This essay is intended to provoke and stimulate honest and serious thinking. I know that some people may even be offended by the very question in the title of the essay. While it has never been my intention to hurt or offend anyone by anything that I say, I know that for whatever reason, there are people whose sensibilities are challenged by what they read. I, however, submit everything I write with humility and respect for the opinions and views of others, regardless of whether I agree or not with their perspectives.
So we ask the question, is there truth beyond the confines of that book which we call the Bible? Like with the questions of previous essays, we are dealing with complex issues. There are no "black or white" answers, but rather answers that some of us may offer, which in turn, will lead to more questions. In that spirit, I offer the following for your consideration and dialogue:
1. I think that the attempt to answer this question would include the question "What is truth" or "What do we mean by truth?" For many of us, "truth" is whatever we believe to be reflective of the objective reality of life, i.e. something that cannot be doubted, refuted, or even questioned. In other words, truth is whatever we believe to be the final answer to all questions, "end of story," and away with "razzle dazzle." For many people, to even begin to question whatever is considered the absolute truth, is to commit blasphemy or to be inspired by some demonic entity. For them, truth is truth, and as we Spanish-speaking people say "se acabo (it is finished)."
2. From a faith standpoint, I think that a more appropriate and relevant question would be "Who is the truth?" Relative to this discussion, truth then would be (at least in the Judaeo-Christian-Islamic tradition), the person of God or God as an entity as the embodiment of truth.
3. To believe or state that there is no truth outside the Bible poses the following problems:
a. Those who subscribe to this position fail to take into consideration that God, who is truth, existed eternally long before the Bible was written. Without realizing it, they are in essence, saying that truth came into existence when the Bible was written and completed. That would mean, then, that there was no truth prior to the written record of Scripture.
b. To subscribe to this position is to" box" God in to a book which was written by fallible and imperfect human beings. In saying this, I am not overlooking the element of the divine inspiration of the Bible, but rather affirming that the truths of the Bible come to us filtered and mediated through the agency of frail, sinful, and weak human beings.
c. To say that truth does not exist aside from the Bible is to tamper with the biblical doctrine of divine sovereignty, i.e. the notion of God doing what God wants, and how, and when, and through whomever God wants. This is like saying that if God in God's sovereignty chooses to speak to us through means other than the Bible, that it is to be rejected because the Bible is considered to be "the only source of truth."
d. To say that truth is limited to the Bible is, in essence, to say that the people who lived long before the Bible was written had no truth. This is, in a sense, a continuation of point "a" above. That means that these civilizations and peoples lived in utter darkness.
e. If we hold on to point "d," above that would mean that the people who lived long before the Bible was written can not be held accountable for not living according to the "truth." Some might respond that they had "nature" as a source of truth, but nature could never in and of itself, provide the foundation for a systematic or even half-baked organized body of teachings that would enable people to live responsibly with both God and their neighbor.
f. To affirm that there is no truth aside from Scripture is reflective of religious imperialism, i.e. words the arrogant notion that only those communities of faith (Jewish and Christian) who subscribe to the Bible as a rule of faith, are somehow under the provisions of God's liberating and redemptive activities in the world. That would mean that the Africans, Asians, and others who lived before the Bible was written were confined to eternal condemnation through no fault of their own. That position, in, and of itself, contradicts what we find in many portions of Scripture, i.e. that God is the God of all who seek for God and live according to God's revelation of Godself. The story of Cornelius and Peter in Acts 10, and other portions of Scripture attest to this fact.
I now invite you the reader, to respond to this, and to engage with us. It should be a very interesting topic of discussion. Tell us where you stand on this issue and why. Your contributions will be greatly appreciated by all of us.
Grace and peace,
Dr. Juan A. Ayala-Carmona
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