Chapter 3: Rules of Truth. When I examine title to a tract of land, I realize the conclusions that I come to will in no way affect how title to the property is actually owned. In other words, my conclusions cannot alter the truth. If I were to convince my client, erroneously, that its title were clear, I would only succeed in hurting my client; the title itself would not be affected.
This is the first thing we need to understand about truth: what we believe to be true does not in any way change what is actually true. In other words, the truths about God, His Son, our salvation, punishments and rewards after death, baptism, and a host of other spiritual subjects are not affected in the least by what you and I believe. If I could persuade every single person in the world to accept all of my beliefs, it would not make those beliefs correct, nor would it change what is actually true.
I think we all would claim to recognize this principle. In fact, probably nobody would claim that he thinks he can change eternal truths by what he believes. But our actions show otherwise. The fact is, we do purposely ignore scriptures that oppose our doctrines. We do refuse to admit that other interpretations of key scriptures might be correct. Scholars do slant their translations of scripture to fit their own preconceptions, and we do choose translations that fit our biases or those of our pastors.
In fact, most of us refuse to even look at evidence that might prove that our interpretations are wrong. Yes, in our subconscious minds, we really do think we can change eternal truths by manipulating scripture or hiding evidence. What utter fools we are. As Winston Churchill said, "Truth is incontrovertible; panic may resent it; ignorance may deride it; malice may distort it." But there it is.
Until a person truly believes in the uttermost depths of his soul that he cannot alter truth, he will never properly understand scripture. And until he believes without question that he has nothing to fear from truth, he will not even want to make an honest search for truth. But how do I know whether or not I truly believe this principle, that truth is unchangeable, you might ask.
The answer is: you believe it when you are able to read scripture with the same objectivity and detachment with which a title lawyer reads a deed. That is, when you can approach scripture with no other desire than to know what scripture really means. But there is a barrier that prevents most of us from doing that. That barrier is called preconceived beliefs. Next subheading: Preconceived beliefs.
Several years ago, during a visit to Harlingen, Texas, my wife and I were browsing through a carpet store, looking over all the richly colored samples of carpet. In addition to selling carpet, the store was also an authorized dealer of Electrolux vacuum cleaners. My wife and I were standing a few feet from the counter when a woman came up to the owner and asked, "What brand of vacuum cleaner do you recommend?" What do you think the owner said?
Naturally, the owner said she recommended Electrolux vacuum cleaners, but she was not a disinterested party, was she? She already had preconceived ideas about the subject. That's our main problem when we read scripture: we already have preconceived ideas about what we will find before we even turn the pages. Preconceived beliefs are a barrier to finding truth.
As one ancient writer put it, "It is impossible to teach someone something he thinks he already knows." If we are convinced that we already know what the correct teachings of scripture are, then we can read every scripture over and over again and never see anything different from what we already believe. To be open to receive truth, we must start with a blank slate. But most of us are never given that opportunity.