On Truth and Falsity

        In Defense of the Dogmatists continued

When Plato wrote his Republic, he attempted to devise a systematic theory as to how a society should be governed for the benefit of each individual. He thought that his society should be governed by thinkers whom he called "philosopher kings" who would constantly think of new systems they could employ to benefit their fellow citizens. History has shown that some of Plato's political ideas have been beneficial to humanity, whereas others have proven themselves to be useless and have been, or should be, usefully discarded. Plato's idea that humans should practice communism has proven to be detrimental to human well being, and yet, stubborn humans will often cling to useless systems that should be usefully discarded out of sheer pride. Plato also held a theory that perfect Ideas existed, and that all that existed in the world were imperfect copies of those Ideas. If Democritus' atoms could be discovered to be real, then someday Plato's Ideas could also be discovered to be real.

A minister of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ preaches the gospel because he knows that those who hear it will be brought under the conviction of the Holy Spirit that they are lost sinners in need of a Savior who can rescue them from their lost condition. He knows that some of these hearers may repent of their sins and put their faith in Christ to save them from condemnation to the regions of death when they die. He also knows that when sinners repent and believe, then the Holy Spirit will enter into their inner beings and cleanse them of all their sins and evil, and He will recreate them to be much better persons than they were before. In other words, the preacher knows that the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ can be of great benefit to humans. Romans 10:17; Romans 10:9-13; II Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 5:22-26.

Even so, a great controversy exists between thinkers as to whether or not God even exists or whether Jesus was ever even on the earth. These are the systems of opinion to which humans apply a search for the truth, just as they searched for Democritus' atoms. God does not desire a proof of His existence. He desires that humans have faith in Him. Hebrews 11:6. Yet, even modern science has discovered a lot of good evidence that God exists. Those who disbelieve in God hold the opinion that the conversion that causes believers to become better humans happens only because of a psychological change of mind. Nevertheless, in either case, the truth exists that humans become better persons through genuine repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

As a general and universal rule, three forms of truth and falsity exist. Systems of truth exist because they have been proven to be useful for the benefit of humanity. If these systems are certainly true, then all of the sense objects and thought objects that compose these true systems must also be certainly true and real. Systems of falsity exist, which though always composed of true sense objects and thought objects, have proven to be useless and can be, or ought to be, usefully discarded by humans. Systems of opinion and theories exist which generate controversy among humans as they search for whether or not any truth and reality exists within any of these opinions or theories. The dogmatists search for truth and reality that will benefit humanity. The skeptics have abandoned any hope of ever being able to discover the difference between truth and falsity.

On Truth and Falsity

                    In Defense of the Dogmatists

The skeptics assert that sense objects and thought objects can never be proven to be true and real. Yet, they admit that truth and reality may really exist. But then they avow that any test that could prove that sense objects and thought objects can be true and real always proves to be an impossible test, such as their infinity test. pb. OP p. 89. This means that they actually claim that no difference between the certainty of reality and the deception of illusion can ever be discerned by humans. But in a subtle way, they introduce the idea into human minds that since truth and reality can never be discovered to be certain, then everything could, in truth, be false and meaningless. In other words, the meaninglessness of life can be certain, but truth and reality can never be certain. If truth and reality, which are meaningful, can never be discovered to be certain, then the only alternative is the illusion called meaninglessness. This means that even the feelings and ideas of love and compassion can be doubted to be real. Doubt and confusion are the real aims of the skeptics. Humans always think of illusion as being false and useless, and they think of sense objects and thought objects as being true and useful. The philosophy of the skeptics deliberately confuses these two views of life for the purpose of introducing the idea of meaninglessness into human life in order to cause humans to give up the idea that the certainty of truth and reality can ever be discovered.

Yet these hypocritical skeptics, who claim that they have suspended all judgment as to what is real and not real, happen to be perfectly content to live in a peaceful and harmonious society made possible by laws, all of which happens to be combinations of useful systems constructed by the use of sense objects and thought objects in human minds. pb. OP p. 20-21. The skeptics claim that they attain quietude because they suspend judgment as to what is real and not real, when in actuality, they attain quietude and tranquility because they conform their lives to the peaceful and harmonious societies in which they live, made possible by useful systems of sense objects and thought objects. pb. OP p. 25. They seem to be quite certain that they have obtained quietude. As a universal rule, illusions prove to be useless except in certain special circumstances, and sense objects and thought objects prove to be useful to construct beneficial systems that makes the lives of humans better. This condition can only mean that sense objects and thought objects must certainly be true and real whereas illusions must usually be useless and unreal.

