Principles of Truth

10/31/2019

On the first day of this month, I wrote about beautiful, cool sun-shiny mornings with still very hot afternoons. This is the last day of October and to day is cool (but it has been raining all day yesterday and all night and is still), raining, and getting colder by the hour. A couple hundred miles West of hear it is snowing. Not going to get that cold, but it is going down into the 30s before bedtime. Wow, where and when did Fall happen. Maybe a few days. 

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SIMH today is another Don Williams song, not quite as well known as any others, but still a good hit for him, I think. “Say It Again”—a unique love song as most of his were. Co-written with McDill Roberts, Don Williams remains one of our favorite songsters of the 20th century. Many of his songs come to mind regularly, but this one was what I awakened with today.

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It’s important to notice things which alter our life or pattern of living as they occur. If we have opportunity to teach the next generation anything of this nature, we should emphasize the importance of “acting” rather than “reacting.” When we act on a matter we are initializing an original thought. If we react, we are making a secondary thought to whomever originated. Of course, there are always things we must react to and cannot always bring forth the original thought. But our preparation should be otherwise. 

Our pattern of living should be such that we do our best to protect or enhance our own position. Not for the purpose of being “right” or being “foremost” at anything, but for the heritage of truth and trust. One might say, I’m not sure of this or that. Well, back up and carry out your own “due diligence” in order to be sure! It’s being principled correctly that is the driving force of being prepared. You’ve heard of one having the “courage of his convictions?” This is how it is determined. Clear thinking about truth carries out the trust of a principled life.

How shall we gather enough information into our heart and mind to be this well principled? We must look at available data which purports to teach us right things. The Bible, more specifically the King James Bible is able to establish itself in absolute truth by being what it is: the only volume or collection of words which will identify untruths as it unfolds truth. It is an interpreter of itself like no other work. If one doubts that the KJB is the preserved word of God, let him try it. I mean put it on trial. 

The first principle of truth to unfold is the author’s intention. Not the writer of a particular book, but the author of the whole of it, the inspiration for the work to show what He wishes to show. 

Next, the principle of revealed truth. How the plan is exposed, then carried out. He tells the whole story, inspiring men to write what has been done, what is going on now, and how it will end up. This is unparalleled in literature because all has not been completed, yet this Author, being the God of the universe, has brought the entire plan forth—He who knows the beginning from the end has told us all of it.

Finally, the principle of a finished work. If it is finished, let it be finished. There is no more to do except be a teacher to show the great plan and its fruition from the pages of His book and proclaim the glory to whom He has given it and to whom it belongs: The Lord Jesus Christ! 

2 Timothy 2:15, a verse we hang our hats on for study, Instructs us to practice “rightly dividing the word of truth.” The Bible contains the word of truth and in it, defines the word of truth thusly: “the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.” Rightly dividing the word of truth is to discern the gospel of your salvation and the passages in the book that will prove it to be this gospel of your salvation. If one does that, he’ll learn what constitutes wrongly dividing and conversely he’ll know how to practice the principle of rightly dividing. 

The basic study key begins with believing what you read. This same author inspired another writer to say this: “he that cometh to God must believe that HE IS, and that HE is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.” (caps mine.) Believe what you read. Could God be lying to you? Not a chance! Remember, He also inspired another writer to say “For we walk by faith, not by sight.” If you are going to hunt down and hold truth only if you see it, you will never find truth; you’ll never trust the Lord, and you’ll wind up in a sea of regret. There can be nothing worse than leaving this life with the regret of never having believed by faith—the “substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Believe and trust what the truth will show you on the pages of your King James Bible.

Thanks for reading, the Elder.