What is Truth?
JOHN 18:33-38
33 Then Pilate entered into the judgment hall again, and called Jesus, and said unto him, Art thou the King of the Jews?
34 Jesus answered him, Sayest thou this thing of thyself, or did others tell it thee of me?
35 Pilate answered, Am I a Jew? Thine own nation and the chief priests have delivered thee unto me: what hast thou done?
36 Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.
37 Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice. (That is always the qualifying difference – “My sheep hear my voice” the evidence is those who can receive the voice of God which is his word for their age, it has always been that in every age and especially in this age. “In the days of the voice of the seventh angel” – if you are of the truth, then you will receive the truth)
38 Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find in him no fault at all.
We know that the natural lamb had to be inspected for any faults before it could be sacrificed for the sins of the people, and we also know that the Lamb of God had to be inspected for any faults also. S we see here that Pilate who was the supreme judge over all of Judea inspecting Jesus for faults, and could find no fault in him at all, yet he condemned him to death when he had the power to set him free.
Notice – the Judge of all the earth being judged himself by his own creation – what a paradox.
JOHN 8:31-32
31 ¶ Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;
32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
The characteristic of truth is that it sets a person free – but the characteristic of a lie is that it brings imprisonment – that is what this age has become, it has become imprisoned by lies because it has rejected Christ the only absolute of truth. So nobody really knows what the truth is about anything anymore – fake news, fake this, fake that, conspiracy this and conspiracy that – like Pilate asks this question “what is truth”.
What is Truth?
This is actually a very good question that we want to look at especially in this age where people hardly know what real truth is anymore.
I was blessed with this quote that was sent through to my wife that tied in with our study on “Touch not My Anointed”, because there is no denying that we have been anointed by the eagle anointing of this age by a prophet’s message, and that is not a small thing – so we have to be careful how we treat one another as fellow believers just like king David was careful how he treated backslidden Saul.
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E-23 One man one time by the name of David, who could've killed his enemy; God led him right up to the enemy, and the man that was searching for his life, and his--even his general said, "God has delivered him into your hands; take his life." And he cut the piece off of his coat, went back up, he said, "God forbid that I touch His anointed." That's right.
So don't--don't say nothing evil about Christians. Don't try to harm Christians, 'cause you'll reap what you sow every time. "Touch not My anointed; do My prophets no harm. For it was far better for you that your--that you'd have millstone tied at your neck and drowned in the depths of the sea, than to offend My anointed." Is that right?
So don't say nothing about Christians. Maybe some of them don't live just right, or do just right, but that--that's God's child. Let--let the Father take care of His own kiddies. You know? If we go to fighting one another, God give us both a whipping, maybe. So let's--let's just leave the other fellow alone and pray for him. Try to love him and correct him and maybe God will help him.
That is very good advice for all of us to take head of.
So let’s look at this question of what Pilate asked – and if we notice that he didn’t wait for an answer from the Lord.
When you ask the Lord something, then you should wait for the answer.
Pilate’s full name was Marcus Pontius Pilatus.
According to the traditional account of his life, he was a Roman equestrian (knight) of the Samnite clan of the Pontii (hence his name Pontius). He was appointed prefect (or governor) of Judaea, and served this position for 10 years from 26 A.D to 36 A.D.
As a Roman prefect, Pilate was granted the power of a supreme judge which meant that he had the sole authority to order a criminal’s execution.
We know that as the religious leaders of that day rejected the message of Christ and crucified the word for that day, and we also know that the religious leaders of all the denominational churches of this day have again rejected the truth of the word that has been restored to us by the end time vindicated prophet that God has sent to us of which he had promised right back in Malachi chapter 4: (400 years before Jesus walked the earth).
And so because the leaders of the people rejected the true interpretation of the word of God by a God sent prophet, we know that they will be held accountable for their people that they have influenced and have refused to allow the truth of the word to get to them – they had kept their people in prison.
**Remember that this was the spirit that brought on the dark ages of when the church leaders kept their people in darkness by withholding the truth of the word from the people for their own selfish gain. And so again these ones who have rejected the truth of the word of this day have also led their people into a dark age again of this Laodicean age of which we know has now gone into complete darkness.
