With this post I wanted to compare and contrast two views, or perceptions, of Christian truth.
Perception one views God’s truth as narrower, with their personal truth and belief lining-up closely with God’s truth; thus “orthodox”. To the varying degrees that everyone else’s beliefs stray from “orthodox” belief, the closer they get to unorthodoxy (heresy) and the further from God they go.
Perception two views God’s truth as wider, so wide in fact that no one human or group can claim absolute “correct” belief. They believe that all Christian beliefs have some things that line up with God’s truth and other things that do not. In a sense, we are all right and wrong in our understanding of God, no one is “orthodox”—and never will be while on earth.
But, as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. So here are 4 sets of diagrams I created (I am a visual person) that compare and contrast these two perceptions. These are overly simplified and cannot represent the entirety of all the perceptions of truth. I just feel these two are rather predominant in today’s modern/postmodern world. Here are the four sets:
A linear example. The perception is that our personal truths and beliefs line up closely with God’s. Everyone else falls within the spectrum of orthodoxy and heresy, depending how far they veer from the truth as we perceive it to be.
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This perception says that all Christian understandings of God are on the same plain and all share correct and incorrect belief about God. Each belief is different, but each still shares truth one degree or another. Here, orthodoxy and heresy are shared by all.
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An elliptical example. Basically the same as the previous, just not a linear model.
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Here, God’s truth is perceived as very big and incomprehensible for humans. All of our Christian understanding is but on the very edges of God’s truth, just scratching the surface. Here again, we all share correct belief and error to varying degrees.
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An organic example. We perceive God’s truth (tree) and our truth/belief as basically the same; they’re different colors, but the same type of tree and overlap. Everyone else’s truth/belief, though they are still trees, are not quite in line with God’s truth. Our tree is truth.
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Here, the perception is we are all apart of the same tree and all represent God’s truth to one degree or another. We are simply different branches of the same tree, not different trees. Each branch is different but are still maintained by, and can in relationship with each other because of, a shared trunk.
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A window example. We all have our particular windows from which we see God. Here, the perception is that God’s truth exists through one window, the one we see God through. Again, the further from our “orthodox” window others view things, the closer they approach heresy.
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Here, the perception is that God’s truth is all encompassing and that each window views a narrow aspect of it. That the view from all the windows combined present a clearer, though not absolute, picture of God’s truth. The whole is indeed greater than the parts.
These sets of diagrams really help me understand the differences in modern and postmodern thought about truth. It helps me understand why a person who views truth through the first perception does not understand someone viewing truth through the second perception, and visa-versa. It helps me see that these two differing perceptions makes communication about truth/God very difficult at times when one person adheres to one perception and one person, another. So these help me. I hope they also help you.
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March 27, 2008 at 10:15 pm
mizpah31
Well, Jeromy, this is an interesting subject and your diagrams are very pretty though, while they help you understand what you want to say, I’m afraid I don’t follow them. I would, if I were to choose, go with your perception two to some extent. The biggest problem, as I see it, in understanding God’s truth is RELIGION. Much of the doctrine in the Religions today go back to the old pagan religion that was initiated at The Tower of Babel 2300 years or so before Jesus’ birth. In about 400AD Christianity was made the state religion and all the pagans who came into the “Christian Church” brought their old pagan practices with them. The church ‘christianized’ them and that’s a whole other story but as evidence we have the Resurrection of our Lord being celebrated with a holiday named after the old pagan “Feast of Istar”. We call it Easter and it’s celebrated according to the old pagan callender instead of being celebrated in conjunction with the Jewish Passover the way it happened in the accounts in the Bible. There’s much much more of this old pagan religion in the doctrines of so called Christian religions but add to that the doctrines that men injected like ’salvation comes through infant baptism’. And there are many more of those types of doctrines that pervert God’s truth. Then they added some real Christian truth from the Bible and presto a religion. So here you have it: a varying degree of the old pagan plus some man made doctrine and a varying degree of God’s truth and how in the world are you going to figure out what God’s truth really is. And how tolerant do you think God will be of those who teach these errors to others, telling them that their way is the way to get to Heaven or of those who sit in the pews and believe them? So perhaps you can begin to see that the answer is not found in religion. Does this mean that there’s no way to understand God’s truth? Of course not. God’s truth is found in Christianity. Christianity is NOT a religion. Put another way, religion is man trying to please and appease God with doctrines and creeds and ceremonies. Christianity is God reaching out to men with the offer of a relationship with Himself through His Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ. Now this is where the truth begins, in repenting of our sin, asking God to forgive us for Jesus’ sake and surrendering our lives to Jesus, asking Him to be the Lord and Savior of our lives. Now you can begin to understand what the Holy Scriptures mean because now you’re a spiritual being, having been born again by The Precious Blood of Jesus. The Bible is God’s love letter to His children and until you’re born again you can’t really understand because you’re reading someone elses mail. Oh, you might be able to understand that you’re a sinner from reading the Bible before you surrender to Christ but that’s because God’s Holy Spirit is helping you. So unless you’re Born Again you’re pretty much wasting your time tryng to figure out God’s truth. When that Love Letter is yours His Holy Spirit will fill you as full of God’s truth as you can take. He’s still filling me after over 30 years. Well, Jeromy, that’s what I think. Mizpah31
March 28, 2008 at 5:29 am
The Circle of Truth « Paris Point
[...] check out the others at Jeromy’s site. He created them. I love it when I find other visual thinkers. I think we are a rare [...]
