Getting What We Ask For

Some Bible thinkers in the 1960s tried to remove God from the study of religion! In 2017, a story in Time magazine was named “Is Truth Dead?” Today, many people think so. Few people really know what truth is anymore. But Jesus said, “ ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. The only way to the Father is through [with the help of] me’ ” ( John 14:6, ERV 📖 ). The Bible says that Jesus is the truth.

Read the following three verses slowly. Then read them again a second time. What messages do they teach?

John 17:17 📖

Proverbs 30:5, 6 📖

Psalm 12:6 📖

The Bible says that basic truth (Jesus) doesn’t change ( Hebrews 13:8 📖 ). At the same time, while we read the Bible, our understanding about God and His truth grow. We are promised, “We can discover much more Bible truth that we don’t already know. But we must search for it with all our hearts.”—Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church, volume 5, page 704, adapted. When Ellen G. White talks about “truth,” she always means Bible truth. We can search for more truth in the Bible. The Bible doesn’t disagree with itself. New Bible truth always will build on or agree with past Bible truth.

Read 1 Thessalonians 2:13; Psalm 33:4, 5; and Ephesians 1:13 📖 . What is the message in these verses?

In the end, the Bible, and the Bible only, must be the support for everything we understand and accept as truth. We must compare every idea and thought with the Bible. If an idea or thought agrees with the Bible, then we can accept it as truth.

Some people say there is no truth. What is wrong with this idea? If they say there is no truth, how can anything they say be true? But let’s say that we accept as true their idea that there is no truth. If we do, then aren’t we really disagreeing with everything they just said?