The Foundation of All Truth

Centuries ago, the great saint, Saint Augustine, said that not only are we dependent upon divine revelation for knowing spiritual truth, knowing the truth about God, but Augustine argued that we are dependent upon God’s revelation to know anything about anything—that not only is the pastor or the theologian dependent upon revelation to know the way of salvation, but also the scientist is dependent upon divine revelation to understand the circulatory system of the human body. Now, that seems like a radical statement that Augustine made, but he made it on this basis: that Scripture itself teaches that God is the foundation of all truth.

And Augustine said that just as we are marvelously equipped to perceive things that come within our field of vision—no matter how strong the optic nerve is, how powerful our eyesight is—if we are plunged in a room of total darkness, we can see nothing—that in addition to the inherent powers that we have of perception as human beings, we require the addition of light. And that light doesn’t come from us, it’s external to us, and we need that light to be able to see anything. And that was Augustine’s analogy. He suggests this: the eye requires light to see anything in the external world, so the light of God’s revelation is essential for us to know anything about anything, so that not only is religion dependent upon revelation according to Augustine, but all science is dependent upon the light that comes to us from God.