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Whisper Transcript | Transcript Only Page

00:00:00.000 | I am James Hong and welcome to the Surpassing Value Podcast.
00:00:15.620 | The fuel and desire for this podcast was born out of a compulsion to flesh out what's
00:00:19.740 | been going on in the midst of an ocean of megaphones that may not actually withstand
00:00:24.600 | the test of scrutiny.
00:00:26.620 | As a signpost theologian, I will do my best to filter out the impurities and point people
00:00:32.300 | in the right direction.
00:00:41.160 | For episode two, I wanted to lay the foundation for other episodes and address the concept
00:00:49.020 | of truth and flesh out some of its implications.
00:00:51.740 | I know at first glance this might seem unnecessary, but in an age where postmodernism has reached
00:00:57.700 | its tentacles into even casual conversations, even inner thinking, I thought it would be
00:01:03.820 | important some groundwork was laid.
00:01:06.980 | After all, we're in an era where the mantra of postmodernism, that all truth is relative
00:01:13.100 | or all truth is subjective, has reached cultural acceptance.
00:01:18.380 | In many cases, it's not enough to be merely sympathetic, but a lot of times it means to
00:01:25.020 | bow the knee.
00:01:26.900 | Along with this, the privatization of moral values has completed the recipe that has led
00:01:32.500 | to the end of any objective search for truth being considered a noble task.
00:01:39.260 | Moreover, the sharing of lives with someone who espouses a differing ideology than you
00:01:45.220 | once considered the norm for sophisticated and civil people has been displaced and now
00:01:51.900 | the opposite is actually true.
00:01:54.620 | It is political anathema to treat another person who has a differing ideology as fully
00:02:02.180 | human.
00:02:03.860 | For example, did you know that the two late United States Supreme Court Justices, Antonin
00:02:10.980 | Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, they considered each other best friends.
00:02:18.340 | We're talking about two icons of their own respective judicial philosophies that are
00:02:24.940 | completely at odds with one another.
00:02:27.260 | One is considered by many to be a conservative icon.
00:02:31.940 | Another is considered by many to be a liberal icon.
00:02:36.020 | But these two intellectual giants shared life together and they came from a time where that
00:02:44.660 | was the norm for how sophisticated and civilized people behaved and conducted themselves.
00:02:53.900 | Now that type of thinking is extinct like the woolly mammoth.
00:02:58.140 | It is more acceptable to hate someone who has a differing ideology than you.
00:03:04.520 | And if you don't toe the line, you eventually end up getting canceled.
00:03:11.020 | We live in a cancel culture.
00:03:14.520 | And you see that with Ellen DeGeneres and with J.K.
00:03:19.200 | Rowling.
00:03:20.200 | In any case, going back to our discussion of truth, let's start with defining truth
00:03:25.800 | and work out from there.
00:03:29.740 | In order for us to have a discussion about truth or true, we need to have a working definition
00:03:35.640 | that we all agree upon.
00:03:38.180 | So here's a Merriam-Webster entry for truth.
00:03:42.600 | Entry number one, the body of real things, events and facts, actuality.
00:03:49.880 | Number two, the state of being the case, fact.
00:03:54.300 | Number three, a transcendent fundamental or spiritual reality.
00:04:01.360 | To A, the property as of a statement of being in accord with fact or reality.
00:04:08.200 | Let me read that again.
00:04:09.280 | It is the body of real things, events and facts, actuality.
00:04:13.840 | The state of being the case, fact.
00:04:16.640 | A transcendent fundamental or spiritual reality, or the property as of a statement of being
00:04:22.920 | in accord with fact or reality.
00:04:26.660 | Isn't it interesting that despite this being the dictionary definition of truth or true,
00:04:32.200 | we could still hold to some following notions.
00:04:36.120 | What's true for you is not what's true for me.
00:04:38.680 | Or that's your truth.
00:04:40.480 | In many cases when people state this, they could very easily be misspeaking and inserting
00:04:46.280 | the word truth for some other word like taste or opinion.
