Truth Matters is a new book by Andreas Kostenberger, Darrell Bock, and Josh Chatraw aimed at equipping college students to defend their faith (or cling to their faith) against the liberal attacks they will experience in liberal religion classes. The book is one that I strongly suggest for any college student and really for anyone who has ever been challenged to believe that the Bible is true. Contrary to the attacks leveled against the Bible in college classrooms and on cable TV channels, there is substantial evidence to support the Bible’s claim to be true. For evidence to make a difference, however, one has to be willing to seek the truth and allow the truth to inform one’s views.
In my ministry, one of the most frustrating experiences is for people to cling to faulty worldview, ideas, or ideologies in the face of truths that contradict. Simple logic shows that if a is true then the opposite of a cannot be true at the same time. Nevertheless, many people cling to false ideologies in the face of logic simply because they are more committed to their comfortable worldview or perspective than they are to a pursuit of actual truth.
Truth is the friend of every Christian. Jesus claimed to be the very embodiment of truth. All truth is God’s truth and to be faithful as a follower of Christ is to pursue truth and conform our lives around truth. The truth is often uncomfortable, but as uncomfortable as it may be, Christians must seek to live consistent lives that are oriented around the gospel and truth.
Our worldview and other personal perspectives become a part of who we are and as a result are difficult to change or walk away from. However, when our worldview, perspectives, or ideologies conflict with truth as presented in God’s word or as demonstrated in God’s world, we must change.
Post Script: I wrote this yesterday, but this morning I came across a Facebook post from Bart Ehrman who is the object of most of the rebuttals in Truth Matters. Ehrman denies the majority of the truth claims of the Bible and argues that Jesus’s body was left to dogs on the cross, that he was never properly buried, and that he did not rise from the dead. Of course to accomplish much of his fairy tell, Ehrman must deny not only the truth claims of Scripture, but the discoveries of textual criticism. Recently news has been released that researches may have uncovered a portion of the gospel of Mark dating to 90 AD, by far the earliest manuscript of Mark and would be the earliest known manuscript of any portion of the New Testament. Needless to say, if the discovery proves to be legitimate, this will be on of the most significant discoveries in the history of New Testament studies.
For an objective New Testament scholar, this is great news. For Ehrman, however, the information is “very disturbing indeed.” His concern is that antiquities should be maintained and claims this to be the work of “Christian apologists” who care nothing about the past. Of course Ehrman neglects to mention that these “Christian apologists” did not know what kinds of documents the mask was made of until it had been taken apart. Truth Matters, but only for those who are willing to wrestle with it and accept it. Bart Ehrman seems unwilling to listen to the truth one more time.