Darkness is spiritual ignorance of the word of God of the light for the day that you live in. They are ever learning but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
JOHN 17:11-17
11 ¶ And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are. (Oneness is to do with being in agreement with God concerning His word)
12 While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.
13 And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.
14 I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. (When you receive the word that God gives you for your age – then you will not be popular with the people of the world that are at enmity with God because of their ignorance of the revelation of God)
15 I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.
16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world (“world” = kosmos (Greek), which means the arrangement and the order of worldly affairs).
17 ¶ Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
JOHN 8:31-32 opening scripture…
31 ¶ Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;
32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
What is truth? Truth is the absolute of God’s word made clear to you in the spirit of your mind by the Holy Spirit – the word of God becomes a faith in you, then that is truth – “thy word is truth” – The word of God becomes spirit and life in you.
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73 You know, there was a time that when table manners rested upon what a woman said. I believe her name was Emily Post. I may be wrong on that. I think that's right, Emily Post. I don't care if Emily Post said, "Pick up your knife and eat the--the beans with it," that was manners. Why? She was the absolute of table manners. That's right. If she said, "Eat them with your hands," you eat them with your hands. Why? This nation made her the absolute, to table manners. Yes, sir.
74 There was a time when Germany had a--an absolute, and that was Hitler. It was an absolute. I don't care what anybody else said, when Hitler said, "do it," you do it. You'd better. He's the last word. Hitler was.
75 There was a time when Rome had an absolute, and that was Mussolini, the dictator. A man drove up one minute early for him, he shot him in his car and jerked him out, said, "I never said a minute early, I said be here on time." An absolute! Whatever he said, they had to do it. It had to turn. He said he would make the whole world turn by his word. It turns by the Word of God!
76 There was a time when Egypt had an absolute. It was Pharaoh. I went down to Egypt one time, just to see those places. And you have to dig down twenty feet to find the thrones that they set on, the emperor of Rome; when I was in Rome and down in Egypt.
77 See, it all turned back to historical dust, because it was the wrong kind of absolute. That's right. It's wrong. It failed. It was man-made absolutes. And every man-made absolute and every man-made achievement must go to dust. They must go to dust. It's the wrong kind, so it fails.
78 Just think of our nation. When we get in trouble, if somebody does something, and they try it here in maybe in a--a small court of the city, some police court, then it goes on, on, and finally it comes to the Supreme Court. Now, the Supreme Court is the nation's absolute. That settles it. Now, in Canada, our friends from Canada can go, from Canada, to the Queen. But in the United States, it's the Supreme Court. That's the absolute. Sometimes we don't like their decisions, but we have to listen to it anyhow. Yes, sir. We don't agree with it, we don't like the decision sometime, but it's the absolute of this nation. The nation is tied to it. It's the end of all arguments. When that Supreme Court says, "You're guilty," you are guilty. We have to have it; we don't, we don't have a nation. What if we didn't have anything like that? Certainly. There is an absolute to everything.
79 There is an absolute in a ball game. That's the umpire. Right. And if he says, "It's a strike," that's what it is. Don't care what you say, what I think, way I saw it, the way you saw it. It's what he said. It's an absolute. If he says, "Strike," you have to agree with it, 'cause that's the way it's going to be wrote up, "strike." What if there was no umpire, now who would be right? One said, "it was a strike," the another one said, "it was not no strike; it was a ball, it was a..." Why, you'd have chaos. You wouldn't know what to do.
80 There's got to be somewhere that somebody's word is final. Amen. I feel real good right now. Glory! Hallelujah! There's got to be something that's final. I'm so glad of that. Oh, now, there's somebody who can say, "It's sin," or, "It's not sin." I'm so glad of that. I'm glad for an absolute. No arguing, no need of arguing. The umpire said, "strike," that's what it is; mark it up in your mind, "it's a strike," and go on. When God says anything, that's the way it is! No need of arguing about it. That's what it is. He said so. That's the Christian's absolute, that is if he is a Christian. God said, "Do it this way," that's the way it's got to be done. No arguing, "Well," say, "it wasn't." Nothing about it. God said so, that settles it! That's the absolute to the real believer. Yeah.
