Jesus said to Pilate, "... the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth.
Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” Pilate asked Jesus, "What is truth?" - John 18:37-38 NIV
Still a good question.
Absolute truth - Do we know what it is?
If there is one absolute truth, then who or what is preventing it from being revealed and accepted by everyone?
Many have wondered about that. If God is all powerful, then why is the world in chaos? Why is God hard to identify and find in plethora of religious persuasions that many accept without question....some born to their beliefs, and others blindly accepting ritual as worship.
Some haven’t got a clue as to why the human race is suffering a life that they don’t want, and are for the most part, are prevented from enjoying by so many awful things....but the Bible explains it in detail to those who bother to venture outside “the box” they think they are trapped in. If you are in a box, in a box, in a box...(the trap of Protestantism) is there a way out of that kind of “religion”?.....which is the problem....”faith” isn’t the problem, because misplaced faith is found in large quantities even outside the multitude of boxes. Some just want to create more. What is God seeing? Exactly what he wants humans to see when their free will runs amok under the wrong influence.
If there is "absolute evidence", faith is not required.
Faith, as you wrote, is the "conviction of things not seen." Hebrews 11:1
I think we need to distinguish the difference between “evidence” and “proof”.
Many people put “faith” in science, but fail to distinguish the difference between a scientific theory and an absolute scientific fact. This is faith without religion because science then becomes a substitute. Humans are designed to worship and humans find so many things to idolize as a substitute for worship in a godless world.....celebrities....sporting heroes....wealth and fame.....expensive food and wine....and the most obvious one is the worship of self....the all consuming need to serve one’s own interests above all else. (2 Tim 3:1-5)
Is there any consensus about WHAT that truth actually is?
The Bible also tells us who is responsible for that situation....as the master of deception, satan is also the god of confusion.....give people too many choices and you leave them in a muddle. He wants people confused with a smidgen of truth in all of his options...just enough to create doubt...and isn’t that what he did right at the very beginning of human history? It still works.
There is room in my life for God outside of religion.
Yes!! But outside of the “religions” created by the sower of the “weeds”....and every other form of false worship. There was never any hint of “religion” when God created mankind. There was just God...the unambiguous Creator of all life who started the human race with no endless list of rules and regulations......just one negative command that would cause them no hardship whatsoever, since all their needs were catered for....in abundance.
Obedience was all God ever required of his free willed children, both in heaven and on earth. Only when free will was abused did we see all the negative consequences of that one act of disobedience, in three different expressions, encroach on human life. God gave the human race over to the one who wanted to be their god. Why would he do that? Because rebellion had first taken place in the spiritual realm and humans were the hostages.
God provided a ransom to free the hostages, and we await the time when we are reconciled with our Creator, with all claims against his Sovereignty settled once and for all time. No rebel will ever be permitted to rise up against his clearly established Sovereignty in the future...and free will is preserved as the gift it was meant to be.
Jehovah is the epitome of love, but he cannot force anyone to love him.....so free will allows for that free flow of genuine love because it is chosen, not forced or under threat, which is why the concept of “hell” is nonsense. It is the complete opposite of who he is.