March 28, 2008 at 5:41 am
Robaigh
Wow. That’s cool. Maybe I’m more of a visual learner than I thought. Thanks for this.
March 28, 2008 at 5:46 am
abmo
Hi,
In my very, very, very humble opinion, God’s Truth is Person called Jesus
But then again, it is only my opinion. It’s all relative you know
March 28, 2008 at 5:58 am
Tracy Simmons
Jeromy, I’m afraid you have too much free time on your hands. I think you need something to do, so you are welcome to come to our home. Rich and I can find plenty to keep you busy. In fact, I just thought of the perfect job for you: A living scarecrow to keep the deer away from my plants. We had 22 deer in our yard/field last night, so this would be a very helpful thing you could do! You just need to stand out in my yard and flap your arms once in awhile when the deer get too close.
Seriously, though, I am a very visual person as well, so I loved all these illustrations, the last one especially. I think we are so arrogant when we think we have the corner on truth. I’ll have to point people to these illustrations next time I’m in a dialogue with someone that thinks their theology is 100% perfect.
We really do all see so dimly, don’t we?
March 28, 2008 at 7:21 am
Jennifer Johnson
LOL! Tracy, you cracked me up with your comment! I just had to post. This is Jeromy’s wife, and I totally agree with you! He has WAY too much time on his hands! When he showed me those graphs…well, lets just say he spent the better part of these last two days making those and I wouldn’t expect another long post from him in a while.
March 28, 2008 at 7:42 am
Jeromy
~To All~ Thanks for swinging by and commenting. About Jesus: Indeed, he and the other two persons of God are truth. About relative truth: Truth is not relative, but ultimately it is God’s domain only. About visual learning: Bring it…we’ve been neglected in school for far too long. About Born Again: that is one Christian understanding of God’s truth. About “truth” arrogance: The unfortunate fruit of scientific thinking and the Enlightenment. About free time: anyone hiring in the Sacramento area? or, does anyone need graphic design work done? About deer: Pay for the plane ticket and I’m there.
March 28, 2008 at 11:05 am
Tracy Simmons
Jennifer, I do hope he’s doing all the housework during his free time. Dishes, cooking, cleaning, you know?
March 28, 2008 at 11:33 am
Jeromy
Tracy. You’re a trouble maker!
March 28, 2008 at 11:39 am
Jennifer Johnson
Tracy, He’s not been doing enough, that’s for sure! But I’ll give him some slack since he did just bath the dog and clean up the backyard. I’ll put him back to work tomorrow! Hmmmm….laundry, cleaning out the garage, setting up the baby’s room- so much to be done, so little time-oh wait! So much to be done, so much extra time! Get ready, Babe. Here comes the list!
April 6, 2008 at 8:09 pm
mizpah31
I’d joined a group Bible study a few years ago and we played that “getting to know one another game” where the leader asks everyone to answer questions that reveal how each one feels about different things. One question he asked was,” what’s the worst thing you can think of happening to you?”
Some had concerns about health or children. One guy was worried about losing his job. As you can see I’m getting up in years so that perhaps effected my answer. I said that the worst thing I could think of was to wake some morning and find that the Lord had come and Raptured His loved ones and I had been left behind to enter the Tribulation. Jeromy doesn’t want to miss Heaven. He wants to understand what God requires of him so that doesn’t happen. I believe his time is well spent in that pursuit. In fact I can’t think of any subject more important than where I’ll spend eternity. Mizpah31
April 6, 2008 at 9:06 pm
Jeromy
Thank you for your heart, your kind words, and your wisdom. I trust you’ll see the Lord and won’t be left behind. When I follow, be sure to look for me—I’ll do the same.
April 6, 2008 at 9:15 pm
Jeromy
Mizpah—The more I let your last words sink into my heart, the more I received them. I wish I could put words to the feeling I got as I thought, “That’s it. That’s it.” You and I believe a bit differently (maybe quite differently) and we both know it. But your words shot through our belief differences to the heart of what matters: Jesus. And I sensed a peace and companionship in your words. Thank you again for taking the time and sharing that blessing.
April 26, 2008 at 8:54 am
Our Family Tree—God’s Love Found In Our Unity? « A Mending Shift
[...] tapestry, not as something to be fixed and cleaned up—or worst, burned. That each branch is part of a larger tree, not the tree itself. That we all hold truth and heresy. That we are all brothers and sisters, loved and forgiven by [...]
May 18, 2008 at 7:39 am
Kayology » The Circle of Truth
[...] check out the others at Jeromy’s site. He created them. I love it when I find other visual thinkers. I think we are a rare [...]
May 18, 2008 at 3:10 pm
Kay
Sorry about the double pingback Jeromy. I’m updating some blog posts since I moved them from Paris Point and doing so causes it. Feel free to delete the duplicates.
May 18, 2008 at 6:48 pm
Jeromy
No worries Kay.