Daily Verse | 1 Samuel 2:2
“There is no one holy like the Lord;
    there is no one besides you;
    there is no Rock like our God.”

Happy Friday, fellow Broadsiders. Where there’s a will there’s a relative.

Perhaps one of the gravest questions ever asked is, “What is truth?” Properly defined, truth is any statement that corresponds with reality. For a statement about reality to be true, it must match reality.

For instance, “the earth orbits the sun” is a true statement because the earth does, in fact, orbit the sun. That’s the reality. That fact—that the earth orbits the sun—remains true whether we’re aware of it or not, because what is true is independent of our knowledge of it. What is true—that which corresponds to reality—is true whether we know it, acknowledge it or ignore it. Just ask Copernicus.

Knowing what is true is important because it provides a solid foundation for navigating reality. If it’s true that a hot stove will burn my hand when I touch it, I will avoid touching hot stoves. If it’s true that water runs downhill, I’ll build my house on a hill. If it’s true that the garbage truck only comes once a week early on Friday morning, I’ll be sure to put my garbage cans at the end of my driveway the night before—after I write my blog.

In our current milieu there is a conflict about the nature of truth. For myself, I believe in “absolute truth”—that which is true at all times and in all places regardless of context or circumstances. I suspect that there are multiple millions of us who hold that view. It is the only logical view to hold.

But the dominant forces in our culture claim that truth is “relative”—that truth is whatever a person says is true. Relativism even allows for contradictory and exclusionary claims to both be “true” at the same time, even if they can’t possibly be so.

For instance, take the statement that “the earth is round.” Absolute truth says that the statement is factually true in all places and in all times. Relative truth says that the statement is true for some people, but not for all people. For some people, the earth is flat. That is “their” truth. Relativism holds that competing claims about the shape of the earth are equally valid, even though they are mutually exclusive.

Holding to such a view breaks the first law of logic, which is the law of noncontradiction. The law of noncontradiction states that two opposite truth claims cannot both be true at the same time and in the same sense. The earth cannot be both round and flat at the same time. To believe that both claims are true is to be illogical.

Here’s the problem with rejecting absolute truth in favor of relativism: it leads to pluralism, which teaches that all views, even opposing ones, are true and of equal value. The concepts of diversity and tolerance are rooted in pluralism. While they may seem noble in their intent—there is value in learning how other people see the world—an uncritical embrace of such a philosophy undermines truth, logic and the foundational principles on which our society was built.

• Jesus was who he said he was or Jesus was some kind of scam. It can’t be both.
• We are either born with natural, God-given rights or the government gives us our rights. It can’t be both.
• The United States of America was either founded in 1619 or it was founded in 1776. It can’t be both.
• Biological men can only be male or biological men can be either male or female. It can’t be both.
• Joe Biden stole the election through fraud or Joe Biden won the presidency fair and square. It can’t be both.
• My right to keep and bear arms may not be infringed or the right to keep and bear arms may be restricted. It can’t be both.
• The free exercise of religion cannot be prohibited or the free exercise of religion can be terminated. It can’t be both.
• I am free to speak my mind or Congress can abridge my freedom of speech. It can’t be both.

Hopefully you get the point. I can’t tell you the number of people who have told me the same thing that I’ve said myself—that we’ve lost our #!*$^ minds!—as they listen to the utter nonsense and blatant lying by power-mad elites.

Test everything; hold fast what is good. —1 Thess. 5:21

It all reflects a detachment from truth. Something we can all do is refuse to accept a relative view of truth as we fight to regain common sense in our communities.