“Qui est veritas?”
These were Pilate’s words in response to Jesus statement in John 18:37-38, “… I came into the world to testify to the truth. All who love the truth recognize that what I say is true.”
“What is truth?”
My daughter graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree last year. The university is now ranked among the greatest schools of higher learning in the nation. Referred to as the “Harvard” or “Yale” of the South, well over 90 percent of its graduates acquire the job or graduate school of their first choice. The music school is ranked in the top ten in the nation.
The university began as a pastor’s training school and seminary in the early 1800’s. The motto of the institution is “Cristo et Doctrinae” which is translated, For Christ and Learning. This university, like many others in our nation, that once trained pastors and missionaries has now embraced an age of inclusiveness and tolerance. The graduation ceremony included prayers for Hindu, Buddhist and Jewish traditions, as well as readings from the Koran, Eastern thought, and a scripture about love from 1 Corinthians 13.
I am an alumnus of the same university.
What has happened at this institution is reflective of what has happened in our nation: Once “one nation under God,” we are now one nation under many gods. These opposing views battle against each other:
“We must stand intellectually against intolerance and we must embrace all religions in an age of tolerance.”
“I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
“We can find our way through our intellects that have been sharpened through our higher learning.”
“By no other name can man be saved but by the name of Jesus.”
The question today is not where the thinking of this world will lead our culture. That is evident. The true question is whether Christ-followers will hold to absolute truth in an age of relativism and tolerance.
There was one bright light on graduation weekend. It came at the Legacy Dinner, a ceremony for graduates with alumni parents. A gentleman with the alumni association prayed a simple yet penetrating prayer, one that we all should pray:
“May those who teach and those who learn find You, God, to be the source of all truth.”
To that prayer I say “Amen.”