as the slow, gradual transition from one species like a fish growing legs to evolve into another species like a frog. (It would also mean a whole new skin, new lungs, new heart, new physiological metabolism, etc. This is not one step; it is billions of complex changes.) There are fish that use fins to scoot up on shore. There is similar bone structure between some fins and some legs. However, there is no proof of gradual transition, step-by-step through healthy mutations or adaptations changing anatomy in successive generations, gradually changing form by form from one species to another species.

At UCD, a Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry was allowed to speak to my class of 500 students. He pulled out hundreds of scientific articles showing from paleontologists and archeologists that digs and research showed huge gaps of time between the appearances of groups of major life forms (from simple to complex). These archeological gaps did not prove evolution moving step-by-step producing little-by-little simple changes developing more-and-more complex life forms, but the sudden appearance of huge groups of life–each group more complex than the last. Then another huge gap in time, followed by another sudden appearance of different, more complex life forms. There were huge gaps of time with no changes, then huge leaps in the complexity of groups of living beings. The progression from group to group was following not only the groups predicted by evolution, but long before by Genesis chapter 1 in the Bible. But there were no slow transitions (Darwin), there were huge gaps and leaps (the Bible). (8)

Verdict: The evolution of one species into another is disproven by archeology.

(6) Spontaneous Generation

The view of evolution rests upon the theory that life started spontaneously in a rich pool of nutrients (like amino acids) hit by lightning producing the first one-celled living organism. Many, many experiments have tried to replicate this process. NOT ONE EXPERIMENT HAS EVER PRODUCED LIFE—EVEN IN ITS SIMPLEST FORM. (Besides, a lightning bolt can heat air to 50,000 degrees F. That’s 5sx hotter than the sun. There is no proof that such heat starts life, but a lot of proof that it stops it. No life can live on the sun, much less in an environment 5xs hotter.) Spontaneous generation has been disproven!

Few scientists hold to spontaneous generation anymore, even though some high school science classes still teach it. So the new theory put forth– without one shred of evidence (except Star Wars and Star Trek)– is that life started on another planet or in another universe (the multi-universe theory).

Verdict: The Theory of Spontaneous Generation has been proven FALSE

Conclusion

Some parts of evolution are true or partially true (mutations, natural selection, ontogeny resembling phylogeny). Other parts—the most critical parts for the foundation of evolution—have been proven false by lots of scientific experiments (such as, step-by-step small modifications over millions of years, evolution from one species to another species—and most important of all—spontaneous generation). These are the foundation of the evolutionary theory. These are false, therefore, the whole theory “absolutely breaks down” (to echo Darwin’s own words).

Through thousands of scientific experiments from scientists across nations, the theory of Chaotic Evolution (given enough time, enough chance, enough opportunities a complex organism like a bacterium will come into life through a random, small step-by-step assembly process) has been proven to be false. No one says that an organism with millions of complex parts pops into existence by random chance, enough time, and opportunity (even when put in the perfect environment of a test tube).

Why is evolution still taught? Inertia, tradition, coercion (loss of job at a university or school should anyone disagree). The theory hit hard in the early 20^th century, entrenched, cemented and despite the great progress of science forward and proving it false (just like Galileo’s discovery that the earth revolves around the sun, thus bringing down great persecution upon this scientific genius from church and educational institutions) ingrained ideas die hard.

INTELLIGENT DESIGN

(CREATIVE EVOLUTION)

Very few scientists in the hard sciences (physics, chemistry, astrophysics, etc.) and even mathematics will tell you that they believe in evolution. A study was done at a university, where hard scientists were asked if they believed in evolution and most refused to say, “Yes.” They would say that science has proven that earth’s ecosystem is vastly more complex than evolution (with its step-by-step random assembly out of chaos) can explain.

What many hard scientists (like Behe in Darwin’s Black Box) do point out, is that this planet is “fine-tuned” with such extreme precision, complexity, and logical assembly that it is intelligently designed. And despite its vast complexity, intelligent humans can understand it.

If life reveals an intelligent design, then an Intelligence (God) designed it. So let’s quickly look at this view.

