How do God’s character, human questions, and the limits of what we can know fit together? Data and logic help gain knowledge, but the Truth goes beyond what we can measure. By bringing theology, philosophy, and biblical studies into conversation, it shows that we both need empirical methods and yet cannot entirely rely on them to understand God, morality, or Revelation. Drawing on the Bible, philosophy, and modern scholarship, this paper argues that divine Truth is primarily about relationship, not just information—and that it is fully known only in the incarnate Word.
Data, Knowledge, and the Limits of Measurement
Modern society treats data almost like a belief system. Information seems to promise control: “if we can measure it, we can understand it.” But, as thinkers from Kant to Polanyi have argued, real knowledge is always more than measurement. Data can describe what happens, but it cannot tell us what it means.
Truth, in Scripture, is not merely propositional—it is personal. Jesus declares, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). Truth here is not data to be analyzed but a life to be encountered. To know Truth, therefore, is not to possess it but to be possessed by it.
The James Webb Space Telescope, like every outstanding human achievement, extends our reach into the cosmos, yet cannot answer the oldest questions: Why are we here? What does it mean? Such questions are moral and metaphysical, not mechanical. They belong to the domain of meaning, not measurement.
Freedom of Meaning and Revelation
Data is never neutral. It always comes from within certain ways of seeing the world—linguistic, cultural, and philosophical. The Bible teaches that God reveals truth gradually (“here a little, there a little,” Isa. 28:10). This revelation is relational: “Long ago, God spoke… but in these last days, He has spoken through His Son” (Heb. 1:1–2).
Meaning grows not by replacing mystery with measurement but by walking in the light given. This echoes Michael Polanyi’s principle of “tacit knowledge”: the idea that Truth is not merely what can be stated but what can be lived.
Truth’s Freedom lies not in the absence of boundaries but in alignment with divine reality. “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free” (John 8:32). Freedom, then, is not autonomy but communion—liberation into right relationship with God, others, and creation.
The God Who Cannot Lie: Scriptural and Theological Foundations
The claim that “God cannot lie” is not a limitation but a revelation of divine consistency. Scripture affirms this in multiple places:
- “God is not a man, that He should lie” (Num. 23:19).
- “It is impossible for God to lie” (Heb. 6:18).
- “In hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before the world began” (Titus 1:2).
Truth is not just a quality God has; it is who He is. God does not adjust Himself to some outside standard of truth; instead, truth itself is defined by God.
Dr. Dan McClellan argues that specific Bible passages—like Genesis 2:17 (“you shall surely die”) and 1 Kings 22:23 (“the Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouth of these prophets”)—seem to challenge this idea. But these texts must be read in light of their genre, purpose, and theological context. The death in Genesis is not immediate physical death but spiritual separation from God, the Source of Life. In 1 Kings, God’s use of a “lying spirit” is a way of bringing judgment through human deception, not an example of God Himself being dishonest.
Scholars like Michael Heiser would note that ancient Near Eastern idiom often conveys moral or cosmic truths through narrative tension. What appears as “divine deception” is usually divine disclosure—exposing the falsehoods of human autonomy.
Scholarly Debate: McClellan, Heiser, and the Limits of Critical Agnosticism
Dr. McClellan’s “critical agnosticism” challenges readers to separate theological assertion from historical reconstruction. His linguistic and textual analysis seeks to reclaim the Bible as an ancient artifact rather than a timeless oracle. His critique of statements such as “you shall surely die” argues that the serpent’s prediction (“you will not die”) aligns better with the narrative’s immediate outcome.
Yet this reading risks collapsing divine communication into literary irony. The point of Genesis 3 is not chronology but ontology: death entered the world. In the Hebrew concept of nephesh, life is not merely biological—it is relational, sustained by divine breath. To sever that relationship is death.
Heiser’s counterposition holds that the critical method should not replace theological coherence. For Heiser, Scripture’s divine authorship operates within a human context without being bound by it. Thus, divine Truth can be both historically situated and eternally valid.
Philosophers like Aquinas and Augustine similarly argued that human language can speak of God analogically—not exhaustively, but faithfully—critical scholarship, when devoid of reverence, risks mistaking the fragment for the fullness.
In other words, Data can measure words, but only revelation measures meaning.
The Scholar’s Reverence: Balancing Inquiry and Awe
Every generation must wrestle with the tension between inquiry and worship. The problem is not asking too many questions, but asking without wonder. “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us” (Deut. 29:29). Scholarship, when humble, becomes worship in another key. Reverence restrains the mind not through ignorance but through gratitude. The more one studies Scripture—the history, languages, and complexities—the more one should be moved to awe, not arrogance. As I noted elsewhere, “We interpret, translate, debate, and analyze. But we also kneel.” This “kneeling intellect” is the antidote to both fundamentalism and cynicism. Truth is not an equation but a Person. And that Person invites pursuit without pride.
Practical Implications: Truth and the Life of the Mind
- Hold tension with grace. Faith and doubt are not opposites but companions on the road to understanding.
- Study critically but pray humbly. Academic rigor does not diminish reverence; it disciplines it.
- Distinguish between what is revealed and what remains a mystery.
- Guard against using Scripture as a weapon. As Jesus said, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27).
- Let inquiry lead to Love. The goal of Truth is transformation, not triumph.
The Freedom of Meaning
In the end, Truth is not found in propositions alone but in participation. God’s Truth is relational—it cannot lie because it cannot betray Love. To believe, then, is not to close one’s mind but to open it to a reality beyond proof. “To believe is to risk—to stake your life on what may not yet be proven, but what the heart knows to be true.” Data gives form to knowledge, but Love gives meaning to Truth. We grow, as Scripture commands, “in grace and in knowledge” (2 Pet. 3:18)— for only grace keeps knowledge human.
Reflection Prayer
Lord of Truth, teach us to love knowledge without pride and mystery without fear. Let our study never outgrow our worship, and may our questions draw us closer to You, the Truth that cannot lie and the Love that cannot fail. Amen.
Selected References & Data Sources
Aquinas, Thomas. Summa Theologiae. Translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province. New York: Benziger Brothers, 1947.
Augustine, St. Confessions. Translated by Henry Chadwick. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991.
Heiser, Michael S. The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2015.
McClellan, Dan. The Bible Said What!? Self-published, 2024.
Polanyi, Michael. The Tacit Dimension. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1966.
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (ESV). Crossway, 2016.