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God is truth (John 14:6). In fact, truth is such an essential aspect of His character that He is called by the name “Faithful and True” (Rev. 19:11). He is absolute verity, unaltered by the variable tides of time and circumstance (Num. 23:19). The Maker of all things in heaven and on earth, He furnishes His creation with evident truth (Ps. 19:1–6). He loves the truth (Jer. 10:10) and speaks the truth at all times and in all ways (Ps. 119:160). He is Himself the source of all truth, the essence of all truth, and the standard of all truth (1 John 5:6, 20–21).
Herman Bavinck declared:
God is the truth in its absolute fullness. He, therefore, is the primary, the original truth, the source of all truth, the truth in all truth. He is the ground of the truth—of the true being—of all things, of their knowability and conceivability, the ideal and archetype of all truth, of all ethical being, of all the rules and laws, in light of which the nature and manifestation of all things should be judged and on which they should be modeled. God is the source and origin of the knowledge of truth in all areas of life.
Likewise, Keith Mathison asserts: “A God-centered view of truth demands that we affirm that all truth is God’s truth. That which is true is true because God said it, created it, or decreed it.”
According to article 2 of the Belgic Confession, God reveals truth in two ways:
First, by the creation, preservation, and government of the universe, since that universe is before our eyes like a beautiful book in which all creatures, great and small, are as letters to make us ponder the invisible things of God: his eternal power and his divinity, as the apostle Paul says in Romans 1:20. All these things are enough to convict men and to leave them without excuse.
Second, he makes himself known to us more openly by his holy and divine Word, as much as we need in this life, for his glory and for the salvation of his own.
God’s unchanging truth is sure, certain, and objective and is displayed in either the natural revelation of His created order or the special revelation of His inspired Word. He animates these two conduits of truth so that we might know the truth and be set free. Every true thing in art, music, literature, history, philosophy, science, and technology is therefore a manifestation of His providential and infallible revelation.
As best we can determine, that epigrammatic phrase “all truth is God’s truth” was first articulated by Augustine of Hippo (AD 354–430). In his little book On Christian Doctrine, he wrestled with the difficulty that inevitably arises from the fact that there is a difference between God’s infallible revelation of truth (both general and special) and our fallible interpretation of that revelation (both general and special).
On Christian Doctrine was simultaneously one of Augustine’s earliest works and one of his latest. Shortly after he was pressed into service as a presbyter in 391, he asked for an extended period of study and meditation in order to immerse himself in the Scriptures. Apparently, the book began as a series of cryptic journal entries that grew out of that intensive time of study.
By about 394, Augustine had already begun his extensive expositions of Genesis, Romans, and Galatians. Soon after, he would begin work on his magisterial study of the Psalms. So it seemed like a good opportunity to expand his original notes into a fuller, more permanent discourse. In short order, he drafted the first three parts of On Christian Doctrine early in his ministry.
But then, sometime around 397, he stopped writing. Whether it was because of the pressing concerns of the pastorate, the urgency of several other writing projects, or some other matter, Augustine never completed that early work—and it remained in manuscript form in his study. There it would stay until the last decade of his life, when he would take up the old, dusty manuscript, editing slightly what he had written so many years before, and then adding a final section.
In the book, Augustine resolved to help Christians “discover what we need to learn” and then to be able to properly “present to others what we have learnt.” Some have seen the book as little more than a manual for preachers and teachers, and to be sure, it is that. Others have rightly seen it as a manifesto for a distinctly Christian approach to truth and a clarion call for the application of that truth to the whole of life. Indeed, some have seen it as Augustine’s personal credo and thus as significant in his canon of work as Confessions or City of God.
As a theoretician, Augustine was supremely qualified for this task. Wedding his vast classical learning to his rich spiritual insights, he systematically worked through the difficulties that an ordinary Christian might have in properly understanding the revelation of God’s truth in all things. Despite his intellectual pedigree, Augustine was not an ivory-tower academic. As a result, he was able to make practical connections between orthodoxy and orthopraxy—right belief and right practice.
Although the original Latin title of the book, De Doctrina Christiana, is easily rendered in English as On Christian Doctrine, the more proper title might be On Christian Teaching. The book really is not so much about doctrine as about how to come to a knowledge of the truth, how to exercise wisdom in discernment, and how to apply such lessons in this poor, fallen world. It is a kind of hermeneutical handbook, a guide to the proper interpretation of God’s Word and God’s world.
At its heart, the book is an eloquent affirmation that all truth is God’s truth. “Let every good and true Christian understand,” Augustine declared, “that wherever truth may be found, it belongs to his Master.”
Augustine’s point is well taken. We never have to fear the truth or apologize for the truth. It is able to withstand every charge and bear up under every challenge. In due course, it will prove its own value and veracity. The dumb certainties of experience will attest to its surety. As Miguel de Cervantes said, “Truth may be stretched but it cannot be broken, and always gets above falsehood, as oil does above water.” Or as Shakespeare quipped, “In the end the truth will out.”
The truth is not merely a moral construct. It is not a subjective application of some man-made ethical system. It is a reflection of the way things actually are—the way God has made all things. It is a part of the very warp and woof of reality (Rom. 1:18–32).
Truth is objective, consistent, and balanced. It is beautiful and practical. It is good and helpful. It is accessible, knowable, and comprehensible. It is dependable, predictable, and unchangeable. Truth is believable—because it squares with the world as it is and with us as we are. Martin Luther declared:
There is no wisdom save in truth. Truth is everlasting, but our ideas about truth are changeable. Only a little of the first fruits of wisdom, only a few fragments of the boundless heights, breadths and depths of truth, have I been able to gather.
Knowing the truth—and living in accord with the truth—is not just sensible and sane, but it is remarkably fruitful and productive. When men discover the truth, it is as if the lights suddenly come on in their minds, hearts, and lives. Progress is made. Justice is served. Hope is satisfied. Trust is established. Love is confirmed. Freedom is safeguarded. Truth is just as surely a benefit to the scientist as it is to the philosopher. It is just as critical for a physician as it is for a husband. It is just as essential in the work of the artist as it is in the work of the lawyer.
In the midst of the fractiousness and brokenness of our world, where evil is pitted against love for the hearts, minds, and affections of all men everywhere, truth is an essential weapon in the arsenal of the good. Integrity, honor, and courage depend on it. Indeed, apart from it, a civil society cannot long survive. As William Faulkner declared, “Truth is that long, clean, clear, simple, undeniable, unchallengeable, straight, and shining line, on one side of which is black and on the other of which is white.”
Unhampered and unfettered truth is the only ground on which honest, open, and free relationships may be built—whether in families and communities or among societies and nations. Wisdom has always welcomed the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
Truth can stand the debate test. Poke it. Probe it. Explore it. Expose it. Turn it upside down. Turn it inside out. Put it under the microscope. Place it under the harshest of conditions. The truth will endure. It will always show itself to be true.
On that we can surely and safely rely because all truth is God’s truth.
“Opinion is a flitting thing
But truth, outlasts the sun;
If we cannot own them both,
Possess the oldest one.” (Emily Dickinson)