An Intelligence put together complex life forms and placed them in an environment that could sustain life (right temperature, oxygen level, amount of gravity, sunlight, water, food . . .) a whole lot of things had to come together in the biological organism and its environment for life to start, to maintain, to replicate. Billions of things had to come together perfectly all at once for one organism to live, to survive, and to replicate. This is irreducible complexity for life to exist. Irreducible complexity is in diametric contradiction to evolution.

The Intelligence placed in living plants and animals the abilities to mutate, to adapt to their changing environment (except when catastrophic), to live, and to replicate.

The Intelligence built each new species on a predetermined pattern that overlapped with previous patterns of anatomy/DNA/physiology in earlier species. Intelligence made ontogeny resemble the created order of things.

This Intelligent design proved intelligent evolution, not chaotic evolution. Intelligent evolution is also called creation by a Creator. In its beginning, God created each plant or animal at one time as a complex whole with totally perfected functioning (from the first bacterium to the first human) and gave each organism the dynamic flexibility to change with its environment for survival. Dynamic flexibility for change was designed into the body of each creature. That is why birds that have never seen a nest built, can later build a perfect nest for the propagation of their species. This is why some viruses mutate and prolong survival of their species. This was creative evolution. The Creator created life with the ability to evolve to a limited extent in order to survive and reproduce.

CREATIVE EVOLUTION:

God, the Creator, created life with the ability to evolve.

Intelligent design is one of many proofs for the existence of God. Some scientists go from atheism to believing in God just from the overwhelming evidence produced through scientific research of Intelligent design on our planet and in our universe.

Last Story

Each day in spring, I passed by one magnificent blooming tree as I walked onto the UC campus for science classes. I was agnostic and gave little thought to God. However, I was taking botany classes and labs that showed me the cellular structures of the roots, trunk, branches, leaves, and flowers of this overwhelmingly beautiful tree. I knew that from the tip of each root to the highest leaves in that tree that trillions of cells (cortex, phloem, stoma, chloroplasts, mitochondria, DNA, RNA, . . .) functioned in absolute harmony like an intelligently made machine; like a Ferrari or Lamborghini. Yet, it was a tree. It didn’t even have a brain. But billions of parts were perfectly and exquisitely ordered. So each day as I passed, I asked one question, How can a tree function like an intelligently made machine? Day after day, the same question came to my mind.

Then one day, the awesome answer struck me; “It functions like an intelligently-made machine because an Intelligence made it.”

Image of DNA by Pete Linforth on Pixabay.
Images from Skeeze on Pixabay.
Image of Charles Darwin by WikiImage on Pixabay.
Image by Dominic M. Contreras on Pexels.
Image by NASA “Taken Under the Wing of the Small Magellanic Cloud”
Drawing by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay
DNA by Gerd Altman from Pixabay; DNA Model by Skeeze on Pixabay; Dr. Watson from Wikimedia.
The Hebrew word for “day” in the KJV Bible is “yom.” It has many different translations across the Bible based on the context in which it is found. “Day” could mean a 12-hour period, a 24-hour period, an age or eons (millions of years). Archeological finds support the definition of “yom” as being a long, long period of time.

Translations of Yom

Usage across the KJV Bible: afternoon*(1), age(m)(7), age*(1), all the years(m)(1), always*(14), battle(1), birthday*(1), Chronicles*(38), completely*(m)(1), continually*(m)(14), course of time*(1), daily(22), daily amount*(m)(2), day(1118), daylight*(1), day’s(7), days(641), days ago(1), days'(11), each(m)(1), each day(m)(4), entire(2), eternity(m)(1), evening*(m)(1), ever*(m)(1), every day(2), fate(m)(1), first(m)(5), forever*(m)(11), forevermore*(m)(1), full(1), full year(1), full years(4), future*(m)(1), holiday*(3), later*(2), length(m)(1), life*(m)(2), life(12), lifetime*(m)(1), lifetime(m)(2), live(m)(1), long*(m)(11), long(m)(2), long live(1), midday*(1), now(m)(5), older*(1), once(2), period(4), perpetually*(2), present(m)(1), recently(1), reigns(m)(1), ripe age*(1), short-lived*(m)(1), so long*(m)(1), some time(1), survived*(m)(2), time(44), time*(m)(1), times*(2), today(172), today*(1), usual(m)(1), very old*(1), when(m)(11), whenever(1), while(3), whole(2), year(10), yearly(5), years(m)(8), yesterday*(1). (Found in Strong’s Concordance.)