The skeptics ridicule the dogmatists whom they call "conceited braggarts." pb. OP p. 34. But the skeptics consider humans to be not much better than animals. The skeptics compare humans to dogs who just accept their lives the way they are, and they suggest that humans should do the same. The skeptics assume that dogs and humans live on the same level because both can have the same virtues, such as courage. pb. OP p. 34-35. But what the skeptics miss is that dogs and animals never think about ways to make the lives of their fellow animals better. The dogmatists so exactly that.

The ancient Greek philosopher, Democritus, by his use of logic and reason, deduced that atoms had to exist. At that time, atoms were nonevident. The skeptics contended that since no one can ever be certain about the reality or unreality of appearances, then the use of logic to deduce the existence of nonevident things, such as atoms, was a waste of time. pb. OP p. 19-20. But Democritus, and all the dogmatic philosophers of that time, were thinkers who tried to use logic and reason to construct systems of ideas that might improve the knowledge of humans which, in turn, would improve the wisdom of humans which would also improve the quality of human life and society. In general, the ancient Greeks were thinkers who invented original systems of law and governance which made civilized societies much better places to live than that of the brutal lives of the barbarians. The skeptics thought that no one could discern any difference in the lives of the barbarians and the lives of civilized people. But Democritus had the last laugh on the skeptics because the scientific age took up his quest and discovered that atoms do exist. The fact that Democritus had a lot of wrong ideas about atoms makes no difference. Democritus tried to use his logic and reason to invent a system of knowledge that might improve the wisdom of humans and thus better their lives. In view of that attempt, Democritus did a fantastic job.

Modern science has adopted a system to discover truth similar is some ways to that of the Greek thinkers. A scientist can use the facts he already knows and combine them with a system of ideas in his own mind and invent a theory about unknown truth that might be discovered. Other scientists then do experiments to discover the truth or falsity of that theory. Some Greek thinkers observed nature and devised theories, but they did not do experiments. Albert Einstein used the facts he already knew combined with reason and logic and thought experiments to devise both of his theories of relativity. Later, experiments were done that proved his theories to be true. His theories proved to be of great value to mankind. Other scientists devised a theory that light had to be propagated through space through a medium that they called aether. When later experiments proved that aether does not exist, the word "aether" became equal to the idea of nothing. As a general rule, truth and reality can always be separated from falsity and unreality because systems of truth always prove to be useful to the benefit of humanity whereas falsity and unreality always prove to be useless and should be usefully discarded. The skeptics bogged their minds down in the idea that truth and reality can never be separated from falsity and unreality.

On Truth and Falsity

                                Experience and Reality

The skeptics are those philosophers who claim that they have suspended all judgment as to whether anything that can be experienced is true or false. They contend that because experiences can contradict each other, then no way can be found to discover what is true and real. They contend that contradictory experiences cannot be the same as reality because reality would contain no contradictions. They assert that all humans can have only sense experiences and thought experiences that, because of their contradictory natures, cannot be the same as reality. They posit that if reality exists, it must be something that lies hidden behind appearances, and they claim that they hope that this reality can be discovered, but they also know that humans have no possible way to discover this hidden reality, and so they actually claim that there can be no such thing as reality. The skeptics castigate the philosophers they call the dogmatists because the dogmatists engage in  the useless attempt to speculate on how humans can find ways to separate truth from falsity, and thereby find a deeper reality. paperback Outlines of Pyrrhonism. Yet, even though they reject dogmatism, they insist on their own dogmatic assertion that in order to be a real skeptic, one must adopt their ideas that they consider to be absolutely true that all judgments about what is real and not real must be suspended. OP p. 63.

But what if all sense objects and all thought objects were real just as they are experienced. The empiricists claim that humans can learn nothing except through experience. The empiricists must be right because no one can know anything until one has experienced it. But that truth can only mean that all sense objects and all thought objects must be real because they all have made impressions on the mind, and therefore, they all have been experienced. Turn at random to any page in the dictionary and read it, and one will find that every word on that page, and in the entire dictionary, has a meaning. Since every word has a meaning, then every word has made a necessary impression on the mind, and therefore, every word has been experienced. One can learn something from every word in the dictionary. Even nonsense words have a meaning. They mean nothing. This fact reveals that although nothing has never been experienced to the mind as a sense object, it nevertheless has a useful purpose in that it indicates to the mind the difference between something and nothing. The basic reality of the mind is that it has the ability to distinguish the real experience of something from the real experience of nothing. That ability cannot be doubted. The usefulness of the real idea of nothing allows the mind to realize that nonsense words mean nothing. They are equal to nothing. But in its recognition that nonsense words mean nothing, the mind provides a meaning to nonsense words. They mean nothing. This recognition makes the idea of nothing useful to the mind, and therefore, real. Whatever is not real cannot be useful. Illusions are always useless except in certain special ways. Minds have never experienced nothing as a sense object. Minds cannot directly see nothing, but minds can see something through nothing; that is, through space to something. The idea of nothing has a useful purpose to the mind which means the idea has made an impression on the mind which, in turn, means the idea of nothing has to be a real experience in the mind. And yet, the idea of nothing happens to be only a thought object to the mind. Since the idea of nothing can be real to the mind, then all somethings, whether sense objects or thought objects, must also be real to the mind.