The last few weeks we have been studying a little into King David’s sin (we know that he had to leave the absolute of God’s word to do what he did), and I mentioned some of the deeper things brother Branham talks about in the sermon “Marriage and Divorce” preached in 1965. In that message he also talks about how that in many of the heathen ceremonies they involved prostitutes as a part of their worship because many of those ancient heathen people worshiped the woman as a fertility god as they believed that she was a creator of life.
And so we know that we are living in this time again of this same heathen worship of woman in this modern age – it is the same heathen worship that has taken over the whole world.
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174 Now to do this today, what is the god of the United States? You remember in the tabernacle years ago, I preached on that? The god of this modern day, a little flapper sitting there with make-up on, and dress pulled up over her knees, and things like that. I said, "Behold your god!" And that's right, she is on every advertisement, half naked. She is on the street, the same way.
175 It's an instrument of Satan, "from the beginning," Jesus says. See? We see that it's so now, and "from the beginning," and what He's talking about.
176 Now, the heathens used to make her a god, (did you know that?) a goddess. Sure did. They make her a goddess, for they did have sex acts in their worship. They claimed that, "She was the creator. In her womb she carried the seed and created." That's a lie. There is only one Creator, that's God. But you remember Paul there? "Diana, of Ephesus," a image of a rock, said, "the goddess of Heaven, throwed down." Don't you see how heathen worship is?
177 And we, not knowing it, turns right straight back to heathen worship again, to women, the very lowest creature on the earth, woman-worship! She will sway man any way she wants to. And not knowing, all that beauty on the outside, that hell is on the inside. Solomon said, "Her, her gates is the gates to hell."
**And so when we look at the judgements that followed king David’s life when he committed this one act of adultery with another man’s wife, and then we know of all the trouble that followed him as an individual because of just one wrong act – and we also know that he repented quickly when confronted by Nathan the prophet, but then what about the trouble that would follow a whole generation of people that have also been confronted by a God sent prophet but then they won’t repent but continue on in their sin – what sort of judgement will follow them? That is what this generation has to face now.
*So we find that what has caused the people to go into the mess and the confusion of this age is because of the rejecting of the absolute of the word of truth by the revelation of this hour and the acceptance of lies in its place.
**It was a lie that caused Eve to go into this same condition – she received some fake news and believed it, and it caused her to go into sin, and what followed that was death for the entire human race just as we saw how death also followed David’s sin of the same thing.
The people of this age have been so bombarded with fake news until nobody knows what to trust anymore.
And when a generation of people don’t trust anything, they don’t know anything. In other words, nobody can be absolutely sure of anything anymore of what they see or hear because of all the fake stuff. This is why all these conspiracies exist in the world today because we have become a generation that has learnt to doubt and to question everything.
*Did they really land on the moon?
*Is the world really round, or is that just NASA trying to fool everyone with their fake pictures of a round world? What is Truth?
In the olden days you used to be able to believe a photograph – it used to be said that pictures don’t lie. But you can’t believe in photographs now days because you’ve learnt to question as to whether they have been photo shopped or not – so much of that goes on.
**Even in the film industry - all this fantastic stuff that looks so real but we know it’s just all fake, so the human mind struggles to deal with that because it is design by God to believe what it sees, but now we know that often we can’t believe things anymore even if we see it with our physical eyes.
So we have had to learn in this age not to trust anything of what we think is true and what we think is false, we can’t really be sure anymore – in other words, if we were to sum up the number one question that that is plaguing this age, then that question would have to be, “What is Truth”.
JOHN 18:37-38
37 Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.
38 Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find in him no fault at all.
Truth Himself was standing before Pilate, but he couldn’t believe it.
We are living at a time when the world has judged Christ again in his word form in this age, and they have crucified him afresh again by crucifying the effects of the truth to the people by the fake news of their creeds and dogma’s of a bygone age. And so at this crucifixion time we are again asking this same question that Pontius Pilate asked at the first crucifixion of the Jesus – “What is Truth?”
II THESSALONIANS 2:3-12
3 ¶ Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
5 Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?
6 And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.
7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.
8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
We have been so privileged in this day to know the truth of the absolute of the word that God has sent to his little bride of this end time age.
JOHN 17:14-17
14 I have given them thy word (He hath given you his word of truth in this hour – do we really understand what a great privilege that that is of his grace toward us); and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
15 I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. (The evil of unbelief of the word)
16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
17 ¶ Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.