Interpreting the Bible

Chapter 3 – Truth Reveals Reality

Biblical Laws and Sublaws Uncover Truth

Truth uncovers reality; what is really happening. In any area of life (courts, science, theology) finding truth depends on following 5 biblical laws.

How do we discern the truth in Revelation? There are so many views, opinions, conjectures, and assumptions. Do we simply listen to our favorite authority figure, as do Muslims, JWs, Mormons, or the Jews in the days of Jesus to determine what we believe? Most sermons I have heard on Revelation originate either from a commentary or the doctrines of a favorite seminary. Even great theologians (including Martin Luther) have thrown up their hands in dismay at the book of Revelation. “There are so many different views, I give up,” said one pastor. When we compare the teaching of some who do go to the Bible verses, we might wonder, How did they get that idea out of that passage? No one could find their view by just simply reading the facts presented in the Bible; leaders have to indoctrinate their students to think the way they did, because their interpretations either could not be found in the Bible or broke basic rules of hermeneutics (rules for accurate interpretation) distorting Scripture. The right way begins by going first and foremost to the Bible ourselves; seek out the original source, God’s own words. Yet, even this presents a problem.

The problem is not the book of Revelation. The problem is how we think.[1] The bottom line for believing any view or doctrine is truth. Is this interpretation the truth? Is this what God really said, really meant, really did, or will do? Truth is the bottom line. Truth is the goal. Is our thinking straight enough, clear enough, right enough, powerful enough to hunt down the truth in this world’s jungle of darkness, deception, delusion, distractions, and simple errors? What drives our thinking?

What is truth? There are 216 verses on the words “truth” and “true” in the New American Standard Bible. Truth is a primary attribute of God’s character. It permeates every other communicable attribute of God, everything He created, and His image from which the human being is created. Here is a summary of key verses out of the 216 showing the importance of truth:

Let’s back up from hunting down truth and start with a “simple” (ha!) question. What is truth per se? I once read a Harvard commencement speech by a valedictorian who stated that the one thing every student graduated with from Harvard was (and you will never guess this! but I am not kidding) “confusion.” He said everyone was allowed to believe anything they wanted, except that truth per se existed. This is postmodern philosophy espousing relativism wherein every person’s perception is “true.” Friedrich Nietzsche, the German philosopher who died in 1900, was a major proponent of this philosophy: “no truth” led to “no moral law” (since every society made up their own) and therefore “God is dead.” During the last 11 years of his life, Nietzsche went mentally insane with severe psychosis. He once wrote, “All superior men who were irresistibly drawn to throw off the yoke of any kind of morality and to frame new laws, had, if they were not actually mad, no alternative but to make themselves or pretend to be mad.” He believed in the destruction of objective truth, leaving only personal perspectives; a slave revolt against moral law; atheism and nihilism, leaving only one reason to live–“the will to power.” Forty years after his death, one man would take his philosophy to its logical conclusion; Hitler worshipped Nietzsche. We saw how that worked out.

