If asked where truth begins, the answer remains divinely anchored- all roads to truth begin at God’s doorstep.
In an age characterised by relativism, ideological fragmentation, and moral ambiguity, the question “What is truth?” has not only resurfaced; it has been weaponised, politicised, and personalised. From academic institutions to social media platforms, from parliamentary debates to pulpit pronouncements, truth is no longer perceived as fixed or divine but fluid and self-authored. Yet, when stripped of the noise of culture and ego, the fundamental inquiry remains timeless: Where does truth begin? The answer, despite the human tendency to begin with the self, remains divinely anchored: All roads to truth begin at God’s doorstep.
This piece explores the centrality of God as the ontological, philosophical, psychological, moral, socio-political, and theological fountainhead of truth. It contends that without grounding truth in the divine, society is left with fragments masquerading as fullness, and opinions parading as absolutes.
I. Philosophical Foundations: Truth as Transcendent, Not Constructed.
From the pre-Socratics to the postmodernists, the nature of truth has haunted philosophical inquiry. Plato grounded truth in the realm of eternal forms, intelligible, perfect realities. Aristotle, more empirical, defined truth as the correspondence between what is said and what is. Centuries later, Immanuel Kant would distinguish between the noumenal and phenomenal, suggesting that our access to truth is filtered through categories of perception. Postmodernism, in turn, shattered the very idea of objective truth, replacing it with perspectival narratives and linguistic constructs.
Yet, the philosophical error here lies not in method, but in misplacement. Truth is not ultimately found in the cave of human reasoning but in the light of divine revelation. Truth is not man-made, it is God-given. As Augustine affirmed, “All truth is God’s truth.” In other words, human minds may discover truth, but they never author it. Truth exists independently of our awareness or consent. Its beginning is not in thought but in God.
II. Ontological Roots: God as the Ground of Being and Truth
Ontology, the study of being, raises the question: What must exist for anything else to exist? At the base of all reality must be something that is self-existent, necessary, and uncaused. The Christian tradition affirms that this is God: the great “I AM” (Exodus 3:14), the Being whose essence is existence.
If God is Being itself, then truth, which corresponds to reality, is a derivative of God’s own nature. God does not merely speak truth, He is truth (John 14:6). This is not metaphorical; it is metaphysical. To deny God is to saw off the very branch on which truth hangs. A world without God is a world without ontological grounding, an epistemic free-fall into absurdity.
Thus, any epistemology (theory of knowledge) that attempts to understand or defend truth apart from God is doomed to collapse into subjectivism or nihilism. As Cornelius Van Til rightly asserted, "The truth of God must be presupposed in order to make sense of anything."
III. Psychological Consequences: Truth and the Integrity of the Self
Psychologically, human beings are truth-seeking creatures. The conscience, memory, rational faculties, and even emotional intuitions testify to our longing for coherence and meaning. However, when truth is disconnected from its divine source, the self becomes the center of gravity, resulting in existential confusion, moral instability, and identity fragmentation.
Carl Jung noted that modern man suffers from a loss of soul, primarily because he has lost contact with transcendent truth. Without God, the self becomes both lawgiver and judge, vacillating between pride and despair. The mind, unanchored to divine reality, becomes a factory of rationalisations rather than a vessel for wisdom.
Moreover, the psychological toll of living in a truthless society manifests in increasing anxiety, relativism-induced depression, and societal distrust. When every individual becomes their own truth, communication becomes cacophony, and relationships crumble under the weight of self-deification.
IV. Moral Compass: Truth as the Foundation of Ethics
Morality is inextricably linked to truth. If there is no absolute truth, there can be no absolute good. In the absence of divine standards, ethics devolves into utilitarian pragmatism or emotive preference. This is why moral debates today, from gender identity to abortion, from corruption to justice, are less about right and wrong and more about whose truth prevails.
But moral relativism is not neutral, it is corrosive. It offers no grounds to condemn tyranny or affirm dignity. Only a truth that begins with God, whose nature is holy, just, and loving, can provide an objective moral compass.
The Decalogue was not handed down from a social contract or philosophical speculation. It descended from Sinai, etched by the finger of God. Thus, to speak of morality without divine truth is like trying to build a house without a foundation. As C.S. Lewis warned, “We make men without chests and expect from them virtue and enterprise.”
V. Socio-Political Dimensions: Truth and the Collapse of Civic Order
The erosion of truth has not only psychological and moral implications, but also political ones. Democracies, which depend on informed citizens and just laws, falter when truth is replaced by propaganda or posturing. Totalitarian regimes, from Orwellian dystopias to real-world tyrannies, understand this well: control the narrative, and you control the people.
In our current socio-political climate, the selective use of truth for ideological purposes has become the norm. Truth is no longer what is, but what advances. In such a climate, whistleblowers become enemies, and lies become currency.
Yet Scripture paints a different vision. In Isaiah 59:14, the prophet laments, “Truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.” This is not merely poetic, it is prophetic. Societies that silence divine truth will inevitably sacrifice justice, peace, and order.
What Nagaland, and the world need today is not more opinions cloaked as facts, but a courageous return to the truth of God. A politics unmoored from theological reality becomes, in the long run, predatory.
VI. Theological Core: Christ as the Truth Incarnate
The theological apex of all truth is found not in a system, but in a person, Jesus Christ. “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life,” He declared (John 14:6). This audacious claim places Christ not merely as a truth-teller or moral exemplar but as the embodiment of truth itself. In Christ, divine truth walks among us, veiled in flesh and vindicated by resurrection.
This has profound implications. First, it means truth is relational, not merely propositional. To know truth is to be in right relationship with Christ. Second, it affirms that truth is redemptive. Christ’s mission was not simply to declare truth, but to reconcile fallen humanity to the truth that sets free (John 8:32).
In Christian theology, the Holy Spirit is called the “Spirit of Truth” (John 16:13), sent to guide believers into all truth. The Church, then, is called not to invent truth but to uphold and embody it. Any church that compromises truth for cultural acceptance forfeits its prophetic vocation.
VII. Conclusion: From God’s Doorstep to the World’s Destiny
All quests for truth, be they philosophical, scientific, ethical, or existential, ultimately converge at one origin: God. To venture toward understanding while bypassing the divine is to journey without a compass, charting a course through shifting sands. Truth, in its purest and most enduring form, is not a human construction but a divine revelation. The Creator who uttered stars into existence and shaped galaxies with His word also inscribed truth into the soul of man. Thus, to know truth is not merely to reason but to reverence.
Pontius Pilate’s ancient, cynical question, “What is truth?” (John 18:38), lingers in our fragmented and relativistic age. Yet while Pilate turned away from the Truth standing before him, our generation cannot afford such dismissal. For truth is not a neutral proposition or a flexible narrative, it is a Person, a Presence, a Word made flesh. To treat truth as a tool for manipulation or a riddle for amusement is to forsake the very foundation upon which human meaning rests.
In this regard, the prophetic words of Jeremiah bear renewed relevance: “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls” (Jer. 6:16). The ancient path is not a nostalgic return to the past, but a perennial call to recognise the divine origin and final telos of all truth. Only when we return to God's doorstep will the journey of truth find its rightful beginning, and its eternal end.
Vikiho Kiba