00:04:50.000 | But undoubtedly our culture has so privatized and declared truth to be subjective when by
00:04:56.180 | definition truth is a transcendent fundamental and/or the body of real things.
00:05:07.100 | So by virtue of the definition I just stated, here are some things that truth is not.
00:05:13.640 | Truth is not necessarily what makes you feel good or better.
00:05:18.920 | Truth is not necessarily what the majority says is true.
00:05:23.300 | Truth is not necessarily good intentions.
00:05:27.200 | Truth is not necessarily what the consensus is.
00:05:30.260 | Truth is not necessarily what is the most pragmatic or practical.
00:05:35.220 | It is not what makes you feel good or better necessarily, what the majority says is true
00:05:39.440 | necessarily, good intentions necessarily, what the consensus is necessarily, whatever
00:05:46.140 | is the most pragmatic or practical necessarily.
00:05:49.880 | Here are some qualities of truth that truth possesses inherently or intrinsically by nature
00:05:57.600 | of being truth.
00:06:00.000 | By nature, truth is exclusive, fixed, corresponds to reality, and by extension of the first
00:06:11.560 | three it withstands the test of scrutiny.
00:06:15.320 | It is exclusive, it is fixed, it corresponds to reality, and by virtue of that it withstands
00:06:24.440 | the test of scrutiny.
00:06:28.120 | I want to give you some examples of these intrinsic qualities to illustrate the points
00:06:33.560 | that I just made.
00:06:35.240 | Truth is exclusive because two thoughts existing on the same wavelength cannot both be true.
00:06:42.840 | To say it another way, truth is exclusive because two thoughts on the same plane of
00:06:49.040 | thought cannot both be true at the same time.
00:06:52.600 | To give you an example, both the Chiefs and the Rams cannot both be the best team in the
00:07:00.620 | NFL.
00:07:02.040 | Either it's the Chiefs, it's the Rams, or neither.
00:07:06.800 | But the one thing it cannot be is that both cannot be the best, since the best implies
00:07:16.400 | that there is no other.
00:07:19.040 | I cannot say both the Dodgers and the Rays won the World Series.
00:07:25.260 | It's either the Dodgers, or the Rays, or neither.
00:07:30.280 | This case was the Dodgers.
00:07:32.640 | Truth is fixed because by nature whatever is true does not change.
00:07:38.880 | Truth is fixed because by nature whatever is true does not change.
00:07:43.240 | The square root of 9 is 3.
00:07:46.080 | It's always been 3, it continues to be that, and will forever be so.
00:07:51.660 | The square root of 9 will never be anything other than 3.
00:07:56.900 | It will never be 3.00001.
00:08:01.040 | It will never be 2.99999.
00:08:05.080 | The square root of 9 is 3, and will always be 3.
00:08:11.600 | Truth also corresponds to reality.
00:08:15.200 | For example, gravity exists.
00:08:19.880 | You might hate gravity.
00:08:21.760 | I might hate gravity.
00:08:24.040 | You might want to fly.
00:08:26.000 | I might want to fly.
00:08:28.400 | Let's say we both go up to the 8th story of a building, and I am so convinced of quote
00:08:34.880 | unquote my truth.
00:08:38.600 | I'm so convinced of it.
00:08:40.320 | I'm so convinced of it, and I want to fly so bad, and I hate gravity so much, I decide
00:08:48.100 | to jump off the 8th story.
00:08:51.840 | Now in that case, only one person's truth is going to correspond to reality.
00:09:00.160 | And my truth, that gravity doesn't exist, will not correspond to reality because it
00:09:07.200 | is not true.
00:09:10.720 | Truth withstands the test of scrutiny.
00:09:14.300 | Truth withstands the test of scrutiny by extension of it being exclusive, fixed, and corresponding
00:09:22.000 | to reality.
