Searching for Truth Always Requires Careful Attention

Submitted by M. Tovey (United States), Nov 3, 2009 at 13:39

This world is filled with centuries of things believed, fought for and paid for by the blood and sweat of willing and unwilling souls; some to a reward, some to naught. Many look at life as an unforgiving series of tasks to be endured, to bring forth an end not sought after, and accomplishments unfulfilled, since for many, the thought that nothing is taken away from this existence leaves an emptiness few can ponder without futility. To what end, then, does any man, woman, or child, come to if emptiness (in the vein of Nietzsche and others) is all that one can expect. Individually, and corporately, mankind does not have the natural ability to perceive life beyond the mortal bonds, and there is nothing in a spiritless natural realm that can give any reassurance that life does, in fact, have any reason to extend beyond this existence.

But, yet, there is something in the human frame of reference that does provide a sense of an extension from our mortal limitations, and it is from this mankind can make its distinction (contrary from evolutionary protestations of the other view) from the rest of the animal kingdom. We are creatures of a sort that rises above the rest of the creation, and there is only one place that that distinction is derived. We'll come back to that later.

It is your assertion that nothing in any philosophical books written by men/women can give any spiritual direction, that the writings of men are nothing more than various serial collections of thoughts that have special meaning to those by whom they were written, and to those in which like-mindedness may be perceived. Perceptions are the rule in such cases and there are found in them no absolutes (to the perceptions of many) of the truth they attempt to imbue in their writings. To the extent there is no valid evidentiary support of spiritual nuances to many of such writings, from my own history of life and the trials of trying to 'find my place' in all such things, I found this is substantially true.

Having come from and been brought up in the institutional methodology of religions found in America, all the variant forms of mainstream Christianity tried to have their way in the attempt to influence the paths my life might have taken, from decidedly Protestant beginnings coming out of a Catholic background, to the teaching of the 'universal' church of Rome, to the other separate means of indoctrination one might encounter in cults, or could find on the street corners by taking someone's handout. Along the way, there was even the invitation to attend a bar-mitzvah of the son of one my Dad's co-workers, in the Reformed venue (educational, but lacking). The only thing further lacking was any countering of Islam until very much later in my life, something I understood to be foreign and not part of the American scene as we read of the issues of niqabs and burkhas. From all of this, and/or maybe in spite of it, I felt I was a very rounded person, religiously.

That is, until I was re-introduced to the Holy Bible, and the person of Jesus Christ, in whom I was told, all things were found in His Truth. The moment I believed in faith that the historical person described to me as Jesus Christ was in fact the Person that guaranteed eternal life to me by the promises found in the Holy Bible, nothing that I found earlier in the way of internal mental processes, the unfounded reasonings of others outside of His Spirit as He ministered to me through His Holy WORD, could approach the me way He does in providing me the spiritual security my soul longed for, and the hope for eternal life with Him.

But for me, there was a sequence of events (nothing came instantly) that brought me to the final realization of my faith in Him, that eventually the only source that I could trust was in the written WORD of the Holy Bible (Proverbs 3:5); that I could not trust even my own understanding of such things unless He taught them to me through His same written WORD, ministered through His Holy Spirit (Psalm 119). Even as I listened to preachers and pastors, famous and unknown alike, only those things filtered through His Spirit settled in my mind as to the veracity and truth of whatever He desired for me to learn. It was, and is, a laborious task (for the cause of my stubborness), a process still developing after thirty plus years. What this further instilled in me was the sense that I needed Him for every discernment of Truth versus error, such as the error we are besieged with in the onslaught of Islam.

Now, it is with a certain understanding that your words – "I realize that I must be careful in this matter" – do strike a certain chord in my own search for separating Truth from that which takes liberties with truth for less than honorable reasons. Of such things we are our own worst enemies if we do not ask guidance from the Holy Spirit for His discernment, that we are to 'test the spirits,' for not all that is presented in a religious context will accrue to our benefit. Nor do associations with certain individuals or groups, as I have found over the years. During a difficult time, I sought out an association with an assembly of 'believers,' only to find they were in a self absorbed process amongst themselves that eventually resulted in a rift, then a split of diverging sensibilities, caused by veering away from a correct understanding of the Holy Bible and the Truth that was being taught from it. Essentially, they found themselves in the situation of having lost their first love (of the LORD) while paying overt attention to self induced factional issues, which eventually cost them their witness. I have sought Biblically independent associations ever since, with limited results in these difficult times.

I also understand the challenge(s) of an independent search for truth such as you described, for in my youth, I now have a remembrance of specific times where I now understand that the Holy Spirit was involved in a series of interventions in my life before I was converted and saved. That all changes with my acceptance of Jesus Christ (Yeshua HaMashiach) as my LORD and Savior, as He began the previously mentioned process of building His Truth in my life, and developing a sense of His wisdom and understanding that carries my through all adversities, physically, philosophically, and most especially, spiritually. Without Him, I cannot function except to my detriment. There is now an intensity of His affiliation in my life that rivals that of the spiritual intimacy inferred in the Song of Solomon, that as the True Church is described as the bride of the coming King, my individual part is secured in the knowledge that His payment for my redemption from the death penalty of my sins gives me a sense of peace that I had never known before Him, nor could ever know without Him. That is my home, in Him.

Following your 'enlightenment' after the recital of the verse in Hebrew song, I sense there is a similar situation in both our circumstances, the result for me in my having come to faith in Yeshua HaMashiach, for you in establishing your beliefs. For me further, there is the following verse:

Hit or'ri hit or'ri ……Ki va oreich ku mi ori……..Uri uri shir dabeiri………K'vod Adonai alayich niglah.

It takes me to the Hebrew Holy Bible where I am taught first of the trials of Job 7:4) When I lie down, I say, When shall I arise, and the night be gone?... and I am full of tossings to and fro unto the dawning of the day….then to be taught of the Spirit in Ephesians 5:14) Wherefore He says, 'awake you that sleeps, and arise from the dead, and Christ (HaMashiach) shall give you light.

He is, therefore, in my moments of searching to seek Him and His Truth, the beginning and ending of it all and my Light; and I cannot sleep nor rise, even when heart surgery had its chance to close my eyes forever, that it does not all rise and fall upon His every WORD as I read it very carefully in the Hebrew Holy Bible.

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