Truth and Accuracy

Francis Schaeffer made the claim that no-one can now tuth exhaustively but we can all know truth "truely". That may seem like an awkward statement but I shall demonstrate it with the help of elementary mathematics.

Imagine two lines, PQ and PR, each 1 metre long, at right angles to each other. By the theorem of Pythagoras the length of QR is equal to the square root of 2. It has been known since antiquity that this number cannot be expressed as a fraction of two whole numbers. It can only be approximated. If someone said QR = 1.4, it would be true but someone who said QR = 1.4142 would be more accurate. Sqrt(2) can be calculated to whatever degree of accuracy one may desire but it is not a repeating decimal.

When it comes to the Bible there are many passages which contain ambiguities. For example, some of the genealogies in Kings do not agree with the corresponding genealogies in Chronicles. For those who wish to write the Bible off on account of its inaccuracies it would be instructive to heed a statement attributed to Mark Twain. I may not be quoting it perfectly but it was something along the line of: "I am not worried about the things in the Bible which I do not understand, but the things I do understand, they bother me."

And then there are sayings alleged to be in the Bible but they are not. "God helps those who help themselves" and "A fool and his money are soon parted" come to mind.

Some practices are widely believed to be Biblical but they do not have their origin there. One of these is the habit of closing our eyes when we pray. If we were to use Jesus as model we would be lifting our eyes to heaven.

After reading from a modern version of the Bible the accounts of Jesus multiplying the loaves and fishes, I concluded that blessing food is not biblical. Then I decided to read the Greek and the King James versions. There I found that Jesus both blessed (eulogeo) and gave thanks (eucharisteo) for food (see Mark 8:6-7 in Greek or King James Version).