00:09:24.000 | Truth can be inspected, it can be explored, it can be vetted, it can be interrogated,
00:09:30.760 | it can be dissected, it can be audited over and over and over again with a fine tooth
00:09:38.200 | comb and at the end of it, guess what?
00:09:42.920 | Truth will remain truth despite whatever truth-seeking process you put it through.
00:09:51.680 | It doesn't matter what kind of truth-seeking process you put it through.
00:09:55.640 | Truth remains truth.
00:09:58.840 | Truth does not need to hide and has nothing to hide.
00:10:06.920 | If you are seeking the truth of a matter, consider these characteristics.
00:10:13.640 | Nobody has said to be arrogant, to be smug, to be pompous.
00:10:20.040 | And also, don't give into the dialectic that if you do hold to truth, having these characteristics,
00:10:29.800 | that by virtue of that, you are automatically arrogant, smug, or pompous.
00:10:36.360 | Some people might accuse you of being narrow-minded for believing that truth is exclusive when
00:10:43.080 | that's an inherent quality of truth.
00:10:47.200 | Do not give into such anti-intellectualism.
00:10:52.760 | That would be the equivalent of being called arrogant because you state that the sun is
00:10:56.880 | hot.
00:10:58.280 | The sun is by nature hot.
00:11:00.040 | That is a fact.
00:11:02.040 | Believing in an inherent quality of truth does not equate with arrogance.
00:11:07.840 | To drive this point home even further, consider the following.
00:11:12.860 | If someone says "all truth is subjective", that statement itself is self-defeating since
00:11:21.120 | that statement has to be objective in order for it to be true.
00:11:28.760 | The "all truth is subjective" statement must borrow capital from the objective worldview
00:11:36.040 | in order for it to be true.
00:11:38.480 | But if someone borrows that capital, they have just disproved what they were trying
00:11:44.480 | to prove, namely that all truth is subjective.
00:11:50.040 | But if that statement needs to be objective, what have you just done?
00:11:57.960 | It is inescapable, isn't it?
00:12:01.480 | So now, let me ask you then.
00:12:04.600 | Why is this important?
00:12:07.160 | Why should anyone bother?
00:12:09.640 | Does truth matter?
00:12:11.080 | My answer is a resounding yes.
00:12:13.400 | Truth absolutely matters.
00:12:16.340 | Doesn't truth matter to someone who is accused of committing a crime?
00:12:21.280 | What if that were you or a loved one accused of committing a crime?
00:12:24.740 | Would you not think truth mattered?
00:12:27.240 | Doesn't truth matter if you're flying across country in an airplane?
00:12:31.220 | Aren't you hoping that the engineer who built the airplane used truthful mathematical propositions
00:12:38.080 | as opposed to faulty ones?
00:12:40.920 | I'm sure truth would matter to you if you were 40,000 feet in the air.
00:12:46.880 | I'm sure if you were 40,000 feet in the air, you're hoping that the engineer who built
00:12:53.840 | the plane built it on the truthful proposition that the square root of 9 is 3 and not 3.0000001
00:13:05.920 | or 2.99999999.
00:13:10.480 | Precision would be of high importance in that case, wouldn't it?
00:13:15.240 | Exclusivity, which is an inherent quality of truth, matters a lot, doesn't it?
00:13:23.320 | Doesn't truth matter if you're in the hospital and the doctor is telling the nurse how much
00:13:28.720 | medicine to give you or a loved one via an IV?
00:13:34.040 | Truth matters in every academic subject of study, in every area of life, and all aspects
00:13:40.200 | of personal matters.
00:13:42.560 | All of life corresponds to truth.
00:13:45.840 | What you think is good and evil, virtue or vice, whether you're religious or not, matters
00:13:50.280 | immensely.
00:13:51.720 | The lack of any truth convictions about abstract principles of life matters immensely.
00:13:58.880 | To say the same thing yet another way, theology or lack thereof, is immensely practical.
00:14:09.440 | And let me tell you, none of us like bearing the brunt of a lie.
00:14:19.080 | Life has consequences for being wrong.
