What is…
Truth

Truth is what is REAL, what is CORRECT. Truth is the way things REALLY ARE. It is something that is objectively true, not subjectively; not a matter of personal opinion or preference. Truth is not some consensual cultural construct.

Streaming video— 
“Is There Absolute Truth?”
Mark Spence
Video by Living Waters, a Christian Answers Team Member
Length: 2 minutes

The idea that the Christian message should be kept pliable and ambiguous seems especially attractive to young people who are in tune with the culture and in love with the spirit of the age and can’t stand to have authoritative biblical Truth applied with precision as a corrective to worldly lifestyles, unholy minds, and ungodly behavior. And the poison of this perspective is being increasingly injected into the evangelical church body. —John F. MacArthur Jr. 1

Truth is REALITY

“It is the reality God created and defined, and over which He rules. Reality is what it is because God declared it so and made it so. Therefore God is the author, source, determiner, governor, arbiter, ultimate standard, and final judge of all truth.” John F. MacArthur Jr., Litt.D., D.D. 1

Streaming video— 
“What is Truth?”
Pastor Mannie Szochet and Henry B. Smith Jr. discuss… What is truth? Why is there so much confusion about truth? Where does this confusion come from? Can truth be known? Does Jesus of Nazareth embody Truth?
Video by Associates for Biblical Research, a Christian Answers Team Member
Length: 26 minutes

Truth’s opposite

The opposite of Truth is lies, deceit, and dishonesty.

Spiritual Truth leads to spiritual LIGHT. Untruth leads to spiritual DARKNESS.

“To reject and rebel against the truth of God results in darkness, folly, sin, judgment and the never-ending wrath of God. To accept and submit to the truth of God is to see clearly, to know with certainty and to find life everlasting.” —John F. MacArthur Jr. 2

The truth is the most important thing that exists. It’s the most important reality in the universe. By the truth we are saved from hell. By the truth we are sanctified for the purposes of God. By the truth we are given strength, we are edified, we are comforted, we are encouraged. It all comes out of divine truth, living truth: the person of Christ who dwells within us, and written truth, the Word of God, and they are perfectly in harmony. —John F. MacArthur Jr. 4

God loves truth and hates lies

He who speaks truth tells what is right,
But a false witness, deceit.
…Deceit is in the heart of those who devise evil…
Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord,
But those who deal faithfully are His delight. —Proverbs 12:17-22 NASB excerpt

Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts,
And in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom. —Psalm 51:6 NKJV

God and truth are inseparable

He is the Rock, His work is perfect;
For all His ways are justice,
A God of truth and without injustice;
Righteous and upright is He. —Deut. 32:4 NKJV

…God of truth… —Psalm 31:5 NKJV; Isaiah 65:16 NKJV

…the truth of the Lord endures forever… —Psalm 117:2 NKJV excerpt

We are to seek the truth

Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. —John 17:17 NKJV

Teach me Your way, O Lord;
I will walk in Your truth;
Unite my heart to fear Your name. —Psalm 86:11 NKJV

All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth,
To such as keep His covenant and His testimonies. —Psalm 25:10 NKJV

Lead me in Your truth and teach me,
For You are the God of my salvation… —Psalm 25:5 NKJV excerpt

Jesus Christ, the truth

Jesus Christ says of himself,

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. … —John 14:6 NKJV excerpt

The doctrine of Christ is called “the truth of the gospel” (Galatians 2:5).

…Avoid such men as these. For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the TRUTH. —2 Timothy 3:5-7 NASB excerpt

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the TRUTH and will turn aside to myths. —2 Timothy 4:4 NASB

Satan, the enemy of truth

…He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. —John 8:44 NKJV excerpt

The Antichrist will come to expand Satan’s work on Earth.

The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie, and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. —2 Thessalonians 2:9-10 NIV

  1. John F. MacArthur Jr., The Truth War: Fighting for Certainty in an Age of Deception (Thomas Nelson: 2008).
  2. John F. MacArthur Jr., The Truth War: Fighting for Certainty in an Age of Deception (Thomas Nelson: 2008).
  3. John F. MacArthur Jr., The Truth War: Fighting for Certainty in an Age of Deception (Thomas Nelson: 2008).
  4. John F. MacArthur Jr., “Telling the Truth in a Post-Truth World” sermon (Grace Community Church: October 16, 2019).

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Article Version: August 1, 2021