The
Hope of the Believer . . . Restoration Review, Vol. 31, No. 2, February 1989 IN
PURSUIT OF TRUTH Randy
Massie Growing
up in the Church of Christ' I was convinced that we were right and everyone
else was wrong. The other churches were not honest in their interpretation
of the Bible, "ignorant and unstable people who distorted the
scriptures to their own destruction" (2 Pet. 3:16). As I saw it, there
were only two sides to any question, my side and the side that no sane,
intelligent' self-respecting person could hold. I could not then see the
arrogance and divisiveness of such a position. I
now realize that the there are many noble minds beyond my own ranks who love
truth and pursue it tirelessly. And I now realize that it is God who is the
source of all truth, and that He has disclosed this rich treasure to us in
two forms. There is propositional truth, the written word, as in "Thy
word is truth." Then there is personal truth, the word incarnate, as in
"I am the truth." In this two-fold revelation we have everything
we need for life and godliness. While total truth may not have been
disclosed, sufficient truth was. I
now see that it is when one embraces Jesus Christ, who is the embodiment of
personal truth, as Lord, and accepts the Scriptures, which make up the
propositional truths, as the only rule of faith and practice, that he is
truly in an honest pursuit of truth. This is what repentance means, a change
of heart and mind, a subordination of my will to the will of God. While I
once saw my own sectarian way of thinking as the standard of truth, it is
now Christ and his word. I
also now see that when I first became a Christian I did not have a complete
understanding of truth. I had to grow in truth and truth had to be
internalized, and so I sought to set my mind on things the Spirit desires
(Rom. 8:5). I am now resolved to
accept and obey every truth as it becomes clear to me. This I see as the
fruit of repentance. It
is now evident to me that though one may honestly accept this two-fold
revelation of Christ as the personal truth and the Bible as the written
truth, he will be unaware of certain truths, even in passages of Scripture
long familiar to him. I can now readily concede that there are many truths
about God and His world that are beyond me, but I am in the pursuit of truth
and will be till I die. But our reach for truth will always be beyond our
grasp. My daughter is a case in point. While she makes A's in fourth grade
math, it would be unreasonable for her teacher to require calculus of her.
She is rather graded on how she handles the material within her grasp. She
is responsible for what she can know, not for what she can't know. Is
this not how we are to see each other in our mutual pursuit of truth? There
is a big difference between what one knows as a newly born Christian and as
a maturing Christian. At whatever stage of growth we look to Jesus and his
word to keep us on course, but we may falter along the way and we may be
wrong about some things, but we can be assured that He who searches the
heart knows whether our failures are the result of willful sin or simply
faulty reasoning. We
can treat our sincere differences of opinion as a challenge rather than an
obstacle to unity. Who appointed us as judges over one another's
consciences? Who anointed us as infallible interpreters? Does not the word
teach me to accept the brother who differs with me "without passing
judgment on disputable matters" (Rom. 14:1)? Our
Restoration fathers seemed to have understood this better than we do, as in
Thomas Campbell's Declaration and Address:
Campbell
here allows for individual growth under God apart from the judgment of
others. Each of us is responsible according to his own understanding of
Scripture, not another's understanding. We should, however, be able to sit
down together and in a spirit of love help each other in the pursuit of
truth. As Alexander Campbell assured us, free discussion is the spirit of
reformation. That is how new truth comes to light. An ancient Hebrew
prayer well expresses my joyous pilgrimage in the pursuit of truth:
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