00:14:23.540 | We might not like that, but those consequences will still come.
00:14:30.520 | And many times, it might not even be you or me bearing those consequences.
00:14:35.960 | It could easily be those you have the most influence over.
00:14:40.860 | And for most of us, that's our friends and family.
00:14:43.660 | I want to go even deeper by demystifying why we should care.
00:14:50.160 | I want to stay on this topic.
00:14:52.920 | There are dialectics that the culture pushes on us that aren't the correct dialectics for
00:15:00.720 | investigative inquiry.
00:15:03.480 | Just so we're all on the same page, a dialectic simply means discussion and reasoning by dialogue
00:15:11.120 | as a method of intellectual investigation.
00:15:14.320 | A dialectic means discussion and reasoning by dialogue as a method of intellectual investigation.
00:15:21.360 | This is typically done through setting up opposing viewpoints and trying to resolve
00:15:26.800 | a conflict between the two.
00:15:29.400 | Let me give you some examples of what our culture deems to be dialectics.
00:15:34.520 | The sports analogy that I used just now, the daughters in the race, that would be a dialectic
00:15:39.040 | because those were the two baseball teams in the World Series.
00:15:44.520 | The Lakers and the Celtics would be another dialectic because these two teams went at
00:15:49.280 | it in the Magic Johnson era and the Kobe Bryant era.
00:15:53.200 | Some political ones could be conservative vs. liberal, democrat vs. republican, marxism,
00:16:00.440 | socialism, communism vs. free market capitalism.
00:16:05.380 | My point is that a lot of times we automatically assume these dialectics because the culture
00:16:13.200 | pushes them on us and not necessarily because they are the correct dialectics we should
00:16:20.540 | be thinking about.
00:16:22.760 | This is where it becomes dangerous.
00:16:25.160 | Let's say I want to talk about the dangers within the democratic party or the dangers
00:16:32.560 | within the republican party.
00:16:35.280 | A huge swath of people will automatically assume that the person speaking is either
00:16:41.920 | a loyal democrat or a loyal republican.
00:16:46.040 | And for many, they cannot extricate themselves from a culture-induced dialectic and so when
00:16:53.640 | we see this dialectical image, we don't see any other configuration of these opposing
00:17:00.040 | viewpoints so we automatically assume, well, this conversation has no value because it's
00:17:07.400 | merely political.
00:17:10.280 | And therefore, any discussion into this has no real spiritual, philosophical, or theological
00:17:18.240 | value.
00:17:20.840 | What many people fail to understand is that for many people, it is precisely on theological
00:17:29.280 | grounds that informs our political leanings and not vice versa.
00:17:35.520 | However, the vast majority of people will villainize others who do wish to engage in
00:17:43.520 | the conversation precisely because it has immense theological importance.
00:17:49.280 | But the thing is, it is much easier to deal with straw men, it is much easier to caricature
00:17:58.960 | another's position as opposed to thinking honestly, thinking critically.
00:18:06.560 | Many just want to remain willfully ignorant because in your willful ignorance, you could
00:18:13.640 | feel morally superior and our culture has equated outrage as a moral virtue.
00:18:24.000 | And so, for that reason, a lot of people engage in feeling outraged because they like the
00:18:36.080 | perspective that they think they are getting from others.
00:18:41.520 | And that is a cultural phenomenon, not an inherently good one.
00:18:48.880 | But an inquiry into truth requires that we question even whether or not our starting
00:18:57.320 | positional dialectic is even true.
00:19:03.000 | Another absolutely incorrect dialectic we heard about recently is abortion versus arrogance.
00:19:11.000 | That was an absolutely incorrect dialectic.
00:19:18.720 | Another reason you should care is because imbibing worldviews that are incompatible
00:19:26.240 | with truth are much more harmful than you might be cognizant of.
00:19:33.640 | Incompatible worldviews act to corrupt your mind and steer you away from the truth unknowingly.
00:19:40.720 | They douse the desires of your heart that are inherently good.