Postmodern philosophy is the rage today, even in America. The biggest shock came with my own beloved conservative, evangelical seminary when I realized that every professor in the department held to postmodern philosophy over the Bible in the area of truth per se. So I wrote a 50-page paper (no names and very academic) in support of absolute truth against the teaching in every one of my classes, presented it by working my way up the ladder of rejection, and ended distributing it to every professor on three campuses, including the president and the seminary’s board. Charles Colson was on the board. Outside of the president, he was the only one who responded to the paper (with two words: “I understand.”) The president supported and praised whatever the professors were teaching without ever discussing the issue with me. Dr. Walter Kaiser had retired as the former president, but he told me to inform the leaders, not to expect them to reply, but they would deal with it. One of the most powerful men in the seminary (also the department head, my supervisor, and my beloved mentor) dealt with it (but not in a way Kaiser could have imagined). He tried three times to torpedo my doctoral dissertation on A Biblical Theory of the Human Personality (which had already been finished and approved in writing by him (all 800 pages) three months earlier before any other student had even started theirs). He made it clear that my arguments against their teaching would influence negatively what he did with my dissertation. I weighed my doctorate against all the pastors influencing churches across countries that this seminary was infecting with this philosophy and decided I was just a little person, so what if I went down. But if one church went down with Nietzsche’s cancerous thinking, I would be ashamed before Jesus if I said nothing. So I braced myself to lose my doctorate and continued the battle for truth. Then, as the top man, he went to his department and had everyone vote to push through a new ruling on dissertations limiting them to 100 pages (which looked like the crowning blow for mine which had taken two years to write) about six weeks before graduation. (This negated all of his signed approvals for every chapter including the final draft, which he called “excellent.” I had all A’s in my classes, so that was untouchable.) I thought my doctorate was lost, but God stepped in. I quickly edited one chapter (about a 100 pages), turned it in, and requested a meeting with him. (He had stopped talking to me outside of class and refused to meet with me, even though he was required to do so on a weekly basis.) My request to meet was one sentence saying I would like to talk to him about the ethics of what he was doing to my dissertation based on the current conflict over truth. He never responded. However, he stopped the persecution against my dissertation. Why? He was the seminary’s only professor for Christian Ethics. I graduated on time.

The loss of my doctorate would have meant the loss of a career, loss of jobs, shaming before churches, possible financial problems for my family . . . That was nothing. Truth was everything! How much will we pay for truth? God says, “Buy truth, don’t sell it,” (Prov 23:23). Truth costs. If the churches, much less good seminaries teaching thousands of pastors for countries around the world, are struggling in “confusion,” then the apostasy is closer than we think (2 Thess 2:1-4). In the end times, God will allow deluding forces leading to false beliefs (2 Thess 2:11). Sloppy thinking (neglecting God’s laws and sublaws for discerning truth, righteousness, and justice) is a treacherous path into darkness. .As the darkness descends, the cost of truth is going to skyrocket. With it, will come the ultimate cost for truth–which our Lord Himself paid on the cross. Will we be ready to pay the price? Jesus commanded us saying, “You also must be ready.”

So if some of the greatest minds academically and best minds theologically are building on a foundation of cracking confusion, then what is the truth? Before we look at the highest and final authority on the subject, let’s go to a child. Did God put an innate understanding of truth per se into the human heart? He says He did. He places His laws in our hearts, that is until over time we sear, scorch, and sin against them to erase them (Rom 2:15; 1 Tim 4:2). So I asked five-year-old Seth this question, “What is truth?” Could a child still recognize truth? The boy put down his toy, thought, and said, “It is something that really happened.” BINGO! Wow, Wow! WOW! The child knew.[2] He was smarter than most Harvard graduates and seminary professors on this issue. He certainly struggled far less than I had in both time, effort, and thinking on the essence of truth per se. Simply put, truth reflected what was real.

Now consider the highest and final authority on the issue. There are 216 verses on the words “truth” and “true” in the New American Standard Bible. Condensing these verses into one definition: Truth is the clear and accurate mirrored reflection of reality. Truth reveals reality.

To help us learn to think clearly and sharply, God lays down laws in the Bible for discerning truth to know reality. These are the biblical laws of truth. They are so powerful that every just judicial system in the world throughout history has them imbedded in its foundation; all scientific discovery is based on them; solid economics, journalism, all technology, businesses, counseling, medicine, . . . every discipline that must interface with reality for success must apply these laws of God in their foundational thinking and practice. That includes theology and interpreting the Bible.

