“I like the story of the blind people, each standing at a different part of an elephant, describing the elephant by the part of the elephant they touch. One describes the trunk, one the ear, one the leg. Each is a different and seemingly contradictory description of “elephant”, yet together the descriptions begin to approach the truth. God is immense and All-Knowing, and yes, God’s Truth is absolute, but we limited humans grasp it in bits and pieces. Sometimes those bits and pieces look very different from each other.”
Yes, only God is ALL knowing, able to see the FULL picture of what was, is and yet to come. He is able to see the FULL “elephant” and HE KNEW it was an elephant all along! Therefore, I don’t think that for HIM there is a “relative truth” - I think that for HIM, truth can only be absolute and that is the truth I want to know - HIS truth. Since God is always true, always knowing , always loving, consistent and reliable - UNCHANGING - it makes no sense that HE will reveal His truth to us in ways that contradicts each other. GOD never contradicts Himself - This is just part of HIS nature that I am learning to know and trust. That is one reason why I believe that God revealed HIS truth to us through the Bible. NO other scripture or book out there comes close to be as reliable, consistent, historically accurate and true to the nature of GOD.
Everyone knows that smoking is bad for our health. No one will agree with me if I said, “smoking is bad for me but is good for you” - It’s bad and everyone absolutely agree with that - It’s an absolute truth. There are many areas in our lives that we have absolute truths like this example, but when it comes to “spiritual truth”, to God and what it is really all about, people expect tolerance, “oneness”, “openness” - “Relative Truth”- “What true for you is not true for me”, etc…
If I KNOW smoking is bad, I will not encourage my friend to have another cigarette but I will encourage them to quit and take on a path toward health… toward the TRUTH.
Check out these short videos on the subject:
http://www.str.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=7512
http://www.str.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=7520
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPnrkP1zoaE&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXsRE2yldL0&feature=related
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