00:19:46.080 | They blind you from interpreting reality correctly.
00:19:52.720 | Truth matters because love rejoices with the truth.
00:19:58.040 | That is 1 Corinthians 13.
00:20:00.600 | If you want to be loving to your neighbor no matter who they are or what they believe,
00:20:06.160 | you tell the truth.
00:20:08.440 | Isn't it unloving to tell a cancer patient they have cancer because you are fearful of
00:20:15.840 | what they might say about you?
00:20:18.400 | It is usually a series of missteps that are rampant in our lives that leave us vulnerable,
00:20:28.480 | indefensible and ultimately impotent for any good work.
00:20:34.960 | Lies, even the ones you think do not matter or have any tangible connection to anything
00:20:41.400 | significant, do have the potential to pave the path to hell and that path is lighted
00:20:50.440 | with good intentions.
00:20:53.160 | Ephesians 2.2 tells us that Satan is the prince of the power of the air.
00:20:59.000 | Or in other words, he is the prince of this world.
00:21:01.480 | 1 John 5.19 states that the whole world lies in wickedness.
00:21:06.200 | Ephesians 6.12 states that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the
00:21:10.920 | rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual
00:21:15.840 | forces of wickedness.
00:21:17.920 | All these verses point not only to the prominent power that Satan has, but it also points to
00:21:23.520 | how deceptive he is.
00:21:25.760 | And let me tell you, being deceptive many times is power.
00:21:31.200 | Don't get me wrong, we should fear God and not have this paralyzing fear of Satan.
00:21:38.600 | But there is a difference between having a paralyzing fear and being sober and understanding
00:21:46.520 | who Satan is.
00:21:49.080 | Truth also helps you to understand the times.
00:21:52.720 | And understanding the times is always crucial.
00:21:57.720 | During the transition from Saul to David in 1 Chronicles 12, it tells us of noteworthy
00:22:02.360 | men who had their hearts turned toward King David.
00:22:07.560 | It talks about the mighty men of valor.
00:22:11.560 | Of relevance here, in 1 Chronicles 12.32 it states, "From the sons of Issachar, men who
00:22:18.320 | understood the times, with knowledge of what Israel should do, their chiefs were two hundred,
00:22:25.320 | and all their kinsmen were at their command."
00:22:29.740 | From the sons of Issachar, men who understood the times, with knowledge of what Israel should
00:22:39.600 | do.
00:22:41.280 | We need people who understand the times.
00:22:44.500 | We need people with knowledge of what we should do.
00:22:49.320 | And so, if somewhere in your heart you're still unmoved by what I just said, consider
00:22:59.760 | for a moment that perhaps there is something crooked in your heart.
00:23:05.880 | I want to read to you John 18, 28-38, it reads like this, "Then they led Jesus from Caiaphas
00:23:13.320 | into the praetorium, and it was early.
00:23:15.800 | And they themselves did not enter into the praetorium, so that they would not be defiled,
00:23:20.320 | but might eat the Passover.
00:23:22.240 | Therefore Pilate went out to them and said, 'What accusation do you bring against this
00:23:25.720 | man?'
00:23:26.720 | They answered and said to him, 'If this man were not an evildoer, we would not have delivered
00:23:30.520 | him to you.'
00:23:31.520 | So Pilate said to them, 'Take him yourselves and judge him according to your law.'
00:23:35.280 | The Jews said to him, 'We are not permitted to put anyone to death to fulfill the word
00:23:40.480 | of Jesus which he spoke, signifying but what kind of death he was about to die.'
00:23:45.280 | Therefore Pilate entered again into the praetorium and summoned Jesus and said to him, 'Are
00:23:50.040 | you the king of the Jews?'
00:23:52.480 | Jesus answered, 'Are you saying this on your own initiative, or did others tell you
00:23:57.440 | about me?'
00:23:59.000 | Pilate answered, 'I am not a Jew, am I?
