The Living Word: Can We Determine What Is True?

Understanding isn't a closed book. It's a living word.

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I have always been confused by philosophies and religions that claim to hold the final word on knowledge and understanding. They insist that everyone else is a false prophet, or worse. Some say that all that matters on a subject was written down long ago, sealed and finished. When claims that large are made, I get suspicious.

Here is what is written in my heart: the Most High is constantly coming to know more and more about itself through creation. That ongoing discovery is the flow of eternal life. If the Creator is still learning through what it has made, how could any of us claim the last word? Understanding isn't a closed book. It's a living word.

We have also been encouraged to know ourselves through our hearts. So the question becomes: can we determine what is true?

I believe we can come closer, maybe never to a final word, but closer, by testing what we hear.

Does it hold together? A lie has no foundation. Truth doesn't contradict itself, and it doesn't need a lie to stand on. When a teaching has to bend its own logic to survive, take note.

Does it match what we observe, again and again, from every angle? One view can deceive. Truth holds up when we look from all sides, over time, and keep seeing the same thing.

What fruit does it bear? "By their fruits ye shall know them." Does it produce love, understanding and harmony, or fear, division and control?

Is it open to question? Truth doesn't fear examination. A teaching that forbids questions, or condemns every questioner, deserves the suspicion my heart already feels.

Does it ring true in the heart and still pass the other tests? The heart is a compass, not a cage. It works best alongside clear thinking and honest observation.

So yes, we can determine what is more true and what is less true, and keep refining as we grow. That isn't a weakness of faith. It's the very nature of a living creation. "In all thy getting, get understanding." The getting never ends, and neither does the life it brings.

Related in this Witness to Creation series: [Still Being Written](https://www.rockuunderstanding.online/articles/still-being-written) (#206) · [The Printer in the Womb](https://www.rockuunderstanding.online/articles/the-printer-in-the-womb) (#208).

Companion song: The Living Word (#199). Listen to the song and the audio version of this article in the Rock U song list

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By Ronnie Patterson.

Narrated with AI assistance. Voice is Ronnie's own, recreated with AI.

This article was written with AI assistance and reviewed by Ronnie Patterson.