A Test for Truth

Wednesday: 8 May, 2013 –– 6th Week in Easter

Acts 17:15, 22–18:1 / John 16:12–15

A Test for Truth

Jesus said, when he comes, the Spirit of Truth, he will guide you to all truth.... He will glorify me....

Jesus did not tell his disciples everything. Some things need time for perspective and maturity. Jesus did promise that the Holy Spirit will guide you to all truth. For almost two thousand years the Church has held onto that promise.

One way we see this is with continuity. The Church understands truth on the basis of what has been believed and taught from the beginning. The Church, being led by the Holy Spirit, is not free to take doctrine or practice in a direction that is counter to what the Church has always believed and taught.

Yet there is guiding –– a growing –– into “fuller” truth. This is the idea of “development of doctrine” so clearly delineated by John Henry Newman. An acorn holds within it an oak tree, but oak trees inherently show the connection by bearing the fruit of more acorns.

What is a test for claiming further “truth” from the Holy Spirit? One is continuity.

There is another: truth originating in the Holy Spirit will honor Jesus Christ. Christian truth will never diminish the person and the work of Jesus Christ. Any teaching that does not give Jesus the honor of the full Incarnation cannot come from the Holy Spirit. Any teaching that discounts the saving death and literal resurrection of Jesus Christ cannot come from the Holy Spirit.

Listen to the voices clamoring for our attention today. If they are not consistent with the historical teachings of the Church, and if they do not give distinctive honor to Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, they cannot come from the Holy Spirit.

Jesus said, when he comes, the Spirit of Truth, he will guide you to all truth.... He will glorify me....