00:24:02.520 | Your own nation and the chief priests delivered you to me.
00:24:05.600 | What have you done?'
00:24:06.840 | Jesus answered, 'My kingdom is not of this world.
00:24:11.640 | If my kingdom were of this world, then my servants would be fighting so that I would
00:24:16.280 | not be handed over to the Jews.
00:24:18.240 | But as it is, my kingdom is not of this realm.'
00:24:22.920 | Therefore Pilate said to him, 'So you are a king?'
00:24:27.240 | Jesus answered, 'You say correctly that I am a king.
00:24:31.320 | For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the
00:24:36.400 | truth.
00:24:38.280 | Anyone who is of the truth hears my voice.'
00:24:41.920 | Pilate said to him, 'What is truth?'
00:24:49.320 | We know what happens after this.
00:24:52.280 | Pilate will find no fault in him, but the crowd demanding Barabbas over Jesus will cause
00:24:59.880 | Pilate to hand over Barabbas as opposed to Jesus despite Pilate's own admission that
00:25:05.760 | he had found no fault in Jesus.
00:25:09.400 | Pilate sought to find a balance in all of this.
00:25:12.920 | In Matthew 27, as the crowds become more belligerent and demand that Jesus be crucified, he believes
00:25:20.240 | that by washing his hands and placing the blame on the crowds, that he is freed from
00:25:25.360 | the responsibility of his actions.
00:25:27.360 | Matthew 27, 24, when Pilate saw that he was accomplishing nothing, but rather that a riot
00:25:32.240 | was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd, saying, 'I am
00:25:36.800 | innocent of this man's blood.
00:25:39.180 | See to that yourselves.'
00:25:40.280 | But guess what?
00:25:43.920 | Pilate doesn't get to make his own rules.
00:25:49.840 | And just like we learned about truth, the fact that Pilate states that he is innocent
00:25:54.960 | doesn't actually mean he is innocent.
00:25:59.480 | Just because he said, 'I'm washing my hands,' doesn't necessarily mean his hands are clean.
00:26:06.320 | And with that, he orders Jesus to be crucified, the very embodiment of truth.
00:26:16.480 | After this, the very embodiment of truth is speaking truth to Pilate and Pilate's response
00:26:30.120 | is 'What is truth?'
00:26:38.080 | Are you someone who believes truth matters?
00:26:44.760 | Or are you more like Pilate, who says, 'What is truth?' and then just orders it to be crucified?
00:26:51.960 | I want to read to you some more passages to solidify this point.
00:27:00.160 | Psalm 119, 160, "The sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous rules endures
00:27:06.840 | forever."
00:27:07.840 | John 1, 14, "And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory.
00:27:14.000 | Glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth."
00:27:19.080 | John 4, 24, "God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth."
00:27:24.900 | John 8, 32, "And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
00:27:29.480 | John 14, 6, "And Jesus said to him, 'I am the way and the truth, and the life.
00:27:33.840 | No one comes to the Father except through me.'"
00:27:35.740 | John 16, 13, "When the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for
00:27:41.960 | he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak, and he will
00:27:45.760 | declare to you the things that are to come."
00:27:47.960 | John 17, 17, "Sanctify them in the truth.
00:27:51.680 | Your word is truth."
00:27:52.680 | 2 Timothy 2, 15, "Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker
00:28:00.160 | who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth."
00:28:08.360 | If you feel the need to abandon truthful propositions to achieve some other perceived noble end,
00:28:20.120 | you are probably not being used to promote good, but rather evil.
00:28:26.880 | Because something sinister is afoot, and you cannot see it.
00:28:33.300 | Integrity is greater than pragmatism.
00:28:37.360 | Be convinced that truth matters.
00:28:42.160 | Thanks for making it to the end.
00:28:44.440 | I'll continue to try to make the journey worth it.
00:28:49.120 | To him be honor, glory, and eternal dominion.
00:28:58.440 | James Hong out.
00:29:00.040 | (upbeat music)