The Gospel Truth

In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory. (Eph 1:13-14)

The Bible no longer carries the authority it used to, at least in the west. As children of the Enlightenment, we believe that understanding is obtained through reason, not revelation. We believe that the scientific method is our primary path to truth. Occam’s razor is invoked to claim that any theory requiring a God is too expensive. Richard Dawkins rejects the notion of a creator on the basis of multiverse theory–there is an infinite number of universes, we just happen to live in the one that just seems to be exactly right for life to exist– concluding “I think we should take our courage in both hands, grow up and give up on all gods. Don’t you?”

And yet. If modern western culture can be judged by the platform formerly known as Twitter, or by its ability to produce presidential or prime ministerial candidates, or by universities who no longer feel competent to express opinions on current affairs, then reason does not appear to have been very successful and generating understanding.

And if modern physics has to reject the scientific method as part of justifying its own existence, then science might be a very productive means of producing technology, but might not be so capable after all of laying claim to ultimate truth.

Conversely, the Bible has often been used outside its sphere of authority, and we neglect its central message at our peril. Paul, writing to the Ephesians, referred to “the word of truth” as “the gospel of your salvation”. The “gospel”, the “good news”, is the promise of grace, forgiveness, and unity; those very things the world so longs for, and is so desperately unable to attain for itself.

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ … to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ. (Eph 1:7-10)