God created man in His image. Genesis 1:27. God created humans to have an intelligent consciousness like He has. The difference happens to be that God has an Infinite Intelligent Consciousness whereas humans have a limited intelligent consciousness. God perfectly calibrated the intelligent consciousness of humans to recognize that the entire quallia of human sense experiences and thought experiences happens to be appearances that are real to the mind exactly as they appear to the mind. This reality can be proven by the fact that every sense object and every thought object happens to be useful to the mind in that they can be put into words that can be arranged into meaningful sentences and useful systems that have the effect of being beneficial to the knowledge, health, and well being of humans. Truth obtains in practical systems that benefit humanity. False words and systems always mean nothing and can therefore be usefully discarded by intelligent minds. Genesis 1:31; Psalm 19:1-14; Romans 1:19-23.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                  Chapter Twenty One

                                                                                                                                               Verses 24-25

John affirmed that he wrote the gospel of John. John wrote it to tell the truth about Jesus' life and His mission to the earth. John wrote that Jesus did many more miracles and preached many more sermons than John could write about. John wrote that Jesus did so much that the world could not contain all of the books that could be written about Jesus. But it could be possible that if a very meticulous chronicler had followed Jesus and wrote about every miracle that He did and everything that He said, then that chronicler could have written many books about the entire ministry of Jesus on the earth. But what the Holy Spirit caused John to mean was that in all that Jesus said and did, especially in His death, burial, and resurrection, He proved that He is the Living Word of God with an infinite and eternal meaning that even enough books to fill the world could not explain.

If one believes in the Almighty Power of God over all sin, evil, and the Devil, and if one believes that the Almighty Love of God cannot fail, then one can believe that Jesus came to earth to purge His entire creation, including all living humans, of all sin, evil, and the Devil in order to recover and recreate His entire creation that He loves. Ecclesiastes 3:14; Psalm 111:7-8; I Corinthians 13:8; Genesis 3:20-21; Genesis 8:20-21; Luke 20:38; Luke 3:6; John 1:29; John 12:31-32; John 12:47; Romans 8:18-23; Colossians 1:15-23; Hebrews 2:9-15; Matthew 28:18; Revelation 1:17-18; John 11:25-26; John 5:28-29; I John 3:8; I Timothy 4:10; II Timothy 4:1; Romans 11:29; Romans 11:36; Revelation 21:1-5. These scriptures, and many others, attest to the fact that God is eternal and that everything He creates is also eternal. Genesis 3:20-21; Luke 20:38; Ecclesiastes 3:14. God will annul the spiritual deaths of all living humans whom He saves by His grace. John 5:24. God will also use His fiery wrath against evil to dissolve the systems of every living human confined to the regions of death in order to melt their systems to separate His living image in every one of them from their spiritual deaths so that He can recreate His living image in them and consign their spiritual deaths to the eternal lake of fire. I Corinthians 3:11-15; Psalm 75:3; II Peter 3:9-13; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 20:11-15; Revelation 21:1-5. God will make this separation possible because He will cause all living humans confined to the regions of death to repent and return to faith in Christ that He put into them when He created them. Genesis 1:27; Genesis 1:31; Revelation 5:11-14; Philippians 2:9-11. The entire Word of God and the history of the human race attests to the fact that God always brings good out of evil, but no verse in the Word of God relates that if any human fails to repent and believe in Christ until that person's physical death, then that living human will be lost from God's Almighty love forever. In fact, John 11:25-26 refutes that very doctrine.

In John 11:25, Jesus taught that He is the One who will raise the dead back to life. He clearly taught that those living humans who happen to be physically dead who believe in Him, He will raise back to life. In John 11:26, Jesus taught that all who believe in Him while still alive in the flesh, He will save by His grace, and He will give them His eternal life. Jesus had to have meant physical death in verse 25 and physical life in verse 26 because He made a direct contrast between these two concepts

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                   Chapter Twenty One

                                                                                                                                              Verses 15-17

Jesus asked Peter three times if he loved Him, one for every time Peter had denied Him. This grieved Peter, but he confessed three times that He loved his Lord. Jesus commanded Peter to "Feed my sheep," by which He meant that Peter should become the first pastor of His Church. Matthew 16:17-18. Peter became the first pastor of the first church in Jerusalem, but when God called him to be a missionary to feed His other sheep, James, one of the brothers of Jesus, became the pastor of the Jerusalem church. Acts 2:14; Acts 8:14; Acts 15:13. Peter eventually went to Rome to complete the ministry of Paul who had been kept in prison there. Paul and Peter were both martyred in Rome, but Peter did not become the Pope of the church in Rome.