From these laws, every system expands into sublaws (rules, corollaries). Just judges in courts have studied years to train their thinking to discern clearly the difference between solid evidence and illogical irrelevancies. Textbooks are written on rules of evidence. Scientists have rules for accurate experimentation. They “practice the truth.”[3] It takes years to learn clear thinking. Conversely, every system whether judicial, political, religious, educational, business, counseling . . . that neglects or suppresses one or more of God’s laws of truth will infect a fallacious component–a weakness, a cancer, a corner of darkness–into that system. After looking at these laws, consider how systems like Hitler’s Nazi state, cults, false religions, and abusive spouses break one or more of these laws to hold people in the bondage of darkness and pain. “The truth will set you free, . . . the Son of Man makes you free” (John 8:32, 36).God’s laws of truth are the keys to reality in both the physical world and in the spiritual world. Truth reveals reality.

Here is a summary of the most basic biblical laws for discerning truth in any discipline. They are followed by sublaws emanating from those prime biblical laws that are important for accurate interpretation of the Bible (sound hermeneutical rules):

THE BIBLICAL LAWS OF TRUTH “So that you might know the exact truth,” Luke 1:4

1) THOROUGH INVESTIGATION of issues, facts, evidence, empirical observation, proof, etc.

“You shall inquire thoroughly. And behold if it is true . . . . You “shall investigate thoroughly.” “Having investigated everything carefully . . . so that you might know the exact truth . . . .” “What we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we beheld and our hands handled . . . we have seen and bear witness.” Deuteronomy 17:4, 19:18; Luke 1:3, 4; 1 John 1:1

2) LISTENING TO BOTH SIDES

“Then both the men who have the dispute shall stand before the LORD, before the priests and the judges.” “The first to plead his case seems just, until another comes and examines him.” Deuteronomy 19:17; Proverbs 18:17

3) ONE WITNESS IS NOT ENOUGH, TWO OR THREE WITNESSES, TESTIMONIES ARE TO BE IN AGREEMENT, VERIFIED, SUBSTANTIATED, CORROBORATED. (Empirical observation, primary sources, etc.)

“A single witness shall not rise up against a man on account of any iniquity or any sin which he has committed; on the evidence of two or three witnesses a matter shall be confirmed.” “Every fact is to be confirmed by the testimony of two or three witnesses.” “If I (Jesus) alone bear witness of Myself, My testimony is not true (i.e. “admissible as legal evidence” NASB).” Deuteronomy 19:15; 2 Corinthians 13:1; John 5:31

“For many were giving false testimony against Him and yet their testimony was not consistent.” “And not even in this respect was their testimony consistent.” Mark 14:56, 59

Collaboration of witnesses who twist or falsify their testimonies into agreement is wrong: “Seat two worthless men before him, and let them testify (falsely) against him.” 1 Kings 21:1

4) WITNESSES SHOULD BE OF GOOD CHARACTER, CREDIBLE AND RELIABLE

“If a malicious witness rises up . . . .” “A worthless person, a wicked man, is the one who walks with a false mouth.” “He who speaks truth tells what is right, but a false witness, deceit.” “A faithful witness (who “faithfully” follows God’s laws) will not lie, but a false witness speaks lies.” Deuteronomy 19:16; Psalm 35:11; Proverbs 6:12, 12:17, 14:5

5) THE DECISION MAKER (JUDGE) SHOULD BE PURE.

Hindrances to the discernment and execution of truth include:

Bribery, selfish gain, political advantage, seeking the glory of men, wanting all to speak well of you, peace at any price, fear, partiality toward rich vs. poor or those in authority vs. the powerless or those with whom we have alliances vs. strangers, conflicts of interest, hidden motives etc. Deuteronomy 16:19, 27:19; Proverbs 24:23; Luke 6:26; John 7:24

THE SUBLAWS FOR FINDING TRUTH IN THE BIBLE SOUND HERMENEUTICS

Every discipline that must use the laws of truth to interface with reality for success, also develops its own set of sublaws (rules) based on the major laws of truth. Courts have rules of evidence. Science has rules for experimentation. Theology adds hermeneutical rules. Here are a few of the main sublaws (rules) based on the laws of truth that are foundational for accurate interpretation of Scripture. Purity involves independent, objective thinking based on the laws of truth with truth as the highest goal.

Rule #1: Scripture is the highest and final authority.

God is perfect. Scripture is inerrant. Man is errant (thus, humility is indispensable). God’s authority is higher than man’s authority. When considering a doctrine or important concept do not add or take away from God’s word (Deut 12:32; Rev 22:18-19). Any interpretation of man that disagrees with the written word of God is wrong.

