What Is Truth? It Has A Way Of Coming Out

There is an Arab Tale recorded in William J. Bennett’s book titled The Moral Code. On page 232, The tale is titled Fish or Cat? Bennett begins, “The Arab tale reminds us that honesty is the best policy if for no other reason than truth has a way of coming out in the end.” The tale is of a man who rises one morning and catches a fat, shining fish. He brings it home and weighs it. The fish weighs 6 pounds. The man tells his wife they will have a great feast tonight when he returns from work. Although this is the husband’s plan, the wife is tempted to cook the fish at once and begin eating. She falls to the temptation and invites her brother over. They ate every morsel of the fish. When the husband returns, the wife says the cat ate the fish. He seized the cat and plopped it on the scales. The cat weighs exactly six pounds. This leads him to exclaim, “If this is my fish, then where is the cat? If this is the cat, then I wonder where my fish might be.”

The Truth Will Reach The Surface

Likewise, talk show host Dan Bongino is known for saying that the truth is like a fully inflated beach ball. The beach ball can be pushed under the water’s surface with great effort. But, eventually, the beach ball will surface again. No matter the facts, no matter what is the truth. It has a way of coming out. The truth will always eventually reach the surface.

The Tucker Carlson Interview

Nevertheless, Tucker Carlson interviewed Vladimir Putin, president of Russia, on February 6, 2024. Mr. Carlson posted a 2 hr 7 min YouTube video. Here is a link to the video. This exchange occurred near the video’s 1 hour and 46 min mark. (I tried to write it as exactly spoken but made minor changes for clarity and grammar.)

Mr. Carlson:

Do you see the supernatural at work as you look out across what is happening in the world now? Do you ever see God at work? And do you ever think these are forces that are not human?

President Putin:

No, to be honest. I don’t think so. My opinion is that the development of the world community is in accordance with inherent laws, and those laws are what they are. It has always been this way in the history of mankind. Some nations and countries rose, became stronger and more numerous, and then left the international stage, losing the status they had accustomed to.

There is probably no need for me to give examples. But we could start with the Genghis Khan and the horde conquerors, the Golden Horde, and then with the Roman Empire. It seems there has never been anything like the Roman Empire in the history of mankind. Nevertheless, the potential of the Barbarians gradually grew, as did their population. In general, the Barbarians were getting stronger and begun to develop economically, as we would say today. This eventually led to the collapse of the Roman Empire and the regime imposed by the Romans. However, it took five centuries for the Roman Empire to fall apart. The difference with what is happening now is that all the change processes are happening much faster than in Roman times.

Putin’s Vision

Kudos to Mr. Carlson for a fine interview and specifically for the questions noted above. It reveals a great deal about President Putin. I feel that Mr. Putin was indeed honest and sincere when answering these questions. At least as sincere and honest to Mr. Carlson as he is to himself. However, I’m not sure Mr. Putin allows himself to see the supernatural. Perhaps dark supernatural forces are clouding the President’s vision. Many people have the same poor vision as Mr. Putin. Many only see what they want to see. In contrast, others view that beach ball of truth breaking to the surface.

• Historian Edward Gibbon, the author of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, believed Rome’s material decay was the effect and symbol of moral decay.
• Additionally, Camile Paglia, an American academic, social critic, feminist, and atheist says that transgender mania is a sign of cultural collapse throughout history. She adds that it indeed occurred in Rome as androgyny. (Sounds familiar today as well.)
• The Infographics Show video states that the Roman Empire was a complex administrative state with many issues. Among them were poor leadership and a border crisis. (Now, that sounds very familiar!)

The supernatural is present and visible

I respectfully disagree with Putin’s vision. The supernatural is present and visible. President Putin’s is very close to the truth. He mentions inherent laws. Does he not realize that those laws come from God? It is ironic that Putin mentions the Romans. The Apostle Paul wrote the following in Romans 1:18-20.

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth (emphasis added) by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

Some other choice words written near the end of chapter 1 read:

• For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.
• Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.
• Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity.

Pontius Pilate

Henceforth, I believe that Pontius Pilate, the fifth Roman governor over Judaea province, likely believed in moral relativism. This is a doctrine that there are no absolute truths in ethics and that what is morally right or wrong varies from person to person or from society to society. Thus, when he had a conversation with Jesus. He scoffed at the idea of an absolute truth. The conversation is in John 18.

Pilate summoned Jesus and asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?”

“Is that your own idea,” Jesus asked, “or did others talk to you about me?”

“Am I a Jew?” Pilate replied. “Your own people and chief priests handed you over to me. What is it you have done?”

Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.”

“You are a king, then!” said Pilate.

Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, 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.”

“What is truth?” retorted Pilate. With this he went out again to the Jews gathered there and said, “I find no basis for a charge against him.”

Regardless, Pilate gave in to the crowd and crucified Jesus anyway. In light of the Arab Tale in William J. Bennett’s book, Pilate lets the crowd tell him if he has a fish or a cat. Pontius Pilate made a reckless decision to listen to the angry mob.

The Truth Has A Way Of Coming Out

The truth has a way of coming out. To put it another way, Isaiah writes of a mouth uttering integrity and speaking a word that will not be revoked. I quote from Isaiah 45: 22,23 and part of 24.

“Turn to me and be saved,
all you ends of the earth;
for I am God, and there is no other.
By myself I have sworn,
my mouth has uttered in all integrity
a word that will not be revoked:
Before me every knee will bow;
by me every tongue will swear.
They will say of me, ‘In the Lord alone
are deliverance and strength.’”