Formative Moments (2): All Truth is God's Truth

As an undergraduate, I belonged to the Oxford Inter-Collegiate Christian Union. (Indeed, since I ran the PA, such as it was, one president described me as the Sound Man of the OICCU...). The OICCU embodies, or did, the term "Conservative Evangelical".

Many of the talks there had a profound impact on me. None more so than someone (I forget who) who, more-or-less as a throw-away remark commented that "All Truth is God's Truth". (Only recently did I discover that this was the title of a book from 1977 by one Arthur F. Holmes).

There's a sense in which the statement is tautological: God is truth; he is almost the very definition of what it is to be true. That line of thinking could disappear into a curious ontological argument about what God is anyway ... but I'll not go there: I'm content for now to talk about the God whose character is shown in the bible.

But the proposition "All Truth is God's Truth" is gloriously liberating. It sets us free to see the hand of God at work in mathematics and the physical sciences. It points us to the hand of the creator in the biological sciences, never once at odds with the objective and discoveries of the scientific method. And insofar as psychology or social science learns what makes people tick ... those too point us to the truth about God.

But it goes further, too. If students of business or management learn how to get the best from people, that is an echo of the truth about the creation, also. If some religious group discovers benefit in contemplation, that's because it's part of how God made us. If another group learns and propounds the value of families ... that's because God made families. If someone grasps the value of love, or non-violent protest, or self-sacrifice, that's because it is how we are made. The Christian doesn't need to feel guilty, or embarrassed, or downcast that there is some truth to be found in other religions or belief systems: it would be staggering if there were not.

We could trade proof-texts about the many and various ways in which God has spoken; we could talk about the witness of creation, and much else besides. You could say that this mantra "All Truth is God's Truth" is self-evident and shallow.

But as people who are invited to rejoice in the truth, I find it incredibly valuable to recognise and celebrate truth, wherever, and however it is to be found.