Rule #2: Scripture interprets Scripture.

For example, the definitions of words or meanings of phrases found in Revelation are often explained or amplified in other books of the Bible.

Rule #3: Scripture is God’s word. God has integrity, so the Bible has integrity.

There are no real contradictions in Scripture. Scripture follows basic rules of logic. Beware of logical fallacies and irrelevancies. I.e. If the pope/president/pastor says it, it must be true even if it contradicts Scripture. This statement contains two logical fallacies: (1) the assumption that power and position are always true, even when (2) the words of great men contradict the words of God in the Bible.

Rule #4: Research the immediate and greater context.

Immediate Context: the surrounding words, verses, passage, chapter, and book concentric circles of context–closer context outweighs farther context. I.e. The “day of the Lord” in Paul’s 1^st Thessalonians passage is better defined in 2^nd Thessalonians than it is by an OT book (another author, another time). Greater Context: all of the Bible. The part fits into the whole and the whole is made up of all of its parts. The piece fits into the puzzle and the puzzle picture is made up of all its pieces. The verse agrees with the Bible and the Bible is made up of all its verses. The Bible has integrity.

Rule #5: Use a literal interpretation.

“Literal” is what the original author intended as discerned by context for his audience. It is usually a simple, at-face-value, childlike understanding from the reading. Historic passages are interpreted historically as actual facts and events. Poetic verses are interpreted poetically. Physical objects and places are just that (i.e. the church of Ephesus is a real church as indicated by Paul, John, and Jesus–not an allegory or an abstract period of history, an idea found nowhere in Scripture). Interpret the word or verse according to its genre, given meaning, context, and linguistics. This is also called the grammatical-historical interpretation.

Rule #6: Occam’s Razor

Simple interpretations that fit the facts hold more evidentiary weight than complex interpretations that require many assumptions and complicated reasoning to overturn the simple, face-value, plain logical reading of the passage. This rule is based on reasoning from Occam’s Razor which states that the conclusion based on the most amount of facts with the least amount of assumptions has the highest probability of accuracy. Just courts do everything they can to stick with the facts and avoid assumptions and other logical fallacies such as conjecture, speculation, unfounded opinions, prejudice, bias, exaggeration, coloring opinions with heavy emotions to persuade, etc. Science, technology, medicine do the same. This powerful rule should also apply to sound interpretation of the Bible.

Rule #7: Direct (clear) verses hold more evidentiary weight than indirect (vague) verses.

Rule #8: Numerous relevant verses hold more evidentiary weight than few or one relevant verse.

Rule #9: Interpretations made according to hermeneutical rules carry more evidentiary weight than interpretations which include a breach of one or more hermeneutical rules.

Rule #10: Other

Linguistics (Greek, Hebrew meanings); historical setting, cultural setting, time frame etc. may add insight.

The biblical laws of truth and their sublaws are so wonderfully fantastic that they have uncovered marvelous mysteries in the Bible, not just for the great Reformers who brought the church out of the most profound darkness–such as selling salvation for money (Rom 6:23), bowing down and praying to statues (Lev 26:1), or negating the cross through works (Eph 2:8-9)–but for the average lay person. The Reformers developed the doctrine of perspicuity: Scripture has an innate clarity that the average person can understand. Jesus says we have a higher teacher, “When He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth.”[4]

However, the clarity of Scripture depends on the clarity of mind that practices truth through God’s commands to follow His laws of truth and sound hermeneutics.

To determine what will happen to this planet in this century (or the early next century) clear thinking according to and applying the laws of truth in the areas of science and the Bible is obligatory.

[1] Eph 4:23, “Be renewed in the spirit of your mind.” Rom 12:1, “Be transformed in the renewing of your mind.”

[2] Truth reveals reality: “what really happened.” Luke 10:21, God, “You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants.”

[3] 1 John 1:6.

[4] John 16:13.

[5] Man Against the Wall with His Bible. Image by Pexels from Pixabay. Pixabay: religious, adult, alone, Bible.