Can we Believe What We Read in Scripture?
The idea that “what’s true for you isn’t necessarily true for me” can lead a person to the conclusion that the moral truths from the Bible are all just a matter of opinion. But this conclusion simply reveals our confusion over the concepts of truth and belief.
We are all entitled to our own beliefs, which describe the way we subjectively think the world is. Truth, however, objectively describes the state of the world. Thus, our beliefs can be relative, but truth cannot.
So it makes no sense to say, “It’s true for you, but not for me.” Truth doesn’t change; only our perception of it changes.
The sky, for example, might look baby blue to you, but robin blue to me. We can stridently argue our personal belief all day long, confident we’re right, but once we pull out the color wheel, the true color would be revealed. At least as long as the color wheel is rightly viewed as objective truth.
Similarly, many people argue over the “truth” of Scripture. Can the Bible, they ask, really be trusted to be from God? After all, wasn’t it written by a bunch of writers over a long period of time? Surely the Bible is merely these men’s take on life, rather than God really speaking?