                                                                                                                                               Verses 18-19

Jesus prophesied to Peter that he would be martyred for the glory of God, but He did not tell him exactly how he would be martyred. Tradition holds that Peter was crucified upside down in Rome.

Jesus then commanded His disciples to "Follow me." Jesus led them on a walk somewhere, but where they where going was not made clear. Perhaps, this walk had a symbolic meaning that all believers in His future Church should continuously follow Jesus wherever He should lead them.

                                                                                                                                                 Verses 20-23

As they were walking, Peter turned around and looked at John. Peter asked Jesus what He had for John to do. In effect, Jesus told Peter that His will for John would be different than His will for Peter. Jesus' instruction here has significance for His future Church. The Holy Spirit gives a personal mission to every believer in every local church. The Holy Spirit may require one believer to be baptized in water only, and He may require another to preach the gospel. The local church should work together as a team to minister the gospel to lost sinners, but those whom the Holy Spirit gives the more important jobs should never look down on those believers who have the lower jobs. God loves them all the same, and God considers them all to be equal. I Corinthians 12:1-31.

Jesus also told Peter that His will was that John "tarry til I come." Jesus did not mean that John would stay alive in the flesh until Jesus comes to Rapture His Church. John himself attested to the fact that Jesus did not say that John would not die. Jesus meant that John would be the last Apostle on the earth, and Jesus would come to John and give him His Revelation of Himself and His prophecies about the future of His Church and of the future of the entire human race. In other words, Jesus told Peter that He would come back to John to finish His written Word and His prophecies in the Apostolic Age. As a very old man, John probably died as an exiled martyr on the Isle of Patmos.

Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                    Chapter Twenty One

                                                                                                                                              Verses 14-18 continued

Some explanation of Luke 12:35-37 and Matthew 22:1-14 should be given. In Luke 12:35-37, Christ returns from His wedding to His Church and Raptures His Tribulation saints who are still alive in the flesh on the earth, and He takes them to His wedding feast. In Matthew 22:1-14, this parable must be about the Tribulation period because it starts with the wedding of a man's son to his bride which symbolizes Christ's marriage to His Church. When Christ Raptures His Church, the Holy Spirit will go out of the world with the Church. II Thessalonians 2:7. Christ will replace the Holy Spirit with 144 thousand Jewish saints who will preach His gospel, and when they are all martyred, Christ will send an angel to preach His gospel. Revelation 14:1-7. The Devil will lead the murderers of God's saints to attack Heaven, but the angel Michael will lead God's angels to defeat the Devil and force his army back to the earth. Revelation 12:7-9; Matthew 22:3. Near the end of the Tribulation period, God will cause all of the cities of the unbelievers to be burned. Revelation 18:9; Matthew 22:7.

But God will not give up on preaching His gospel. God will send His angels to preach the gospel, and they will cause some people to believe in Christ even as their cities are burning, and their world has ended. Matthew 22:8-10; Revelation 18:4. God will furnish His wedding with guests who will be killed in the Tribulation, even some who were wicked. Matthew 22:9-11.

But when Christ comes in to see the guests, He will find some who will not be clothed in a wedding garment. Christ will have them cast out of Heaven and into outer darkness which happens to be one of the regions of death. Revelation 20:13. The Tribulation saints will not have the Holy Spirit to indwell them to give them eternal life. They will have to endure the Tribulation period on intellectual faith alone. No believer saved by grace can be saved forever until they become washed in the blood of the Lamb. Matthew 26:28. God will honor the intellectual faith of the Tribulation believers by bringing them to Heaven where some of them will be washed in the blood of Christ and receive white robes to signify their eternal salvation by grace. Revelation 7:9-17. For this reason, the Tribulation saints must endure to the end in order to be saved forever. Matthew 24:12-14. God will bring the Tribulation saints to a room next to Heaven where the Holy Spirit will call them out of this room to be washed in the blood of Jesus. But some of the wicked believers who professed faith to the angels just to get out of the horrors of the Tribulation will be afraid to follow the Holy Spirit who will invite them to leave this room to be washed in Christ's blood. When Jesus comes into this room to see the guests, He will have those without a wedding garment to be cast into the bottomless pit. Matthew 22:13.