Throughout history, one of the most elusive questions of mankind has been whether absolute truth can be known. On the day of His crucifixion, Jesus testified before the Roman governor, Pilate. The apostle John recorded that Jesus said He had the attention of everyone who knows the truth. Pilate replied, “What is truth?” Two thousand years later, the world is still asking that same question.
A 2025 report by the Cultural Research Center of Arizona Christian University found the 66% of American adults “reject or doubt the existence of absolute moral truth.” In a 2025 survey by Pew Research Center asking whether moral rules are absolute or depend on the situation, 55% said moral judgments often depend on the situation (i.e. are not absolute), while only 44% said there are clear absolute standards.
A recent article by Mike Turner, pastor of First Baptist Church of Stamps, Arkansas, provides the following interesting insight into the question of absolute truth:
Abraham Lincoln once used a very clever ploy to teach some people about truth. They had come to him with a decision that was based on suppositions rather than truth. After hearing their logic, Lincoln asked, “How many legs would a sheep have if you called its tail a leg?” They quickly answered, “Five!” The president then replied, “No, it would have only four legs. Calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it one.”
If you don’t believe in absolute truth, then you might say, “To me, rocks are soft; water is dry; and grass is orange.” But just because you may believe it with all your heart, it does not make it so! Truth is something that is always true!
Many people struggle with truth today. Just because a man calls himself a woman doesn’t make it so; he is still a male. Just because a mother says an unborn child is an unnecessary blob of tissues doesn’t make it so; it is still her baby. Just because two homosexuals called themselves “married” doesn’t make it so; it is still a sinful union. Just because an illegal alien calls himself a citizen doesn’t make it so; he is still a criminal trespasser. And just because a cultist calls himself a “Christian” doesn’t make it so; he is still a perverter of the gospel.
Jesus had earlier answered Pilate’s question about truth. When praying to God for His disciples, He proclaimed, “Thy Word is truth.” (John 17:17). Whatever God has declared in His Word is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. It is about time we stopped counting tails as legs and started believing the Word of God!